<p>9:35 <em>And he sat down and called the twelve; and he said to them: If anyone would be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all</em>- This 'sitting down' may have been some time later than the discussion in :33,34, because at this point Matthew says (Mt. 18:1) that it was they who came to the Lord with the question about who should be the greatest. The Lord had asked what they had been talking about, knowing this had been the topic. They were silent. And He remained silent. That mutual silence was deafening. They thereby knew that He knew, and that they were wrong. And it was that lack of response from Him which prompted them to finally bring the question out into the open. He was indeed the master psychologist.</p><p>He was the &quot;servant of all&quot; because He <em>desired</em> to be the greatest in the Kingdom.&nbsp;It was this ambition which motivated His endurance of the daily cross of His life: &quot;Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:&nbsp; <em>even as</em> the Son of man came... to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many&quot; (Mt. 20:27,28). He was drawing on the ideas of Hos. 13:1, where Ephraim exalted himself when he humbled himself to speak to God with the trembling of a true humility. The Lord Jesus was not esteemed by men in His death (Is. 53:3); the same word occurs in Dan. 4:17, concerning how Yahweh will exalt the <em>basest</em>, the least esteemed, to be King over the kingdoms of this world. That made-basest man was a reference to the Lord Jesus. He humbled Himself on the cross, that He might be exalted. Peter had his eye on this fact when he asks us to humble ourselves, after the pattern of the Lord, that we might be exalted in due time (1 Pet. 5:6).&nbsp;The Lord desired greatness in the Kingdom, and so can we; for the brighter stars only reflect more glory of the Sun (1 Cor. 15:41).&nbsp;This very thought alone should lift us up on the eagle wings of Spirit above whatever monotony or grief we now endure.</p><p>The Lord Himself on the cross was the ultimate &quot;servant of all&quot;, and therefore was the first of all. This may explain the Lord's comment that the last shall be first and the first last (Mt. 19:30)- He may have intended us to read in an ellipsis to the effect that he who&nbsp;<em>wants to be&nbsp;</em>first shall be last, and he who&nbsp;<em>wants to be&nbsp;</em>last shall be first. There was to be a glorying in being the last, the servant of all- exemplified in the Lord's washing of the disciples' feet.</p>