Servant of All: Reframing Greatness & Leadership through the Teachings of Jesus by Enlow Ralph E. Jr

Author:Enlow, Ralph E., Jr. [Enlow, Ralph E., Jr.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Jesus Christ--Leadership., Leadership--Religious aspects--Christianity.
ISBN: 9781683592983
Publisher: Bellingham, WA
Published: 2019-10-14T21:00:00+00:00

Privilege or Peril?

Having now dealt with John’s important digression (as reported in both Mark’s and Luke’s accounts), Jesus continues his extended discourse on the subject of greatness. He returns the disciples’ gaze to the child who had earlier stood in their midst. The narrative’s flow picks up once again with Jesus speaking in Matthew’s account:

If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come! If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell. See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. (Matt 18:6–10)

Thus far, as Jesus began to expound on key attributes of true greatness, he first emphasized that our regard for self and others should be tightly tethered to the image of a little child. We reveal true greatness, he says, when we regard ourselves as people of low estate and of utter dependency. We reveal true greatness when we regard others, not in terms of what they can do for us, but as those we are privileged to serve with no strings attached.

Second, Jesus insists, greatness never asserts itself in ways that give envy a foothold. The rightful exercise of our prerogatives will not be advanced by a pattern of discrediting or diminishing others.

Now Jesus turns their gaze back to the child in their midst. “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble …” Here Jesus reveals a third attribute of greatness.

Few things are uglier or more sinister than abuse of power. And few things are more common among leaders. It has often been said, “Rank has its privileges.” No doubt that is the way it works for many in this world. But here Jesus, as he so often does, turns conventional wisdom on its head when he offers a stern warning that “rank has its perils.” And woe to the person who abuses the powers associated with elevated rank!

Andy Crouch, in his exceptionally insightful book, Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power, reckons that all abuses of power ultimately express themselves as injustice or idolatry.2 These seem precisely to be the abuses against which Jesus warns in the passage at hand.

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