Mark 9:33-34-And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” 34 But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.When my girls we 5 and 3 years old, they wanted to do tea parties in their “princess dresses”.  So I would dress up as “a lord”, and have my son who was 7 at the time, be the “ town jester” or mocked servant for our entertainment.  We would order him around and have him fetch tea for us (I think he’s still mad about it).  Innocent as it was, I was making the idea of being a servant a mockery with my son, while we acted very pompous in high positions of “greatness”…
One of the key factors I believe that makes the Church “attractive” or something we cherish as an important part of our lives, is the experience of unity and service of one another for Christ sake.  When you consider unity in a family, the moment someone deem themselves more valuable than the other, the heart to serve ceases.  The family in our society today is corroding because the “world-based idea” of worth is about being served.  So serving for any extended amount of years is unappreciated by each other, and the children see serving as the opposite of greatness, so they too want to avoid serving…
This is why Jesus in asking the disciples what they were arguing about, convicted them of their disregard towards being a servant.  If you think about it, how many people argue over how humbly they serve people compared to you?  If they did, they are religiously trying to see who is the “greatest”, which is pride.  But to see people who have a heart to genuinely be known as a servant, they don’t quarrel about being great at anything.  Serving people seeks to always unify, whereas the pride to be great like the world, breeds competition…
Which is why Jesus had to address this mindset of the disciples, because we will get in “rivalries” with one another within the Church!  Who has the nicest car, what kind of clothes you wear, what are you or your family accomplishing, etc.  All things that indicate the world’s philosophy of not being a servant like Christ, but “great” like whoever.  The apostle Paul would warn us not to “bite and devour one another” generally through provoking one another to jealousy through competing.  That I’m not trying to find my worth in being “better” or competing with my brother and sister in Christ, or anyone! (Galatians 5:13-15)
Jesus knew that’s if His disciples found their worth through the gospel, than they wouldn’t see service as demeaning to their self esteem, but as a fulfillment of being more like their Lord.  I realize that it is “a measuring stick” to my soul when God permits me to be continuously humiliated, to see if I am measuring greatness outside of His Kingdom?  That my worth be found in the gospel, so my soul is “bathed” in drawing people with a heart to serve, and not measured against my pride to be “great” and compete, which is useless in the Kingdom of God.
In His Love, Ld