Mark 9-10: Who is the Greatest?

Just because the disciples followed Jesus, it didn't mean that their hearts had been changed completely.  They have seen Jesus on the mountain with Moses and Elijah and heard God call out from a cloud that Jesus was His son. ' Listen to him,' God said, and Moses and Elijah were gone.  That should have told the disciples what the hierarchy was in God's kingdom, but the next thing you know, they find themselves arguing over who is going to be the greatest.  'If you want to be first', Jesus told them, 'you will have be be last.' 

'We've left everything to follow you,' Peter said to him.  "I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first." - Mark 10:29-30 NIV

Then Jesus started on his journey up to Jerusalem, leaving the disciples astonished and the people who were following afraid.  They were all apprehensive about what awaited Jesus there because of the anger he had aroused in the Pharisees and teachers of the law, so Jesus took the disciples aside to prepare them.  "We are going up to Jerusalem," he said, "and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise." - Mark 10:33-34 NIV

Even then, the disciples didn't get it.  The next thing you know, James and John are asking Jesus to sit at his right and left side in glory.  What did they think glory entailed?  Did they realize the price that Jesus was going to pay and the price they would be asked to pay as well?  Finally, so there is no confusion, Jesus spells it out for all of the disciples.  "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." - Mark 10:45 NIV

The greatest is the least.  The greatest is the servant.  The greatest is the one who will give his life.  Hold that up as a measuring line of fame and fortune.  The greatest is the one who gives his life.