Jesus again tells His disciples of His death, telling them that he would be delivered into the hands of men. However, the disciples did not understand what Jesus meant. In fact it was hidden from them. This raises the question of why then did Jesus tell them? The reason is that they would understand later. We don't always understand what Jesus is doing in our lives at the time.
Instead of asking Jesus to explain what He meant they had an argument amongst themselves over who was the greatest. This just demonstrates the complete lack of understanding that they had. We too can be guilty of this sort of thinking, or lack of thinking. If we are getting engrossed in petty arguments it may well be a sign that we are missing something really important. Jesus showed them that instead of worrying about who was the "greatest" they should focus on welcoming those that others consider unimportant. The kingdom of God is very different from any other kingdom.
Next Jesus tells them not to be exclusive. John says they someone else driving out demons in Jesus name and they tried to stop him because "he was not one of us". This raises the issue of how this person had gained the power to drive out demons. God will sometimes do things outside and beyond the particular part of His plan that He has revealed to us. We are terribly prone to this mistake. Whatever branch of church we are in, it is not IT, it is part of IT.
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