It is not Jesus’ intention to point to children as such as “the greatest.” They are in fact “the least”: they mean nothing yet, they don’t have yet any position or dignity. When Jesus now places an insignificant child in the centre this illustrates his words about “the last of all” and a “servant of all.”1
36 And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them,