The passage
      v30. Mark now records Jesus' journey toward Jerusalem. Jesus and his disciples move through Galilee and Perea, but this time his ministry is not a public one. He spends the time teaching his disciples.
      v31. This passion prediction is different to the first in 8:31. In the first, the Son of Man "must" suffer, be rejected and killed. In this passage, the Son of Man "is" betrayed (delivered, handed over). Instead of a necessary suffering and rejection, there is a determined handing over to martyrdom by God, cf. Jer.33:24, Isa.53:6,12. God's deeper purpose is fulfilled in the death of Jesus. The Son of Man's resurrection is the same as in 8:31.
      v32. The disciples' lack of understanding continues and this because of their little faith. They are left to respond emotionally, this time in fear.
      v33-34. Jesus' question to his disciples is for the purpose of teaching. The disciples are unable to answer out of embarrassment, for on the journey they had discussed the issue of status/rank - "who was the greatest" among them.
      v35. Mark now records a series of discipleship sayings running through to v50. They are linked by common phrases, although they are separate sayings, most likely delivered on a number of different occasions. Such sets of sayings have a common beginning and ending, eg. "be at peace with each other", v50.
      Instead of determining status/rank, a disciple is to be "the servant of all." Jesus establishes what it means to be "last" and "the servant of all" by the example of his own life. As the early church father Polycarp put it, we must walk "according to the truth of the Lord, who was 'the servant of all'".
      v36-37. Jesus uses a child to illustrate and apply the point he is making in v35. In Aramaic the word for "child" and "servant" is the same. The disciple who understands servanthood accepts ("welcomes") a brother or sister ("the least of these my brothers"), not on the basis of status, but on the basis of their relationship with Jesus. For disciples, there is no status/rank, only unity in Christ.
      The term "servant of all" is often understood as a form of cross-bearing discipleship which parallels Jesus' life-giving sacrifice - the way of glory is through suffering and death. Jesus does link his sacrifice with servanthood, although it does not necessarily follow that servanthood equals sacrifice. Note the similar context found in 10:41-45.
      The phrase, "whoever welcomes one of these little children", is often understood in evangelistic terms. Whoever welcomes the evangelist welcomes Jesus. Yet, the context has nothing whatsoever to do with evangelism. The context concerns the acceptance of a fellow believer on the basis of their relationship with Christ, rather than their status/rank.

True greatness
      Following the death of Diana, princess of Wales, Kate Legge in the Australian newspaper made this comparison between Diana and Mother Teresa. "One was young and beautiful and did good works. The other was old and ugly and did good works. One had a First World eating disorder called bulimia. The other lived in the Third World where people starve to death. One wore designer clothes and recently sold her dresses for $7.8 million. The other left behind two saris and a bucket. One made headlines with simple gestures such as touching a person with AIDS. The other lived her life among lepers and the diseased." "In one sense there is no comparison between the two women and yet the expiry of the elder missionary, as a postscript to the dislocation over Diana's death, seems to taunt our godless worship of glamour and style."
      We would be hard pressed to find a clearer present-day illustration of Jesus' teaching on becoming "the servant of all." Slighting Diana's character is both undignified and unnecessary. The comparison between Diana and Mother Teresa is not made to exalt one and debase the other, but rather to expose the human tendency to glory in status, wealth, beauty, position, education, vitality..... As a US magazine editor commented, if she ran a picture of an elderly person on the cover, she could guarantee a drop in sales.
      Our acceptance of others is too often driven by the worship of style. Yet, Jesus would have us accept ("welcome") one another on the basis of a radically different criteria. A person's relationship to Christ establishes the criteria for acceptance. The servant affirms the fellow servant, thus the unlovely are lovely in Christ. In Christ there is no status/rank, there is only unity, community.