Jesus was not a servant-leader. He certainly served others, but he did not take orders from those under his command. His course of action was not determined by other people, but by dogged fidelity to his assigned mission. He did not run around trying to make everyone happy; sometimes he even made them angry. He didn’t mind offending people, and even when others criticized him or abandoned him, he stayed the course. He could not be steered or manipulated by the emotional outbursts of those around him. He was not desperate for their approval and he did not fear them. He served the mission – and as a byproduct of that, he certainly did serve others, but only in ways consistent with his mission. He was not a people-pleaser, nor was he a self-pleaser; he lived to please his Father. He got his marching orders from above, not from below.
Jesus did not give up his power. Nor did he let others dictate how he would use his power. His power served the mission. Jesus loved, but he did not let other emotionally blackmail him with “hurt feelings” or accusations that he had not loved them properly. Jesus knew the standard of love is not found in people’s feelings, but in God’s law.
If Jesus had let his people – his bride – determine how he served, we would still be in our sins. No one was asking Jesus to die for their sins. Had Jesus been a servant leader, there would be no gospel. He did not let his followers define the service he should provide, or judge whether or not he adequately performed the service. He had his own agenda, his own aspirations, his own ambitions. He had a mission and would not be deterred from it.
The whole concept of servant-leadership needs to die – or at least be reconfigured in alignment with Jesus’ model of mission-service. Jesus led others by serving his mission.
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