“And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.”
Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all — the sitting down is the posture of formal teaching. The paradox of kingdom greatness is stated with maximum compression: first = last, great = servant of all. The reversal is not merely rhetorical but structural: in the kingdom, the positions are genuinely inverted, not merely described differently. The servant of all is not a title for those who have achieved greatness — it is the definition of greatness in the kingdom's economy.
Church Fathers on Mark 9:35
It is after miracles that the Lord inserts a discourse concerning His Passion, lest it should be thought that He suffered because He could not help it.
He always mingles together sorrowful and joyful things, that sorrow should not by its suddenness frighten the Apostles, but be borne by them with prepared minds.
Capernaum means the city of consolation, and agrees with the former sentence, which He had spoken: 'And after that He is killed, He shall arise the third day.'
Read all 11 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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