Leadership, mercy and Good Friday
I am steadily working my way through the Matthew’s Gospel and Holy Week is just not long enough to soak in all that happens in that week and all that Jesus shows us and teaches us. I hadn’t started a reading plan that would neatly bring me to Palm Sunday in the scriptures and in our calendar, that is how it worked out. It is Good Friday and I am not there yet in my readings. I have been continually struck throughout the gospel of the contrasts Matthew draws out for us between the way of Jesus and ourselves. Time and again we see Jesus act in ways that turn our ways upside down. Time and again Jesus offers and extends to us a different way of being, of interacting, of seeing others, of leadership. Not just in the beatitudes but throughout His ministry, He is constantly calling us to a different way of being. He extends grace, mercy and compassion time and time again and when He shows us God’s righteous wrath He demonstrates that on a fig tree; Matthew 21:18-20, rather than on anyone of us, for whom it would be too much to bear. I have often struggled with that passage but reading Matthew Henry’s commentary this week on it gave me reason to thank Jesus for His mercy for us, rather than feel pity for the tree. Then on Good Friday He took that one step further, knowing that we could not bear the wrath and took it on Himself. He took the punishment of sin and fruitlessness and offered Himself up on a cross.
Just before the cursing of the fig tree, Jesus was talking to His disciples about leadership and rulers. Jesus contrasts what it means to lead as one of His disciples and other leaders. Jesus calls those who follow Him to be servants. Authority may be given to those of us who lead, that does not mean we use it as a whip. As Paul says in 1 Cor 10, just because it is permissible does not mean it is beneficial. Our actions must be for the good of all, not ourselves. This is true in any position of leadership or authority; be it at home, school, church, or work place. We lead because we long to see others flourish and grow. As parents we long for our children to grow, to mature; as with teachers and our hope would be that is the same elsewhere, especially in churches. We are not leading to build our kingdom here on earth, but to see God’s Kingdom come. I remember working in an administrative role within a ministry organisation. Another colleague and I used to laugh and say our job would be so much easier if we didn’t have to work with people, especially people who were not administratively strong. The truth though is we were one body, working for God’s Kingdom and each playing to our strengths and calling and that meant we navigated administrative tasks that took longer than we thought if paperwork and planning was done the way we wanted it done, as our way made logical, sensible sense at least to ourselves, so that those whose strength was coming alongside people and doing outreach could do those things.
Mark then shared with me this morning from a book called ‘Covenant & Conversation – A weekly reading of the Jewish Bible by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. The passage fitted in with all that I have been reading and pondering recently around leadership. It is rooted around Exodus 4 and the conversation Moses has with God about whether the people will listen to him. I want to share a couple of brief sections from the commentary on this chapter. (pg 31 of the book).
“This is an extraordinary passage. Moses, it now becomes clear, was entitled to have doubts about his own worthiness for the task. What he was not entitled to do was to have doubts about the people. In fact, his doubts were amply justified. The people were fractious…Time and again during the wilderness years they complained, sinned, and wanted to return to Egypt…. Yet God reprimanded him; indeed punished him, by making his hand leprous.”
He then goes on to say,
“What matters is not whether they believe in you, but whether you believe in them. Unless you believe in them, you cannot lead in the way a prophet must lead. You must identity with them and have faith in them, seeing not only their surface vaults but also their underlying virtues. Otherwise. you will be no better than a detached intellectual – and that is the beginning of the end. . If you do not believe in the people, eventually you will not even believe in God. You will thing yourself superior to them, and that is a corruption of the soul.”
God punishing Moses is a humbling reminder to all of us with any authority be at home, work place or church. We are there for the people, for the other, and we are to love them with the compassion, grace and mercy and patience that Jesus gives us all. Moses wasn’t wrong in his assessment of the people but that didn’t stop God turning his hand leprous and in His mercy healing it as well. I can say my children should know better about a certain action or behaviour, I can say, shout, scream at them, ‘have I not asked you/told you once, a hundred times already’, but I am called to love them and so because I fail, because I have screamed and shouted I am thankful that the gospel is big enough for it all and I can go to them, humbly and repentant. I am called to believe in my children, to believe they can do it, they can grow and mature and I am called to draw that out of them with love, grace and mercy and extend to them that which I receive in the cross. I may be in the right, but it is to no ones benefit if I use my authority as a parent to control. There is another way and Jesus shows us it time after time, because where God is slow to anger we are slow to learn.
This Good Friday may we remember that Jesus showed God’s wrath by cursing a fig tree, and then going to the cross. He did not place the burden on another person. This Good Friday may we remember that we are called to serve and in serving Jesus took the wrath of God on Himself. If we seek to lead, let us remember that Jesus, our King, carried the heaviest of burdens so we did not need to. And in knowing that can we reach out and lift a burden from others, so as one body we can celebrate Resurrection Sunday?
Joshua's Tree Rooted 