when you work it out

From today's Lent reading:

[The disciples] came to Capernaum. When [Jesus] was in the house, he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?" But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.
Mark 9:33

Arguments about who's better (either out loud or internally) are not only childish, they're simply wrong and misguided. If I were to argue that I was a better person than you, it would entail the following:

1. Knowing absolutely everything about myself
2. Knowing absolutely everything about the subject I'm comparing myself to
3. Accounting for where I came from, all the things I was given v. all the things I've achieved (pretty much the same, if you're Christian)
4. Accounting for all the other person's setbacks that were out of his control (born with a golden spoon or in a broken home)
5. Somehow quantifying and balancing all of these factors to come up with an absurd result

The point is, it's not only pointless, childish, and un-Christian, it's simply inaccurate. All I can ever know is myself, and when I work it out, I'm worse than you; given all of my blessings and my gifts and talents, I can never claim to be better than anyone because I know how poorly I've managed these blessings.

(continued)
Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."

I imagine when He sat down, He let out a sigh of disappointment. Why argue about something so stupid? Christ could have easily said "umm, hello...I am the Alpha and Omega...I win. Owned." But He didn't stoop down to that childish level. Instead, he flipped the entire situation on its head.

I can only hope the disciples didn't later argue about who was the least of them.