We human beings can be described in many ways, and one of them is “predictable.” When Jesus, as He was walking with them through Galilee said to them, "The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill Him, and three days after His death the Son of Man will rise," I would say that the disciples reacted in a rather predictable way. St. Mark tells us that after hearing these words, since “they did not understand the saying, they were afraid to question Him.” Have we not found ourselves in that position from time to time? Someone says something that is just too hard for us to handle so we just back away and end the conversation. And what does Mark say that they do for the rest of the way? Well, it seems like they kind of retreated away from Jesus and settled into their own little conversations/discussions/hopefully friendly debates. That’s predictable, too, don’t you think? Isn’t that the kind of thing that we tend to do? Eventually, they found themselves debating about, of all things, which of them would be greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. How predictable. How human. Jesus just spoke to them about how He was going to suffer and die, and they retreat into an argument about who is the greatest. The only redeeming part of the whole episode is that they were embarrassed when Jesus asked them what they were talking about. But here is where the teaching moment finally happened. Jesus at this moment was able to teach us and to teach them about greatness. And His lesson to them and to us is not that they should not aspire to greatness- He wants us all to be the greatest that we can be. But we must know what true greatness is. True greatness is not about putting ourselves first but putting ourselves last. True greatness is about true sacrifice. Surely the people you consider the greatest in your lives are the ones who sacrificed the most-for you. True greatness is about what you do for others, not what others do for you. True greatness is about the willingness to bear the pain and suffering and the cost of the cross that Jesus invites and inspires us to carry. So now that we know what greatness really is we can truly aspire to be the greatest disciples ever?