“Those who seek power are not worthy of that power,” Plato is claimed to have said. It comes in various forms of course. Another way of saying it is “Only those who do not seek power are qualified to hold it.” That is also attributed to Plato but is put in the positive rather than the negative. The point is the same.

One of my favorite shows on Netflix is Designated Survivor with Keifer Sutherland who plays Thomas Kirkman, a low-level member of the government, more of an academic than a politician who is chosen as the “designated survivor” if, God forbid, something bad happens when the rest of the government is destroyed. And, of course, that happens at the State of the Union address when the Congress Building is blown up and everyone from the President to the Vice-President to the Supreme Court and everyone else in the normal chain of command is killed. Thomas Kirkman, whether he likes it or not, becomes the President of the United States immediately and guarantees the continuity of the government to keep the peace and status quo within and without the country in a time of great upheaval.

As it works out, Thomas Kirkman was not seeking power, but it turns out that he is more than qualified to hold it. His focus is on helping the country get back on track, doing practical things to help people cope and to better the overall lives of the people. Things that a leader should be doing. But, of course, he is constantly confronted by the reality of politics and power plays and egoistic and arrogant priorities by people who are more interested in their political futures than in the good of the country (although they won’t admit it, of course).

Welcome to the Leadership Paradox!

Jesus had to deal with it as well. The Bible talks about leadership in various places, but this wasn’t just the Pharisees and Sadducees that he had to rebuke. This was with his disciples. We all are susceptible to this disease. And some of us will even stoop so low as to use our mothers to promote our positions by asking for favors from Jesus. And it wasn’t long before the rest of the disciples found out about it, and they were “indignant” which means they were not innocent of the temptation to power either.

Listen to the story as it unfolds in Matthew 26:21-28 NIV.

Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him.

“What is it you want?” he asked.

She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.”

“You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?”

“We can,” they answered.

Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.”

When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers. Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

In Jewish thinking, those who sat on the right or left-hand side of the King were in a position of great power. They still didn’t understand that Jesus had not come to throw the Romans out and become the physical King of Israel and go to war with her enemies.

Many of the disciples, even after the resurrection, when Jesus was about to ascend into heaven, still thought that that was the plan. In Acts 1: 6, we read “Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” They still didn’t get what was going on, but Jesus knew two things. First, that the Holy Spirit would clarify their concerns when the time came for them to be baptized in fire on Pentecost, and secondly, that they were not really asking about kings and kingdoms but rather about restoration for Israel.

His death and resurrection had brought things to a new level, the disciples knew, but what did it mean in practical terms for Israel? And here Jesus gave them the answer that they needed to hear. He would be back. Exactly when was up to the Father but in the meantime, there was work to do and he would never abandon them until the time of restoration is fulfilled.

They would figure it out with the help of the Holy Spirit but beforehand they would have to learn what true leadership was all about. We know that it was James more than John who was the ambitious one (since he tried it again) and they were present when their mother asked Jesus, on bended knee, to favor her two sons. A few things need to be said to truly understand the concept of leadership that Jesus was teaching his disciples at this point.

Most people immediately point out that worldly leadership (as the Gentiles do) is not what Jesus wants from his disciples but rather “servant leadership” as we would call it today. But I think that the issue goes even deeper than that and I would like to talk about “spiritual leadership” which is the same thing but missing the right context and purpose. Let me explain.

We need to go back a few verses to get the context for the kind of “servant leadership” that Jesus is talking about. The first thing he says to the mother of James and John is that she (and they) “don’t know what you are asking.” They think they do know. They want to be in a position of honor, power, and influence in the new kingdom on earth that Jesus had come to establish. But Jesus knew two things that they didn’t know. One was the nature of this new kingdom, which would be spiritual first and only physical at the end of the age and secondly, he knew the price of that leadership.

We don’t generally talk much about the price of spiritual leadership.

Then Jesus asks them the key question. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” and they are quick to answer, “We can.” They don’t even know what they are saying. We have a much better idea since we know the end of the story from the beginning. Jesus is talking about the cup of wrath and suffering for the gospel that God has asked him to drink as the second Adam and representative of all mankind.

Only Paul got close to offering himself up in a similar way if that would save the Jewish race. “For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel” (Romans 9:3,4a NIV). No, the cup of wrath is reserved only for Jesus who by his righteousness and nature is the only one that is worthy to do so and Paul knew that. It was just his way of describing the extent to which his sorrow for Israel had brought him.

So, what is Jesus talking about when he suggests that drinking the same cup that he has to drink is a prerequisite of some kind for the kind of servant leadership that he requires from his people. We start to get a hint at the very end when He suggests that the servanthood that he is talking about is “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Again, it sounds like he is talking about the cup of wrath that he drank in the Garden of Gethsemane, and on the cross as he descended into hell on our behalf. Since we know that can’t be applied to us, we tend to generalize the service that Jesus gave to his time of ministry before the cross and that is also true, just not enough. There is a clear reference to death and martyrdom in this kind of servant leadership that suffers for the gospel.

We get a hint in his earlier words to James and John where he predicts that they “will indeed drink from my cup.” What is he talking about? Here Jesus makes a slight change when he says that they will drink “from” my cup. The cup of wrath and suffering for the gospel is his to drink, but his followers, and especially his leaders, will participate in drinking from that cup without taking anything away from what Jesus had to do on his own on our behalf. Don’t forget that James, himself, was the first disciple to be killed after the resurrection (Acts 12:2 NIV).

Do you remember the second time that someone tried to make a play for a leadership role among the disciples at the Last Supper? Luke tells us that “A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest (Luke 22:24 NIV). It sounds like this happened after the Lord’s Supper was done while Jesus was teaching them about the Holy Spirit but in the book of John it seems to be the context for the washing of the disciple's feet which makes a lot of sense as well. Regardless of the timing, an argument arose, and it isn’t a stretch to think it was James trying to get the best seats in the house for himself and his brother beside Jesus.

You can imagine Peter’s indignation and his brother Andrew couldn’t have been too happy about things either. They were all a bit heady with the expectation that Jesus was about to make his big move on the Romans. They had seen him exercise his anger in turning over the tables in the Temple and the declaration that he “saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18 NIV) and celebrated the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Yes, it died down a bit after that but apparently Jesus wanted to have this last Passover meal with them first and then things would start to happen. Getting a seat at the table, and the right seat, was important for what was to come.

But then Jesus walks in and says nothing. Instead, he picks up a bowl and a pitcher of water and wraps a towel around his waist. The disciples couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Normally one of the servant girls would take care of this menial task before things got started but in the hustle and bustle of getting everything ready, it had not happened yet. So Jesus did it.

In the culture of that day, it was a shameful thing to allow your Rabbi, your teacher, your leader to do such a menial task. But Jesus insisted. And when it came time for Peter, true to his nature, he rebelled against this injustice, this shame he was feeling. Jesus’ words are very cruel but so entirely true in the context of what was about to happen that it throws everything into a new light. “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me” (John 13:8b NIV). Jesus promised that they would understand better what he was saying later on.

We understand because we know that he would die on the cross for Peter. It was shameful in the worst way to allow someone else, your mentor, your friend, your leader to take the fall for your mistakes, your betrayal, your sins, but it must be done. The washing of the blood of Christ for our sins should be shameful to us but like Peter, it needs to be replaced with love and accepted. If that was the cost of being with Jesus “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!” We all love his enthusiasm, and Jesus even more.

According to the other gospels, Jesus goes on to teach more about what leadership for his disciples means in the coming age. But it is easy to see this washing of feet as nothing more than a menial task done for another and it has often been turned into a religious act or as a teaching device on servanthood in general.

But I think we are missing the connection with the cross and the suffering for the gospel that Jesus did there on our behalf. After all, we don’t practice the Passover any longer and we don’t live in a dry, sandy environment where feet need to be washed and we don’t follow the ceremonial practices of the Old Testament any longer. The point of the washing of the feet was to teach a type of servant leadership that points to the cross. That last part is often forgotten and that is what needs to be brought into our New Testament concept of servant leadership.

Paul teaches this truth with greater clarity in Romans 8 where he says, “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory” (Romans 8:17 NIV). That is a truth for all of us and not just for our leaders.

And even more, Paul says “Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church” (Colossians 1:24 NIV). Now try to wrap your head around that. On the one hand, we are to share in the sufferings of Christ, and on the other hand, when we do that, we will “fill up” or “complete” what is “still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions.”

To be clear, we aren’t adding anything to the suffering of Christ on the cross for our sins. Plenty of Bible verses make that abundantly clear. But we are asked to share in his sufferings for the gospel even to the point of death and the Bible talks about that rather bluntly as well.

After all, that is what Jesus did throughout his ministry. He didn´t just heal people and feed the poor because they needed to be healed and fed. That is true but his entire ministry had a purpose to fulfill messianic prophesy, to announce that he had arrived, and that the kingdom of heaven was here. Not everyone was healed. Not everyone was fed. Not every blind man could see, nor every deaf woman could hear. That was not his purpose.

And the same was true for the disciples. It wasn’t just a lack of faith that kept people from being healed (although that was true for those who had the offer of healing) but a lack of logistics and a lack of purpose. Each one, each person, each miracle was an announcement that the kingdom of heaven was nigh and that they should pay more attention. The highway spoken of in the Book of Isaiah, the highway of holiness needed to be made straight, the rocks removed, the path unhindered because the King had come, and the main event was about to take place.

The ministry of Jesus was the context for the cross and resurrection. His teaching was preparation for a new age to come that they couldn’t even comprehend yet.

But it was all done for the sake of the good news, the gospel. Every miracle, every rejection, every encounter with the demons, every fight with the Pharisees and Sadducees, all of it was suffering for the gospel. Only Jesus would drink the cup of wrath but we must all participate in his suffering and potential martyrdom for the gospel through ministry, rejection, and hardship. But most of all, and Jesus was very clear about this part, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9: 23 NIV).

This is the way of the cross that Jesus made possible and includes confession, repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation. That is what the cross is all about. That is how we are reconciled to God through the blood of Christ. This is the focus of our Ministry of Reconciliation (I Corinthians 5 NIV). Whatever ministry that we end up doing, whether it is feeding the poor, healing the sick, or any one of a number of other ways to serve people, that ministry is the context for a redemptive walk with Christ in which we pick up our cross daily and follow him in his Ministry of Reconciliation.

Just as our creational gifts are the context for our Redemptive focus, so is our general ministry of service the context for our specific redemptive purpose of bringing people into a new relationship with God and each other. To get that wrong is to become ineffective and distracted from the one thing that matters, the great rescue operation that we share with Jesus.

That is the gift of significance that God has granted to us as followers of Christ, that our witness and testimony in the path of the cross as we suffer with Christ for the spreading of the gospel would result in transformed lives. People don’t want to just hear the theology or the history, they want to see transformed lives. They want to see real people who are willing to pay the price of discipleship (which is leadership) and demonstrate that even in suffering there is a joy that cannot be shaken and a peace that is beyond understanding. Our witness to that truth is used by the Holy Spirit to change lives and that is the gift of significance that we have been given.

So, what does that mean for leadership in the church? Everything.

Servant Leadership has been reduced to a general ministry. So long as you are serving people you are on the right track, they say. But that is only partially true. Servant Leadership has a purpose and a direction. It must be a leadership on the way to the cross. It must be in the context of the ministry of reconciliation, either teaching it, doing it or some combination of both.

And that will include suffering. Confession is dangerous. Repentance is hard. Forgiveness is often cheap and Reconciliation extremely rare. Yes, it happens but not by accident. Jesus did not come to earth to die on the cross for any other reason than to reconcile people to God and then to create a community of people who would be reconciled to each other in spiritual unity as a testimony and witness to the world of what the cross can do.

Anything less than a cross focused ministry that has a serious element of suffering for the gospel attached is not the kind of servant leadership that Jesus was talking about.

Lots of worldly leaders talk about servant leadership. Lots of Christians apply the concept to their leadership role in a non-Christian environment. And that is fine so far as it goes. So long as we understand that that is not what Jesus is talking about or what he demonstrated in his ministry.

If we want to “drink from his cup” and participate in his suffering for the gospel so that we, too, can be glorified together with him on that day, our “servant leadership” must become “spiritual leadership” and that is a deeper and more profound and difficult concept than most of us are willing to entertain. But there it is.

Those who seek power are the least able to exercise it well. True enough. But Jesus would be the first to say that you shouldn’t be seeking power at all. Forget about politics. Forget about fame and money and influence. Lead people to the cross with a servant heart. It’s as simple as that. And make sure that you are walking with them in that way of the cross or there won’t be any spiritual power to make your ministry effective.

It isn’t a bad thing to be a leader (I Timothy 3:1 NIV) but it is a dangerous thing to be a bad leader. This kind of “spiritual” servant leadership is what we are all called to be as we walk the way of the cross in the context of our ministry of reconciliation. Only as God raises up these kinds of leaders is there any hope for the local church to be the solution the world is looking for.

The Desert Warrior