Proper 20 Mark 9:30-37

"If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all." (v.35)
What does it mean for us to be last in order to be first? Jesus says that we are to be a servant to all. This clarifies it a bit. Being servant to all has a degree of selflessness in the phrase. If we serve all, we are not master of anyone. In this passage it is likely that the disciples were arguing about who would have what place in the Kingdom Jesus was going to set up. It is fairly clear they did not understand the kind of Kingdom Jesus really ment because of their confusion over Jesus' comment about the Son of Man being betrayed, killed, and raised. The disciples thought there would be a physical kingdom established. So if that were to happen they wondered, what would their place be in such a Kingdom? And the very idea that they were curious about greatness meant they had a skued view of the kind of power that existed in the Kingdom of God.
But we are to serve all. We are to think of others. Jesus also qualifies His statement with an illustration of a child. If we welcome a child in Jesus' name, we end up not only welcoming Jesus, but God as well. But what does the kid have to do with serving? I don't think I know completely, but a child is one who is dependent, who is not generally able to exert force or power over someone else. The adult is the one who rules, teaches, takes care of the child. They should be the ones following, serving, but Jesus turns this around. If we serve even the powerless, we end up lifting the ones we serve up. Also, by serving all, especially the powerless, we are serving Jesus, in fact God. Only by letting go of our want to be first and serving others do we truly come to grips with what it means to truly be great.
This is all great and wonderful to say, but so hard to do in practice. Through the power of the Spirit and discipline we can learn to be servants of all.