Mark 9:33–37 sits right after Jesus tells His disciples, for the second time, that He is heading toward the cross. He says He will be delivered into the hands of men, killed, and after three days rise again (Mark 9:31). The disciples do not understand. They are afraid to ask Him about it. Instead of sitting with the weight of what He has just said, they start arguing about which of them is the greatest.
When they reach Capernaum, Jesus asks what they were discussing on the road. They stay quiet. He already knows. So He sits down, calls the Twelve close, and speaks the words that cut straight through their ambition: “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all” (Mark 9:35).
The word “first” comes from the Greek protos. It means first in rank, influence, or honor—the one who stands at the head of the group. The word “servant” is diakonos. It simply means someone who carries out the will of another, someone who meets the needs of others rather than advancing his own. Jesus is not offering a soft suggestion. He is redefining greatness itself.
This is not the first time the issue has come up. After Jesus’ first prediction of the cross, Peter rebuked Him for talking about suffering (Mark 8:32). Now the whole group is still measuring themselves against one another, dreaming of seats of honor when the kingdom arrives in power. They have not yet grasped that the kingdom comes through a cross, not around it. Leadership in the kingdom does not look like the world’s version of power. In times of ease a leader may enjoy status and recognition. In times of trial a true leader gives himself away so others can stand.
Jesus will later show them exactly what this looks like when He kneels and washes their feet (John 13:1–5). Paul later describes the same pattern when he says he is being poured out like a drink offering (Philippians 2:17; 2 Timothy 4:6). The path of greatness runs through service, not through climbing.
Then Jesus takes a little child and places him in their midst. He wraps His arms around the child and says, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me” (Mark 9:37). In that culture children had almost no status. They were expected to serve, not to be served. By placing a child at the center, Jesus shows that the measure of a life is not how high we rise but how low we are willing to stoop for the least.
Cuthbert’s story fits here. He advised kings and shaped the history of northern England. Durham was built in his honor. Yet the moment that still speaks is the quiet one: a grieving mother holding a dying boy, a saint taking the child into his arms, praying, and kissing the fevered forehead. That act of noticing and serving the smallest mirrors the heart of Mark 9:35.
The same call reaches us. We may not counsel monarchs or found cities. But every day we meet people who feel small—overlooked children, weary parents, the sick, the overlooked, the ones whose names are rarely spoken in important rooms. True greatness is found in choosing to serve them. It is found in the simple, unseen acts that cost us time or comfort and give another person dignity.
Jesus does not ask us to start with the grand sacrifice. He asks us to take the smaller step first: become the servant of all. In that downward path we discover the upward way of the kingdom.
By: Paul Olguin