1. Whosoever would become great _among you,_ shall be _your_ servant—Mk 10:43. 2. Whosoever _of you_ would be first, shall be bondservant of _all_ (others)—Mk 10:44. 3. Therefore the Son of Man expected the post of highest rule because he was not come to be served but to serve, in giving his life a ransom for _many_—Mk 10:45. The climax is a double one. The service of the Disciples extended only to _their_ circle: the service of Jesus to an unlimited number, namely, to all such as were to benefit by his suffering and death. In the case of the Disciples it was merely a question of unselfish _subjection:_ in the case of Jesus it meant the bitter _suffering of death._ Both count as serving, inasmuch as they establish a claim to a position of rule in the Kingdom. The ordinary explanation does not satisfy the early Synoptic text but only that of Lk 22:24-27. This text has torn the narrative from [pg 076] its proper connection, so that it appears as a dispute among the Disciples “which of them is accounted to be the greatest.” With this, the “now and then” is eliminated from the situation, and it is only a question of a purely ethical inversion of the ideas of ruling and serving. Accordingly, Jesus’ speech, too, runs on in a lifeless parallelism. He that is greater among you, let him become as the younger, and he that is chief, as he that doth serve (Lk 22:26). Instead of exemplifying by his own sacrifice of himself unto death for the great generality of men the conduct required of those who would reign with him, he speaks only of his serviceable character as displayed towards the Disciples: But I am in the midst of you as he that serveth (Lk 22:27). By this he means a serving that is at the same time ruling. In the case of the two older Synoptists, however, it is not at all a question of the proclamation of the new morality of the Kingdom of God, where serving is ruling; rather it is a question of the significance of humility and service in _expectation of the Kingdom of God._ Service is the fundamental law of _interim-ethics._ This thought is much deeper and more vital than the modern play upon words which we attribute to the Lord. Only through lowliness [pg 077] and childlikeness in this æon is one worthily prepared to reign in the Kingdom of God. Only he who is here morally purified and ennobled through suffering can be great there. Hence suffering is for Jesus the moral means of acquiring and confirming the messianic authority to which he is designated. Earthly rule, because it depends upon force, is an emanation of the power of ungodliness. Authority in the Kingdom of God, where the power of this world is destroyed, signifies emanation from the divine power. Only he can be the bearer of such authority who has kept himself free from the contamination of earthly rule. To allot it to such as have prepared themselves through suffering is God’s affair and his alone (Mk 10:39, 40).