Mat 20:26 But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;
Mat 20:27 And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:
Mat 20:28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

As is so often the case, there is a play on words here in the original Greek that is lost in the English. First, there is a hierarchy here. To be "great" under Christ's new rule, you must be a servant. To be among "the foremost," you must be a slave.

Christ doesn't put himself among the first by calling himself a slave, but he does call himself a servant. However, he is unique: his life is given as payment to free the slaves.

So, we are subject to earthly power, but Christ continually emphasizes that earthly power is temporary. The nature of our slavery is bigger than earthly governments. Governments that treat their people as slaves are symptomatic of people being slaves to their physical and other temporary needs. Christ's rule frees us spiritually from those constraints. A change in spirit leads inevitably to a change in the mental, physical, and emotion constraints of the world we live in.

"Great" is from megas (great), which means "big," "full grown," "great," "might" and "strong."

"Minister" is from the noun diakonos, which means "servant," "messenger," and "attendant." This is the source for our word "deacon." As a verb, it is from diakoneô, which "to act as a servant," "to minister," and "to perform services."

"Chief" is from prôtos. In place, this means "the foremost." Of time, it means "the initial." In order, it means "the first." In math, it means the prime numbers. Of rank or degree, it means "the highest" or "the best." This was the word used to mean "the first" in the parable of the landowner hiring workers.

"Servant" is from doulos, which is really a "slave," a "born bondsman," or "one made a slave."

"Ransom" is from lutron, which means "the price paid for ransom," and "the price paid for slave."