Follow the Leader

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things." He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." (Mark 8:31-38 NRSV)

When I was teaching elementary school, I often talked to my students about making conscious decisions about their behavior. There was a phrase I used to sum up this concept: “Don’t follow a bad leader.” Of course, we had to discuss repeatedly the meaning behind those words. 

Don’t follow a bad leader.

Here’s the point I was trying to make with my students:

It’s way too easy for us flawed humans to take note of people who stand out from the crowd. You know, those people who, through their words, actions or looks make your ears perk up; who make you say “Wow. Look at that guy.”

Often the next step, in our limited brains, is to think, “That’s pretty cool. I wish I could say that/ do that/ look like that.”  Then, without much conscious decision making, we begin to mimic that “stands out in a crowd” guy. We want to stand out, too. We want to be noticed and feel important.

And way too often, we find ourselves following a bad leader. Because it’s tempting. And it’s easy.

What’s much harder is to follow a truly good leader.

Following a good leader means making the decision to deny our first instincts (self-preservation, self-importance, being that eye-catching and stand-out-in-a-crowd guy). It means looking out for the greater good; caring for the needs of others; putting others before ourselves.

Of course, Jesus was the ultimate good leader. But Jesus set the bar pretty darned high, didn’t he? In Mark 8 Jesus uses words like “deny yourself” and “those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” As we know, he eventually set an example none of us will ever be able to live up to: He gave his life for the rest of us.

But the good news is that we don’t have to live up to that example. Jesus doesn’t ask us to literally give up our lives. What he asks us to do is to love others the way he loves us; care for others the way he cares for us; recognize that taking care of the little, un-noticeable guy is what we’re here for. And because God loves us so much, he gives us the ability to do these things – with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Don’t follow a bad leader.

So the question is, what can I do to follow the best leader, Jesus? 

Amy Viets, Dir. of Children's Ministry