Called to Lead: Character

Leadership in God’s Economy

Before we learn a single skill of leadership, we have to change the way we define it. The world and the kingdom of God run on opposite economies of greatness. In one, you rise by gathering power and getting others to serve you. In the other, you rise by spending yourself for the good of those you lead. This session is the foundation for everything that follows in all three courses: a leader in the kingdom is not someone who is served, but someone who serves. Everything else is a working-out of that one conviction.

Opening Reflection

Finish this sentence honestly, before you read anything else: “A great leader is someone who…” Then note where that definition came from: a boss, a parent, a pastor, a book, a wound.

Two Economies of Greatness

³⁵Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” ³⁶ “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked. ³⁷They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.” ³⁸ “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?” ³⁹“We can,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, ⁴⁰ 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.” ⁴¹When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. ⁴²Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. ⁴³ Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴ and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. ⁴⁵ For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”Mark 10:35-45 · NIV

In Mark 10, James and John ask Jesus for the top two seats in His kingdom. The other ten are indignant, and it is worth being honest about why. They are not offended that the request was made; they are offended that they did not make it first. Into a room full of leaders quietly competing for position, Jesus says something that reorders everything.

Notice what Jesus does not do. He does not rebuke the desire to be great. “Whoever wants to become great among you” assumes that some of them will want it, and He does not tell them to stop wanting it. What He overturns is the method. The Gentile rulers “lord it over” people and “exercise authority over them,” pressing their power downward for their own benefit. “Not so with you,” Jesus says. In the kingdom, authority still exists and still matters. It simply flows the other direction: spent for people rather than over them.

This is the first conviction of the whole course. Ambition is not the enemy of kingdom leadership. Ambition aimed at yourself is. The same drive that makes a person want to build something significant can be redirected into wanting to spend themselves significantly. Jesus does not ask James and John to want less. He asks them to want the right thing, and then He shows them what it costs.

Servant and Slave: Two Words Jesus Chose

Jesus reaches for two deliberately humble words. To be great, become a diakonos (verse 43), a servant, the word behind our “deacon,” someone who waits on tables and meets practical needs. To be first, become a doulos (verse 44), a bondservant, a slave, someone whose life is wholly given over to another. Neither was a flattering job title in the first century. Nobody put “slave” on a résumé. Jesus is saying, as plainly as He can, that the path up is down.

Then He anchors the whole thing in Himself: “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” The One with every right to be served chose the towel and the cross. That is not a metaphor for leadership; it is the pattern of it. Every leader in this course is being asked to follow a Master who ranked Himself last on purpose.

The Model: A Towel and a Basin

¹It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. ²The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. ³Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; ⁴so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. ⁵After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. ⁶He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” ⁷Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” ⁸“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” ⁹“Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!” ¹⁰Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” ¹¹For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean. ¹²When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. ¹³ “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. ¹⁴ Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. ¹⁶ Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. ¹⁷ Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.John 13:1-17 · NIV

Jesus did not merely teach this; He staged it. On the night before He died, with the cross hours away, He got up from the meal, wrapped a towel around His waist, and did the job of the lowest household slave. Foot washing was so menial that some rabbinic traditions held a Jewish servant could not be required to do it. Jesus did it for twelve men, one of whom was about to betray Him and another about to deny Him.

Verse 3 is the hinge of the whole scene, and it is easy to skip. Jesus did this because He knew the Father had put all things under His power, and that He had come from God and was returning to God. His security was the soil His service grew in. He did not need the room to notice Him. He did not need the disciples’ gratitude. He knew who He was, so He could stoop. Secure people can kneel; insecure people have to posture.

We will spend the whole of Session 2 on this, but mark it now, because it explains a great deal of failed leadership: you will only serve as freely as you are secure in who you are in Christ. A leader who is trying to find their worth in the role cannot afford to take the towel. Every act of service costs them something they do not have. A leader whose worth is settled can give it away all day.

The Pattern: Descent Before Exaltation

⁵In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: ⁶Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; ⁷rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. ⁸And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! ⁹Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.Philippians 2:5-11 · NIV

Paul gives this same movement its fullest shape, and he tells believers to make it their own mindset. Christ did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage. He made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant. He humbled Himself, obedient even to death on a cross. And then, Paul says, God exalted Him.