Who is the greatest?

Mark 9: 30–37

Jesus’s closest friends were arguing about who was the greatest. I wonder how they categorised themselves? Peter, James and John had just been up on the mountain seeing Jesus transfigured in glory, talking to the two greats Moses and Elijah, while the others had been left below, and had also failed to heal a sick boy who could not be helped until Jesus himself arrived. Was that what prompted the discussion? Did the other disciples point out that Peter was famed for making foolish remarks and had received some cutting rebukes from Jesus at times? Did they know that James and John really, really wanted to be the closest to Jesus? In fact, they all want to be close to Jesus, but they don’t, yet, understand what that means. “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all”. Perhaps Jesus wants to remind his friends of the ones who don’t get mentioned in the “who is greatest” stakes, Thaddeus or Philip or the others whose names hardly appear, that they are just as close to him, just as important to him. More than that, to be close to Jesus they must be the servant of a nameless child, of no apparent value. There are plenty of images of nameless children in the media at this time. The demands of welcoming Jesus in the child may be huge, and completely disruptive to our sense of order and security. But that is the way to live in the presence of God.

Marian Ballance