Jesus on leadership.  John 13.12-17

Click to read: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2013.12-17&version=HCSB&interface=print

So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example that you also should do just as I have done for you . . . If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.  John 13.14,15,17

Hello!

Are there five or seven?  If you ‘google’ “marks of a leader,” one guy says five, another seven, and still others … blah, blah, blah.  There is a ton written on effective leadership!  But truly, all would agree that influence and impact are two indicators of the value of one’s leadership.  On just those two alone, is it possible then that Jesus Christ was (is) the greatest leader of all time?  I dare say ‘yes’. 

Our Lord was a master communicator, often saying little but demonstrating a loud message, such as when he stooped to wash his disciples’ feet, (not bothering even to comment on their unwillingness to initiate the important task).  Just think of washing those 24 dirty feet…yuck!  I wonder … how many times Jesus got up and down again to change the murky water.   I wonder what the men were saying—after all, it would take a while to go around the table washing and drying all of their feet.  I wonder if he paused to look into each of their eyes to individually communicate his great love for them personally, one last time before the cross …  And here’s another thing I wonder—since Jesus had said that he ‘only did what he sees the Father doing’ (John 5.19), how had Jesus seen God the Father serving?  (Ah, a peek at the workings of the Trinity, the humility at work, and the mutual submission, one to another)

“Hey Christian, ’You want to be the leader?”  Jesus asks.  “If you are the leader, if you have a place … everyone already knows you’re the leader, you don’t need to prove it.  Be willing to serve sacrificially, ready to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty—often from others’ filth!  Don’t take the seat at the head of the table, instead defer to another.  Oh, and when you are hurting … (because leaders hurt you know … good leaders feel what their people are feeling, they lie awake praying for them at night) … that is no time to retreat or look for your own solace, instead look for someone to serve.  Get your eyes off yourself and lighten another’s load; you will find your own burden feels a little lighter in the process.  Above all, lead with humility.”

Yeah, just a couple things I am learning about our Servant Leader, Jesus… 

Christine