Sweet Power in Balance
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.” (Matt 20:20-21)
You are warmly welcome!
I now realize that my every Palm Sunday is dedicated to reflecting on the stewardship of power. Today I invite you to enjoy sweet power in balance. While remedying with the challenge of mid-life crisis, I have written before on ‘Timely Paradigm Shifting’ and ‘Sensing the Breakthrough Moment’. Some people are in crisis because they feel not powerful enough or they fear losing power. This could have been the challenge James and John were dealing with when they came with their mother to ask for a great favour. What kind of power did Jesus Christ wield?
In the ecstasy that accompanied his triumphal entry, the most powerful King came in unlikely manner – humbly riding on a colt, and without the expected armed security detail. Such is what Zechariah describes: “Rejoice greatly… See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zech 9:9). In his book Faithful Leaders, Rico Tice focuses on two of the most neglected yet most crucial dimension of leadership: character and godliness. Jesus’ character is devoid of any pride, and his godliness is devoid of any selfishness. However, that is unlike most of the rulers of our generations: we don’t see much humility, righteousness, and they end up failing. Without the virtues of stewardship, humility and righteousness, power is misused and abused.
Those who do not possess the three virtues tend to get drunk with power. But, as Timothy Keller notes, when human beings try to become more than human beings, to be as gods, they fall to become lower than human beings – a great irony of sin! This is well exemplified in fallen giants like Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Bloody Mary of England, Maximilien of France, Idi Amin of Uganda, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, and many many others. Many of those hide their insecurity and the fear of powerlessness in selfish ruthless and exploitative operations to keep themselves up in power. As Tice notes, failure is being successful at the things that don’t matter.
There is a choice to make: leading like Jesus, by pursuing Jesus-like greatness, or leading like the world, by pursuing what the world defines as greatness; and there is absolutely no possibility of harmonization between these two philosophies of life. In that case, embrace your true source of security – God through His Son Jesus Christ; remain humble, and keep a connection with common life and all people. Use your power not to exploit, but for the good of others. Honour Jesus Christ truly as King, and serve Him. God bless you all.