Leadership - Matt 20:25-28; Mark 10:42-45

The tension in Jesus’ group is high, which is the exact opposite of what He wants, and it’s because James and John asked to be on His right hand and on His left hand when they all get to heaven and the other 10 apostles didn’t appreciate that. Jesus reminds the group of men saying, “Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them.” We know that any Jew at the time would consider it a great insult to be compared to the gentiles because the Jews have the true and living God, so naturally the Jews would consider themselves held to a different standard. It doesn’t make a ton of sense to me, the way that Jesus said it, maybe he’s pointing out that the irritation the other apostles have with James and John was a natural but ungodly response. But it could also seem like he’s saying, “ok you want to be my equal, you want to be in charge, then your concept of leadership is completely wrong.”

It seems counterintuitive but Jesus teaches the proper mode of leadership saying, “whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: And whosoever of you will be chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” It seems like such a contradiction that the leader should also be the servant, because leaders have power and people do what they say, many leaders have the literal power of life or death for those that they are in charge of. Personally, I have a hard time with understanding the term “servant” here. When I think of a “servant” it is someone who is subservient and submissive to someone else, but if we apply it here, we could be a “servant” of God, we could be subservient and submissive to His will, no necessarily a mortal person. The problem with a leader being a servant is that it implies that there is someone else making the main decisions, but with this perspective we can know that the only motivation of the leader is to do the will of God, and if God’s love and will are perfect, then we should be able to trust that following the leader will help us be happy.

I guess it’s all about keeping the proper motivation. Why do you want to be in charge? Honestly, I usually do want to be in charge but usually it’s because I don’t think other people can do it with integrity. If we are put in charge of someone and we keep in mind that we are to serve them, then that helps keep us in check with our attitudes towards others and our proper place in the whole scheme of things. We aren’t better or more important or more valuable than anyone else, from the most “respected” person in the world to the poorest and most despicable person on the planet, to God we are all important and we are all loved and valued the same. It’s hard for us to keep this perspective as humans but this view point is helpful. I’m going to think this weekend about how I can serve my children while being in charge of them.