Last of All and Servant of All

Last of All and Servant of All
Pentecost 17, Mark 9:30-37
He taught them that the Son of Man
would be betrayed by human hand.
It seems he might have saved his breath:
they could not bear his talk of death;
they would not ask or understand.

Instead they argued on the way,
competing to be seen as great.
They might have known that he would ask,
and strip away each ego mask
to leave them all in humbled state.

“Such hopes of greatness are a farce!
God’s choice of first will be the last,
content to serve with simple grace,
not battling for some higher place.
The time for posturing has past.”

He called a little child to show
the open face of one not grown
to seek ambition’s fleeting prize,
or study to be worldly wise.
He held the child as if his own.

“A welcome shown to such a one
will also welcome God’s own Son,
the Suffering Servant sent to be
the promise of a world set free,
where greed and power will come undone.”