Mar 9:36-37 | KingComments | STEP | When the Lord and His disciples have come to Capernaum, they go back into the house. Now it is His turn to ask a question (cf. ). He asks His disciples about the subject of their conversation while they were on the way. He also asks us about the subjects of our conversations. They can be quite different, but do they have Him as their content or are they about our own importance? The disciples are silent because their conscience speaks. Along the way, haughty thoughts had filled their hearts as they thought of Him. This is the cause of their lack of understanding of what He said about His suffering and death. If we let ourselves be guided by the flesh and its lusts, even when we think of Him and what we all do for Him and what our reward will be, the whole extent of God’s thoughts remains hidden from us. The disciples sought their own glory in the kingdom. Therefore, the cross, the true way to glory, is incomprehensible to them. By thinking only of their own importance it is no wonder that there is little power in the presence of satan ( ) and little understanding in the presence of the Lord ( ). The Lord does not need their answer. Their silence says enough. It is the reason for Him to teach His disciples about the ranking in His kingdom. He sits down to teach in rest and calls His disciples to Himself. Is each one of them so eager to be the greatest? Then He will teach them how each can become one. He holds out to them that the only way to true greatness is that one is the last and the servant of all. He has taken that place. We may be willing to be a servant, but are we willing to be the servant of all and take the last place of all? He is in a perfect way, and we can only learn it from Him. Therefore we must be humble. The Lord makes His teaching vivid by taking a child and setting him before them. There stands a small child before large men. To Him, this child has great significance. Such a child He takes in His arms. His heart goes out to him. He brings it to His heart. While He has pointed out the child and now stands with it in His arms, He teaches His disciples the corresponding lesson. Children do not have the thought of taking the first place among the believers. That He takes the child in His arms means that He surrounds it with His love. That is the hallmark of the true Servant: He gives others the feeling that they are coming into His arms, that is, in the sphere of love, of the Lord Jesus. We also see the servant in the unpretentious child who is accepted by others because of his open-mindedness. The servant lives in the awareness that he is in the arms and at the heart of the Lord Jesus and will radiate this. It is about receiving such children, insignificant to the world, in His Name. The Name of Christ is the touchstone. Children may have no value to the world that is driven by performance and selfish ambition, but to the disciple, these unappreciated children, following Christ, should be the very objects of his service. Whoever sees what place a child, who is not of significance, has to the heart of Christ, and receives such a child for that reason, in reality receives Christ. It goes even further, for he who receives Christ receives His Sender, God the Father. So great is the blessing of being the servant of all.

‏ Mark 9:36-37

Who Is the Greatest?

When the Lord and His disciples have come to Capernaum, they go back into the house. Now it is His turn to ask a question (cf. Mk 9:28). He asks His disciples about the subject of their conversation while they were on the way. He also asks us about the subjects of our conversations. They can be quite different, but do they have Him as their content or are they about our own importance?

The disciples are silent because their conscience speaks. Along the way, haughty thoughts had filled their hearts as they thought of Him. This is the cause of their lack of understanding of what He said about His suffering and death. If we let ourselves be guided by the flesh and its lusts, even when we think of Him and what we all do for Him and what our reward will be, the whole extent of God’s thoughts remains hidden from us.

The disciples sought their own glory in the kingdom. Therefore, the cross, the true way to glory, is incomprehensible to them. By thinking only of their own importance it is no wonder that there is little power in the presence of satan (Mk 9:28) and little understanding in the presence of the Lord (Mk 9:32).

The Lord does not need their answer. Their silence says enough. It is the reason for Him to teach His disciples about the ranking in His kingdom. He sits down to teach in rest and calls His disciples to Himself. Is each one of them so eager to be the greatest? Then He will teach them how each can become one. He holds out to them that the only way to true greatness is that one is the last and the servant of all. He has taken that place. We may be willing to be a servant, but are we willing to be the servant of all and take the last place of all? He is in a perfect way, and we can only learn it from Him. Therefore we must be humble.

The Lord makes His teaching vivid by taking a child and setting him before them. There stands a small child before large men. To Him, this child has great significance. Such a child He takes in His arms. His heart goes out to him. He brings it to His heart. While He has pointed out the child and now stands with it in His arms, He teaches His disciples the corresponding lesson. Children do not have the thought of taking the first place among the believers.

That He takes the child in His arms means that He surrounds it with His love. That is the hallmark of the true Servant: He gives others the feeling that they are coming into His arms, that is, in the sphere of love, of the Lord Jesus. We also see the servant in the unpretentious child who is accepted by others because of his open-mindedness. The servant lives in the awareness that he is in the arms and at the heart of the Lord Jesus and will radiate this.

It is about receiving such children, insignificant to the world, in His Name. The Name of Christ is the touchstone. Children may have no value to the world that is driven by performance and selfish ambition, but to the disciple, these unappreciated children, following Christ, should be the very objects of his service.

Whoever sees what place a child, who is not of significance, has to the heart of Christ, and receives such a child for that reason, in reality receives Christ. It goes even further, for he who receives Christ receives His Sender, God the Father. So great is the blessing of being the servant of all.