Jesus and Leadership

A response to Jesus and what he taught about leadership... It's a bit long but hey, don't read it if you don't want to....

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A professor once told his classroom full of students, “All around you, people will be tiptoeing through life, just to arrive at death safely. But dear children, do not tiptoe. Run, hop, skip, or dance, just don't tiptoe.” (225)
It is safe to say that Jesus did anything but tiptoe through life.

Paul says in I Corinthians 4:16, 11:1 and Philippians 3:17 that we should follow his example, as he follows the example of Christ. We are called to be imitators and just as Paul was, so we are called to both lead and follow. To set an example as we follow the example set before us. As followers of Jesus, as disciples being watched and imitated, as people with influence, and therefore leaders, we cannot afford to tiptoe along this narrow path that we are called to travel.

Jesus was radical, as was Paul. In the book Irresistible Revolution, Paul is referred to as a terrorist before his conversion and it is true. The thing about Paul was that he was radical before he met Jesus, and he was still radical after he met him. He was fighting for a wrong cause when he had a revelation of Jesus, and a wrong cause was replaced by the greatest cause ever. He started out a terrorist and ended up an extremist for grace (271).
On a certain level it is very easy to settle in for mediocre leadership. It costs less and will still produce a few results. Mediocre leadership consists of taking the example and teaching of Jesus and attempting to talk your followers into being nice, good people. Which is not all bad, except that it is settling for grape juice when wine could be had. Frederick Buechner describes it like this in the context of the Lord’s Supper (121):
Unfermented grape juice is a bland and pleasant drink, especially on a warm afternoon mixed half-and-half with ginger ale. It is a ghastly symbol of the life blood of Jesus Christ, especially when served in individual antiseptic, thimble-sized glasses.
Wine is booze, which means it is dangerous and drunk-making. It makes the timid brave and the reserved amorous. It loosens the tongue and breaks the ice, especially when served in a loving cup. It kills germs. As symbols go, it is a rather splendid one.
In a sense that seems backward, the challenge today is to drink of the wine. Buechner is right when he says it is the dangerous cup, it is not the easy cup. It is the cup that will bring problems and suffering, but it is also the only cup of the two that will ever bring about what is really worth having. Jesus posed the question that still lingers, “Can you drink from my cup?” and provokes the question, “Which cup do we offer to those who lead?”

Paul was a bad man and we are all bad men. Then Paul had an encounter, a revelation, but instead of just stopping, he went to the other end of the spectrum and became an extremist for grace instead of an extremist for law. Where are the encounters and the revelations that shake us to our very being and drive us to extreme measures? The thing about Jesus was that, and I do not really understand it, he was so full of grace that bad people everywhere flocked to him, crying out for grace, which he gave them. But then he demanded something more, he demanded both a change of heart and a change of actions, he demanded everything, and often they agreed! We fear erring on the side of grace but then neither do we inspire radical change. If a leader wants something to change, he has got to change himself first. Paul got ahold of that, which enabled him to offer himself as an example to follow. There is no way we are called to mediocre discipleship, neither are we called to mediocre leadership that preaches a mediocre gospel. Surely there is something radical in us all that is longing to be drawn out and brought to life, something that longs for the wine in all of its danger.


The thing about Jesus is that his teaching and example are hard to follow, hard to imitate. It is difficult to measure up to the Sermon on the Mount.
Blessed are those who recognize their spiritual poverty for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn and suffer, who are humble, who care more about justice than their own food and water, who show mercy, who are pure in heart, who seek peace and are persecuted for his sake.
Then he brings it home: when an evil person strikes you, do not strike back, but turn to him the other cheek and look him in the eye. If someone demands your shirt, give him your jacket as well. Do the double of what you are asked or forced to do. Do not resist an evil person and give to those who ask of you. Find out who your enemies are so that you can love and pray for them.

“Who wants to be my disciple? Who wants to follow my example? Who wants to lose their life?” Jesus asked these questions as he walked this earth. And then he lost his life and we found ours. He is still asking today, but perhaps in the West we are having trouble distinguishing between his voice and the voice of the jesus we have created in our own image... Our jesus does not ask difficult things of us, he does not demand much, he is nice like a good pet. We use him for our own ends, be they political, religious, or even moral. That is a dangerous Jesus to have, perhaps even more dangerous than the real one, since it will lull us to sleep and then when we least expect it, crumble beneath our feet.
At first, people do not want to hear about this Jesus, they are just fine with their comfortable jesus. It is like a person being woken from a deep sleep. As they come to consciousness they resent being woken up and are bad-humored until the sleep begins to clear from their eyes. As awareness seeps in they begin to see and understand and the resentment is replaced with gratitude, for they realize that while what they were dreaming was pleasant, it is of no comparison to what actual food tastes like and the sense of a human touch. Are we willing to exchange the jesus we have dreamt up for the actual thing? Are we willing to shake people from their slumber at the risk of being bitten?

The Western idea of who Jesus is rarely lines up with extravagant grace, the uncompromising, laying down of one's life every day, seeking peace, actively loving those who persecute us, those who are different from us. Riches, comfort and blessing are the constant theme, “what Jesus can do for us?” and so we adore his cross without taking up ours (113). Forgetting that it is only by losing our life that we discover where true life is and what it is truly about. Instead the theme should read, “What has Jesus taught us to do for others?” Many people are asking the question: how can Western Christians be so content and preach a God who blesses so much, when in neighbouring countries their very brothers and sisters do not have enough food, very little clean water, not many jobs and a whole lot of pain? It is not enough to preach a God who blesses and then just sit by and watch. It is God who blesses but demands that it be with our own hands and feet. He demands actions not statements. We need to take seriously Jesus’ teaching on the poor, even if it means a radical change in the way we live our lives. In Peter’s early days he talked a big talk but when it came time to die for those words he could only muster up a few words of denial. The discrepancy between what the church says and does concerning those who lack must disappear.

Where are the leaders and prophets who cry out for peace in a world of war? Where are the men and women who forgive in the face of hate and persecution? Where are the disciples who love their terrorist enemies? Where are the people who show mercy to those who do not deserve mercy? We are shown mercy and we do not deserve it. We are loved and we do not deserve it. What is grace if not love and mercy and forgiveness for those who are undeserving, the sick and the needy? “Whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me.” Oh that those words would sink into our very beings and then burn brightly outwards!


Every leader has a platform from which to speak. The question is then: what gospel do we preach from there? Remembering all the while that our platform is not one we are able to step off of at the end of the talk. Many famous athletes shrug off the example they set saying that they did not ask to be put in the spotlight, they did not asked to be watched and idolized, so it is not their problem when people imitate their bad example. The truth is that it comes with the territory. When Jesus says, “Come and follow me” and we take him up on it, it is not on our conditions. Like it or not, we are accountable for the message of our life.
I Timothy 4:16 Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Whether we are given a microphone, whether in the pulpit, the street, the homeless shelter, the courthouse, the office, the home, or the school, our lives are shouting a message. Whether we live as a radical or a lukewarm, a message will be sent out loud and clear. Which is it, a prophetic life lived radically as a disciple willing to lay down his life for his Lord or someone tiptoeing towards death, scared of suffering, scared of offending, scared of loving so sacrificially that it might cost them everything?

Do our words line up with the lives we live on that platform? Does the gospel we preach match up with the one Jesus gave his life for? Rich Mullins once said in a chapel service,
“You guys are into that born again thing, which is great. We do need to be born again, since Jesus said that to a guy named Nicodemus. But if you tell me I have to be born again to enter the kingdom of God, I can tell you that you have to sell everything you have and give it to the poor, because Jesus said that one guy too... [And he paused in the awkward silence.] But I guess that's why God invented highlighters, so we can highlight the parts we like and ignore the rest.” (98,99)
Of course the Bible is full of things that if we do not read them in context we will not understand them, much less be able to fulfil them. But we write so much off as “not for us” or “impossible to do” and the question has to be asked, have we grappled with the hard things Jesus says, or do we just highlight the parts around them? God’s heart is that we grapple, we ask questions and that we explore that which perhaps most strikes fear in our hearts.


If you ask people today what they associate with the concepts leader or leadership, you will probably hear something like: power, authority, strength, vision, driven, being first, influence, followers and then if the conversation continues, perhaps words like corruption, greed, self-interest, and abuse might find their way in. Jesus turns our concept of leadership and what a leader is on its head in so many ways. The Kingdom of God is upside down. You give only to get. You lose only to find. The last will be first, the weak are the truly strong and on the backs of nobodies who make up an adulterous people, the kingdom is going to spread like yeast through dough. Good luck trying to reverse that process.
And then Jesus takes off his jacket, kneels down in front of his disciples and takes their dirty feet (that happen to be so beautiful for the good news they carry) and he washes them. Loud and clear he shows the extent of his love. Loud and clear, with the towel around his waist and the water in the bowl, he expresses what is it to truly lead, that is, to do what few are willing to do, to love that which is difficult to love and then to go and lay down one’s life for that which is undeserving. In the upside-down kingdom, the perspective from the floor is much more accurate than from the head of the table... Literally it keeps one grounded.
As the water was being poured out over their feet, some running back into the bowl and some escaping onto the floor to seep down into the cracks, Jesus was profoundly communicating that if they wanted to lead as he led, if they wanted be as he was, they would have to serve as he served. Then the image of the water being poured out turned out to be the image of his blood being poured out, leaving no doubt as to what sort of sacrifice was being demanded: the entirety of a life, because it has been bought at a price, and it is no longer your own. His sacrifice, his blood, it shies away from the academic and grounds itself in our human makeup. So drink deeply he said, for this wine represents my blood, and do it to remember me.

The Son of God himself did not come to be served, but rather to serve. It is only when we understand where we have come from, who we are and where we are going, that we are truly able to give completely of ourselves. This is not easily attained since we are imperfect people, weak with shortcomings. Paul however, understood who he was and where he came from when he referred to himself as the greatest of sinners and yet continued forward, forgetting what was behind. It is a revelation of who we truly are in Christ that frees us up to then give everything, to wash feet with pure motives and hearts.

Then we will not stop at just the feet of other Christians, or the feet of our friends or even at the feet of those who are similar to us. The gospels repeat that even pagans can love those who love them back. It will then include those who are difficult to love, to those who are different than us, who hate us, who make life difficult for us, who bomb us and look for ways to destroy us. Jesus says that if they hated him, they are going to hate us. And then he died for them that they might know his love. Greater love hath no man than to lay down his life...

What is leadership if not the laying down of our life for those we come into contact with? Leadership is sacrifice, it is the giving of oneself on a daily basis, in order that who we are and what is in us begins to express itself in other people. There is an impartation that goes beyond words and teachings.
Often the disciples did not understand what Jesus was on about as he talked to them in parables and prophecies. It was much later when what he said finally sunk in and they had revelation. What spoke right away however were the tears and laughter, the joy and pain that they shared with him over the three years they walked the face of this planet together. It was those experiences that put a face to the words that Jesus spoke.
The sharing of meals with prostitutes, tax collectors, Jews, Gentiles, even Pharisees, all the while being judged for it. There was no one that Jesus would not share a meal with, and in those days that was saying something to the effect of there was no one that Jesus was not willing to touch, to call a friend, to accept, to join himself to in love.
He was controversial and far from politically correct because his aim was not to please men but rather the Father. He talked to promiscuous (and sometimes even Samaritan) women and in the house of a leper he allowed expensive perfume to be poured out over him. He healed people's sicknesses, he healed their hearts, he forgave sins, he cast out demons, and he fed people and went to parties. He tested people's faith, was occasionally appalled by the lack of it, and frequently overjoyed when he found the smallest amount. Are we afraid to touch people for fear that we may be associated with them, or even worse, be contaminated by them? It is fascinating to see the frequency with which Jesus touched people, often the unclean outcasts of society.

He did all of this with his disciples at his side. He drew them apart to teach them, to explain things to them. He was occasionally furious with them but then overjoyed when they finally got it. He gave them power and authority and sent them out like sheep among wolves, telling them that the harvest was plentiful but the workers were few, and that they were to heal the sick and announce the good news of the upside down kingdom where anyone was welcome. He gave so much that it was only by withdrawing to be alone with his Father that he was able to rise again the next day to do it all over again.

In his disciples, Jesus saw what was before it came into being. Still raw, passionate and with an uncanny ability to miss the point, he called them, formed them and then ignited something in them that even the most powerful empire on the face of the earth would not be able to extinguish. He loved them, cared for them, taught them, showed them, gave of himself to them, and when the time came, he left them to set about imparting, to the ends of the earth, what he had rooted deep within them.
It is what we are called to do, to repeat, to go to the entire world and do. Go to the world and make disciples, go to the world and represent me, pour yourself out till there is nothing left. Give of yourself to other people, take them, show them, love them and they will too become disciples. We may not have walked dusty roads with him but he does know us by name and we do have his words, his stories and we have the Holy Spirit that should be like a fire in our belly. And we have examples, people who walked before us, people who are walking with us, and we can learn and grow from their examples. Instead of distancing ourselves from the words of Jesus, instead of reinterpreting them so thoroughly that we are left with very little, perhaps we should take him and his example of what a leader is a little more literally.

There seem to be few instances where Jesus teaches his disciples how to lead other people. Nearly everything he says to them has to do with them living as disciples themselves. Then he tells them to go make more disciples. The natural deduction is that a true disciple will be contagious. [It has been said that if you want to change the world, start with yourself.] Other people will see it, will catch it, will imitate it and it will spread like an epidemic with no cure. An epidemic of passionate love for Jesus and for our neighbours, even if they happen to be our enemies.
Shane Clairborne has experienced first hand how this is working out for the Christians in Iraq, as they are having to love like Jesus loved, even as bombs and missiles from a “Christian nation” are destroying their neighbourhoods, homes and even their very lives. They have no choice but to love and forgive because that is what Jesus demands of them. What does Jesus demand of us? And why separate them from us, when we are part of the same church, the same body? Their prayer is that the power of love and forgiveness, instead of hate and retaliation, might wake up a nation (and a church) that has forgotten that grace and redemption apply to “terrorists” just as much as to sinners already saved by grace. And so if we are truly one family than that should become our prayer as well, as we ask ourselves what action we need to take. For if we stay silent while injustice is rampant, we then become guilty ourselves.
“We are all wretched and we are all beautiful. No one is beyond redemption. May we see in the hands of the oppressors our own hands, and in the faces of the oppressed our own faces. We are made of the same dust, we cry the same salty tears.” (365)


Fyodor Dostoyevsky said that to love a person means to see him as God intended him to be. He must have got that from Jesus. The world has changed in many ways since the days Jesus when walked this earth and yet really, it has not changed all that much. We can see in human faces what Jesus saw 2000 years ago: pain, insecurity and doubt of people who have been created in the image of God, who are loved by him more than they can imagine, but just do not know it yet. The challenge is this then: to live a life worthy of the calling, to lead as Jesus led, and that is to lay down our life in whatever way the Father may ask of us. We are called to love all, to shepherd, to teach, to prophecy, to provoke, to challenge, to cry, to laugh, to turn the other cheek, to stand up in the face of tyranny and injustice, to serve, to drink deeply from his cup and to when all else is finished, to love some more. In doing so we will be truly leading, imparting to others what it is to be like the Son.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to wake up one morning and have the realization hit you like a ton of bricks… that all this time you have been walking around like a man in a haze, and that all it takes to burn away the fog is to live a life that burns so brightly that everyone in your surroundings either gets burnt or runs away…
And the worst thing would be to live looking back, wondering, what if… what if I had taken the wine..?








Wishful Thinking. Buechner, Frederick. 1993 Harper Collins
The Irresistible Revolution. Clairborne, Shane. 2006 Zondervan