The Leadership of Christ
Jeremy Pace
Christ was and is the premier model in the world for what leadership should be. His model for leadership was servant hood. His entire live was serving others, from meeting the smallest hunger prang to paying of eternal the colossal debt we owed to heaven’s throne.
John Maxwell described servant hood as meeting the physical, spiritual, and psychological needs of others. Jesus did this in an immense and complete way. Matthew 22:37 states that Jesus said “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind. Mind is also substituted with “might” in Duet. 6:5 and “strength” in Luke 10:27. The “love” in this verse is “agape”, which is of course unconditional. Only by loving God and trusting Him to supply our needs (heart = spiritual needs, soul = physical needs, mind = psychological needs) can Jesus serve us completely. Authority is giving from God by serving. Jesus never led with power, only authority. How does servant hood lead to authority in God’s eyes? It says in Phil. 2:8 and 9 “And (Jesus) being in the appearance of man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death… Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given the Him the name which is above every name.” He was obedient why? For the joy set before him (Heb 12:2). He didn’t want to, but He did anyways, as seen in His fervent prayer minutes before His arrest and he says “Let this cup pass from Me. Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours be done.”
It says he “humbled” himself. Jesus never got high on himself. He lead and inspired because he served. Imagine Gandalf , who went from telling Frodo what to do with the One Ring to walking along beside and serving him on his quest to destroy it. No one preached humility more or practiced it better. It’s what he had to teach the legendary twelve over and over again. They reasoned “We’ve given everything up for him, who deserves to rule beside but us?!” And all could argue they deserved more than the others. Peter was the chief speaker, Judas the money keeper, John was the beloved, Andrew was the first disciple, and Simon and Jude were nearly related to Jesus. Matthew Henry wrote “We are apt to amuse and humor ourselves with foolish fancies of things that will never be.” Bernard Bailey said “When they discover the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed they are not it.”
When Sam asked Aragorn where he was leading them he responded simply “Into the wild.” Something unpredictable and untamed, but in the end, there was Rivendell. Jesus took is disciples on a three year illustrated sermon and humility and serving. He never let the crowds make him king, instead when fame and fortune came calling He laid out the hard facts of what it meant to follow Him, and they all left. Turning to his disciples he said “You leaving too?!” Peter speaks for them all with “Where else would we go?” It was hard, but they knew Jesus was the One. Jesus knew He couldn’t just get the disciples full of teachings and get them to think like Him, but He inspired them to live as He did, His lifestyle. His leadership life was humbling serving. He taught Matt 18:4, but He lived it by going to the cross, a cursed place (Duet. 21:22). That one acted served us all. We owed more than death, but eternal death, and He did us the service of dying in our place. That is how He became the ultimate leader. Jean Baptiste Lacordaire said “Real excellence and humility are not incompatible one with the other; on the contrary, they are twin sisters”