Matthew 20:20-28
“The Leadership of Jesus”
September 14, 2003 - Fourteenth after Pentecost

         “Micah Joel, a systems engineer at SupportSoft in Redwood City, Calif., calls himself a ‘B player.’ There is no shame in his voice. He will work a 60-hour week when the company is under the gun but also feels no guilt when he cuts out early to volunteer in community theater or train for triathlons. His goal is balance, not a corner office. Gratifying work is more important to him than promotions or pay raises.”[1]

         That is how an article on the front page of Wednesday’s USA Today begins. It describes a shift in the sort of people on which successful business focuses. Previously, the emphasis had been on weeding out the weakest ten percent of the workforce and at the same time luring the best, the “A players” away from the competition. No one paid any attention to the B players, the other 75 percent of workers who make up the backbone of many companies. Now their importance is being recognized.

         Loyalty is what marks B players. They are the ones who stay and work extra hours when a business falls on hard times. Often if a company pulls through a downturn, it’s because of these loyal B players.

         One of the clear marks of the B player is that he or she is not driven by power, status and money like many of the A players. Those at the top of the organization are often confused by loyal workers who are not motivated by the same things A players seek. One B player employee, Todd Walter, says that his superiors “don’t understand why I’m not trying to get their job.” He does important work for NCR, but he spends plenty of time coaching his sons’ basketball and baseball teams and going canoeing with the Boy Scouts.

         So now contemporary business is trying to figure out how to support and tap into the reservoir of strength to be found in B players. They are learning that ambition and drive to the top is not always the best indicator of success in an employee, nor are those characteristics necessarily going to benefit the organization. Loyalty, honesty, longevity and hard work are being prized once again.

         This “new” understanding of business which sees value in B players is nothing more than a version of what Jesus taught His disciples in our text as they walked along the road to Jerusalem. What we find here, is what may be described as His “leadership genius.”

         The occasion which sparks Jesus’ teaching on leadership is a request from Mrs. Zebedee, the mother of two of His disciples, James and John. When Mark’s gospel tells the story, the two disciples do the asking. All three of them, mother and sons, were present.

         Jimmy, Johnny and their mom are operating on one of the oldest principles for getting ahead in life: “It’s not what you know. It’s who you know.” From the lists of women said to be present at Jesus’ crucifixion, we can deduce that their mother was in fact a sister of Jesus’ mother. Her name was probably Salome.[2] James and John were Jesus’ cousins. Their mother was His aunt. She and they came to Him appealing to family ties in order obtain the best place in His organization. Just good old nepotism, giving preference to one’s relatives.

         So in verse 21, Salome asked for her sons to have the two highest places next to Jesus in the Kingdom He was creating. It was clear that the three of them had not been hearing what Jesus had been teaching about position in the kingdom. In the three proceeding sections of Matthew, He had held up helpless children as their example; He had told a rich man to sell everything he had; He had pictured workers who did a couple hours of labor receiving the same reward as those who toiled all day; twice He gave them the paradoxical saying, “the last will be first and the first will be last.” They didn’t get it.

         No matter what Jesus said, His followers kept imagining something else. He fed the hungry by the seashore, and they thought of sumptuous banquets in a palace. He sent a rich man away to sell everything, and they pictured themselves getting wealthy in His Kingdom. He held children on His lap, and they imagined themselves sitting on thrones. So now two of the boldest, two of those closest to Him, two A players came asking that their thrones be the best of all. Like aspiring small-time politicians hope to stand next to and be photographed with the President, they hope to be seated next to Jesus.

         Verses 22 and 23 tell how the Lord responded to these ambitious young men. He asked if they could “drink the cup I am going to drink?” Without any real clue to what they were asking, they responded in the affirmative, “‘We can,’ they answered.” They had no idea.

         As I grew up, our family would occasionally go to the Mandarin Inn on Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles. There my sister Helen and I experienced what was to us the whole new world of Chinese food. One time, when she was maybe five years old, Helen became enamored with the little dish of condiments set out for dipping egg rolls. You’ve probably seen it, a little bright red fruit sauce alongside creamy yellow mustard.

         My mother allowed Helen to taste the fruit sauce, but told her she would not like the mustard, which was so hot it would bring tears even to the eyes of an adult. My sister thought this was grossly unfair. That pale yellow substance looked so good to her. So she began the strategy employed by many a child, begging over and over for a taste of the forbidden mustard. She wore my mother down until finally in total frustration Mom shoved the little dish across the table and said “Go ahead.”

         Helen dipped in one little finger then stuck it her mouth. The consequences were immediate. It took the next twenty minutes to console her and dry her tears. My mother felt guilty ever since, though I think those of you who have ever been nagged by a child would scarcely blame her too much. Helen just didn’t know what she was asking for. Neither did James and John.

         Realizing that, like children, James and John would learn the lesson no other way, Jesus told them they would indeed drink from His cup. But this was no golden cup of glory.  He meant that they would join Him in suffering for the Gospel. James would die a martyr’s death. John would live out his last years in exile. They would get the chance to be near to Jesus in deep and profound ways. But places of honor was not what it was all about. They would learn to lead as Jesus led, but leadership didn’t mean what they thought it did.

         The lesson continued. Verse 24 tells us the other ten disciples were indignant with the arrogant brothers. It is all too obvious that their main gripe with Johnny, Jimmy and their mom is that they beat the rest of them to the punch. Like kids calling dibs on the good seats in the car, James and John got there first. It’s not that the other disciples wouldn’t have asked the same thing, they just didn’t get the chance.

         Jesus knew their feelings. He saw the ambition that was driving them. He understood just how little they understood Him and His leadership. So in verse 25 He compared His understanding of power and authority with familiar examples.

         The disciples knew how Gentile rulers behaved. The history of Rome in the first century is one long story of people conniving and conspiring for power. Julius Caesar had claimed divine honors. Tiberius, the present Roman emperor, was minting coins which proclaimed him the son of a god and a goddess. He had removed the power to elect officials from the people and given it to the Roman senate alone. Senators could not marry ordinary citizens, who were beneath them. Even the supposedly Jewish king Herod had adopted the Roman way of absolute power. Those who claimed they ruled for the benefit of the people grasped every iota of personal privilege they could get. It wasn’t any different than the way politics and business is usually practiced now.

         Comparing them to the Roman rulers, Jesus made the disciples face up to their own ambitious behavior.  Wanting to have the best places in the kingdom of heaven, they were operating on principles which govern the kingdoms of earth. They might despise the Gentiles, but they thirsted for power in the same way. The words of Jesus in verse 6 are a terse and sobering reversal: “Not so with you.”

         The leadership genius of Jesus is fully contained in two simple verses. Like genius does occasionally, they sound crazy, paradoxical, totally unrealistic. To be great you must serve. To lead you must be a slave. That is the opposite of what leaders have been taught throughout the ages. Advice to those seeking leadership has much more often been framed in terms of getting and holding power.

         In the ancient world, Gorgias speaking to Socrates believes it is rhetoric, good communication, which gives such power. He said

        What is there greater than the word which persuades the judges in the courts, or the senators in the council, or the citizens in the assembly… if you have the power of uttering this word, you will have the physician your slave, and the trainer your slave, and the money-maker of whom you talk will be found to gather treasures, not for himself, but for you who are able to speak and to persuade the multitude.[3]

         In the Renaissance, Machiavelli wrote The Prince as a guide for those who would be leaders of their countries. It is full of cold practicalities for gaining and maintaining one’s power. You don’t need to be moral, but you must appear to be. Commit necessary cruelties all at once, rather than over an extended period, so they will be forgotten. Don’t listen to advice unless you ask for it. And so on. All the rules for taking control of people and bending them to your own will.

         Though we have come in the democratic west to despise tyrants and dictators, we still listen to similar advice for leaders. Even the church succumbs to such unholy wisdom. Years ago at a pastor’s seminar we were advised to read a book on leadership with the subtitle The Strategies for Taking Charge. Taking charge was what we were encouraged to go home and do in our churches.

         Despite talk of “management by consensus,” “empowerment” and other bows in the direction of less authoritarian leadership, there remains the general view that power and personal advantage is the goal of it all. The scandals at Enron and WorldCom, and in the American Catholic church, demonstrate that business and the church still have much to learn from Jesus. And so do you and I.

         It’s so nice to be served. I really enjoy eating in a nice restaurant or staying in a nice hotel, one of those places where everyone calls you “sir” and is attentive to whatever you want. Your water glass is filled at just the right moment, your sheets are turned down on the bed, and your every need is anticipated and taken care of. It feels great, but it’s terribly deceptive and dangerous for spiritual life, especially when we remember that in the concluding verse here, Jesus Himself says that even He did not come to be served, but to serve.

         As I’ve said, Jesus had to teach this lesson over and over. Ultimately, the only way the disciples really learned it was when they saw Him serve them in the ultimate sacrifice, His own death. Only when they realized that their Master had truly become their servant by giving up His life for them did they really grasp what He had meant.

         We need the same sort of lesson. You and I need constant reminders of Christ’s greatest act of leadership if we are to remember what Christian leadership really is. In reflecting on this passage of Scripture, John Stott tells the story of Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf, the founder of the Moravian Brethren in 1720. Their constant theme was the terrible and bloody sacrifice of Jesus. Their flag was a lamb on a blood colored field. They had a kind of fascination with the blood of Jesus. You can see it in songs like #347 in our hymnal, “Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness.”

         Yet the Moravians focus on the suffering service of Jesus gave them deep humility and great joy. Their quiet fearlessness and joy on a sinking ship so moved John Wesley that it led to conviction of his own sin and eventually to his conversion.

         Zinzendorf’s concept of service came from a moment when he was 19 years old. One day he stood in an art gallery before Domenico Feti’s painting Ecce Homo, “Behold the Man.” Jesus is wearing the crown of thorns, eyes half closed in suffering. Underneath him is the inscription, “I did all this for you; what are you doing for me?” The young count vowed that day to dedicate his life to service to Christ.[4]

         I urge you to mull over again and again this week that last verse 28, and Jesus’ words, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Remember that He gave His life as a ransom for you. And then contemplate like Zinzendorf how and whether your own life is a proper response to what He has done.

         In the meantime, I would like to tell you about some people I regard as fine Christian B players, followers of Jesus who learned well His lessons on leadership. They are some of the Sunday School teachers who led me when I was growing up and first learning about Christ.

         Mrs. McElroy’s own children were grown and she taught public school all week, but she gave herself still more to children on Sunday morning. I enjoyed being in her Sunday School class so much that when it came time for me to be in her third grade class at elementary school, I was thrilled.

         Paul was a young single man who took on a class of junior boys, and gave us his time even outside of Sunday mornings. He took us for rides in his new Mustang, flying in a rented plane, and fishing in a friend’s boat. He also sang in the choir and helped in many other ways around the church. Looking back I’m amazed at the service he gave while still so young.

         Ted was married, but had no children of his own. Yet he was willing to teach a class of unruly junior high boys and became a personal friend to me. I can’t count the times he took me to a restaurant and we ate hot fudge sundaes while he asked about my life and listened to my hopes and my fears.

         Peggy Jo was also single, quiet as a mouse, and almost as shy. Yet she bravely accepted the role of high school Sunday School teacher. By that time, I and my friends thought we had the Bible and Christian faith down pat. We were unafraid to question and challenge anything she tried to teach us. But she patiently showed up every week, endured our challenges, and tried her best to answer our questions. It’s only now that I have some idea of how trying we must have been to her.

         Ask any of the people who stand up to be introduced in a minute and they will tell you. Leadership of a Sunday School class is no great honor. Those teaching our children about Jesus don’t wield much power or authority. It’s a lot of work and worry and not too much acknowledgement. Yet week after week they embody the leadership genius of our Lord. Those who wish to be great must be servants. In the truly hard words of verse 27 those who want to be first must be slaves, even for children.

         As we begin this new year of study in church, let us work again at this lesson together. Serving each other, serving our world, serving Christ, let us become leaders, servant leaders. It’s only in servant-leadership that we will ever understand the full genius of Jesus.

         Amen.

Valley Covenant Church
Eugene/Springfield, Oregon
Copyright © 2003 by Stephen S. Bilynskyj