You Must Become a Slave and Serve Others

Seventeenth Sunday of Pentecost

Mark 9: 30 - 37

Mark 10: 42 - 45

Matthew 18: 1 - 5

Luke 9: 46 - 48

In his parables and teaching, Jesus used two Greek words that mean slave or servant.

The first, doulos, means a slave taken in captivity, who is a slave for life. The letter writers of the New Testament, Paul, Jude, James, and Peter, used this word to describe their service to God.

But in this passage, Jesus uses the word, diakonos, which comes from a verb that means to serve and which means someone who serves widely or who serves many. Diakonos is the source of our modern word, deacon.

Jesus called his disciples to lives of willing service to others in his name. In the second Mark passage, he told the disciples their lives of service would be lives of hard labor in slavery to the Lord.

1. Where were Jesus and the disciples?

[Jesus and the disciples were in Capernaum in Galilee.]

2. What had the disciples been arguing about?

[They had been arguing about which one of them was the greatest.]

3. What did Jesus say to them?

[Jesus said, "If you want the place of honor, you must become a slave and serve others."]

4. What did Jesus say about children?

[Jesus said, "When you welcome even a child because of me, you welcome me."]