On Wednesday a group of us did Lectio Divina on Mark 9:33-37. In this passage we find that the disciples are on the road and during their conversations they argue on who’s first in the pecking order, the greatest. Jesus then asks them what they talked about. Being caught out, like little children, they silently look at the ground.

Jesus then sits them down and tells them that,

“Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.”

When we ruminated on this passage something grabbed my attention. Jesus didn’t chide them for their desire to become great! What he does is He changes the pressure of the group in the opposite direction, from going up to going down; a contrary cadence. Jesus redefines greatness.

What if our communities became places where the pressure is to serve, give our stuff and our lives away, namedrop in terms of how people hung out with the ‘least of these’ – have friends in low places, where we climb down and not up the ladder?