Leadership Lessons From Jesus
In an encounter with the religious leadership of his day, described in Matthew 23:1-12, Jesus identified three leadership failures or abuses. First, these leaders were exercising power for its own sake by using their positions of authority to impose unnecessary burdens on people that they themselves were unwilling to carry and by failing to offer any practical help in actually keeping God’s commands. Second, their ministry was all about themselves and how they were perceived by others. Everything they did was to impress others and enhance their own reputation and status, which had the effect of taking the focus and attention off God and putting it onto themselves. Third, they were competing for titles and positions that set them above the people they were supposed to be serving and which gave them a power and authority that rightly belongs to God alone.
All three were an abuse of the trust that was placed in these people as spiritual leaders and which Jesus condemned. That’s all the negative. What about the positive? Just as there are three warnings, there are also three lessons we can learn about servant leadership from this passage.
First, if leadership authority is abused by demanding obedience to God’s law while hypocritically not obeying the law ourselves and failing to help others to live obedient lives, we need to live out God’s message of grace by personal example. The gospel of the kingdom is a gospel of grace, not a gospel of rule keeping and doing good works to earn God’s favour. Servant leadership is about demonstrating God’s grace towards others and loving and accepting them regardless of their performance. Second, Jesus pointed out that pretentious displays of piety misrepresent and steal from God’s authority. A general principle of servant leadership is that respect, trust, and honour can only be earned, not demanded. It doesn’t automatically come with a position or title. When it comes to servant leadership in the church, we earn trust and respect by daily growth in our personal godliness and not through artificial and showy displays of spirituality. We do it by developing our prayer life, controlling our temper, being willing to take the less prominent roles, and always conducting ourselves appropriately. We do it by developing a personal transparency that allows people to know the real us with our strengths and failings. There is a temptation for leaders to hide behind titles and positions, but to trust someone, we need to see real person who is in the process of growing into the image of Christ. Third, Jesus warned against exploiting titles to usurp God’s authority. That doesn’t mean that titles are always inappropriate or unnecessary. In fact, they are needed for good order in the Church. The positive is that titles, properly understood in their biblical context, teach us about God’s character and relationship with his people. So, when it comes to the exercise servant leadership, our task is to understand the responsibilities that go with a title and, by faithfully fulfilling those, help people grow in their understanding of some aspect of the character of God.
In wrapping up this teaching, Jesus gave the main principle behind being a servant leader. “The greatest among you will be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Matthew 23:11-12). Servant leadership is not about controlling others but empowering others to do God’s will. We do that by giving ourselves in service to each other so that, by caring for them, protecting their interests, improving their lives, and modelling God’s truth, they are better enabled and equipped to fulfil God’s calling on their lives - “The greatest among you will be your servant.” And those who pursue positions of authority for any other reason, those follow the world’s thirst for power and prestige and attempt to exalt themselves, will find that position taken away and will ultimately be removed from service in the kingdom - “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled…”
Neil Percival
Young District Anglican Ministry
All three were an abuse of the trust that was placed in these people as spiritual leaders and which Jesus condemned. That’s all the negative. What about the positive? Just as there are three warnings, there are also three lessons we can learn about servant leadership from this passage.
First, if leadership authority is abused by demanding obedience to God’s law while hypocritically not obeying the law ourselves and failing to help others to live obedient lives, we need to live out God’s message of grace by personal example. The gospel of the kingdom is a gospel of grace, not a gospel of rule keeping and doing good works to earn God’s favour. Servant leadership is about demonstrating God’s grace towards others and loving and accepting them regardless of their performance. Second, Jesus pointed out that pretentious displays of piety misrepresent and steal from God’s authority. A general principle of servant leadership is that respect, trust, and honour can only be earned, not demanded. It doesn’t automatically come with a position or title. When it comes to servant leadership in the church, we earn trust and respect by daily growth in our personal godliness and not through artificial and showy displays of spirituality. We do it by developing our prayer life, controlling our temper, being willing to take the less prominent roles, and always conducting ourselves appropriately. We do it by developing a personal transparency that allows people to know the real us with our strengths and failings. There is a temptation for leaders to hide behind titles and positions, but to trust someone, we need to see real person who is in the process of growing into the image of Christ. Third, Jesus warned against exploiting titles to usurp God’s authority. That doesn’t mean that titles are always inappropriate or unnecessary. In fact, they are needed for good order in the Church. The positive is that titles, properly understood in their biblical context, teach us about God’s character and relationship with his people. So, when it comes to the exercise servant leadership, our task is to understand the responsibilities that go with a title and, by faithfully fulfilling those, help people grow in their understanding of some aspect of the character of God.
In wrapping up this teaching, Jesus gave the main principle behind being a servant leader. “The greatest among you will be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Matthew 23:11-12). Servant leadership is not about controlling others but empowering others to do God’s will. We do that by giving ourselves in service to each other so that, by caring for them, protecting their interests, improving their lives, and modelling God’s truth, they are better enabled and equipped to fulfil God’s calling on their lives - “The greatest among you will be your servant.” And those who pursue positions of authority for any other reason, those follow the world’s thirst for power and prestige and attempt to exalt themselves, will find that position taken away and will ultimately be removed from service in the kingdom - “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled…”
Neil Percival
Young District Anglican Ministry