The week's gospel text is part of a series of seminars in discipleship Jesus holds for his twelve apostles during their final expedition to Galilee. Jesus' teachings surprise in several ways. Earlier during their travels in this region the disciples had twice failed to comprehend Jesus. When Jesus foretells his impending death and resurrection (vs.30), the disciples are so confused that they are too embarrassed to even ask him to clarify his words. Adding insult to injury, these men then begin arguing over which of them is most likely to become the greatest. After he flips their expectations upside down (the least shall be the greatest), Jesus continues the lessons in discipleship in verse 38.

Just as the individual disciples had been trying to one-up each other, so now the "chosen" commun…