B-Side...

Mark 9:30-37 - This account is also found in Matthew 17 and Luke 9.

v30... Jesus and the disciples have been mostly in the area of Galilee, and are now leaving it to head for Jerusalem; Jesus doesn't want attention because his ministry in Galilee is finished and he wants to focus on the disciples.

v31... the original language may indicate that the process of the Son being delivered into the hands of men has already begun; he's in the process of being delivered into the hands of men, but it's the Father who is doing the delivering. Jesus is obeying the Father and heading to the cross, being delivered from person to person until his crucifixion.

- an aside, regarding anti-semitism: disagreeing with current Israeli politics is not necessarily anti-semitic; hating the Jewish people because they're Jewish is. Yes, the Jews handed Jesus over to the Romans, but then the Romans handed him over to the soldiers, and the soldiers handed him over to the world... the world crucified Jesus! All humanity is guilty of crucifying Jesus.

v32... they didn't understand what Jesus meant by his prediction of his death and resurrection; in Matthew 17:23, they were greatly distressed. In Luke 9:45, his meaning was concealed from them. It's a mystery and they're afraid!

v33... With Jesus, a house is a place of teaching...

v34-35... the lesson: serving "the least of these" is the path to greatness. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be great, but he corrects their idea of greatness!

In the caves of Qumran, a document was found called "the rule of the community"... a document for the Essene community, with great importance given to rank and seating arrangements. Jesus' teaching that the greatest is he who serves the least flies in the face of this sort of thinking! Modern Judaism tends to posit that Jesus got his radical ideas from the Essenes... this would certainly seem not to be the case! Jesus followed neither the Pharisees nor the Essenes. God doesn't take sides in this way; he is his own side.

v36-37... the child is not used as a shining example of humility, but as an example of low status. Humility is receiving those of low status! To embrace the unimportant because Jesus told us to is evidence that we have received him, that his spirit lives in us!

Final thought...

Comparing the first passion prediction in chapter 8 to this one in chapter 9... in chapter 8, the disciples want greatness and glory, but without the cross. In chapter 9, they want it without humility. As fallen humans, our nature is to want greatness without suffering, without humble service. But that's not God's path of greatness!

A good example is given in the book of 1 Clement-- not Scripture, but worth studying... visitors to the church of Rome saw something special: they admire the people's godliness, sobriety, virtue, hospitality, knowledge and humility. The church believed in raising young men to maturity without adolescence, to be serious-minded. They taught women to be good wives and godly women, managing things well, duty-bound, on mission. They were examples of being more willing to give than to receive. The early Roman church put a great deal of emphasis on the humility of Christ, being given to humble service, without respect to social status! Truly a "city on a hill."