Leaders lobbying for position and power

"There is something unseemly about leaders who try and influence things for their own good"

Having dealt decisively with Peter who arrogantly rebuked him (Matt 16:22), Jesus then had to cope with his team of leaders lobbying for the eminent position of “who was the greatest”. (Mark 9:33)

If you look up “leaders” in a thesaurus it shows words and phrases like best, cream of the crop, privileged and influential. It appears that all these factors were at play as the apostles began vying with each other for prominence in the new order. There is something unseemly about leaders who try and influence things for their own good, yet it even happened to those who Jesus specifically appointed to be key leaders.

Even though the apostles behaved in this way, it does not exonerate any of us for using major change to heighten our own prominence, especially at the expense of others. The Apostles were duly embarrassed and appropriately quiet as Jesus exposed their disagreeable argument about who was the greatest for what it was. In a future blog we will begin working through how Jesus dealt with the apostle’s different reactions. However in my next post I will outline another one of their responses: Protecting the Status Quo.

Leaders lobbying for position and power

Having dealt decisively with Peter who arrogantly rebuked him (Matt 16:22), Jesus then had to cope with his team of leaders lobbying for the eminent position of “who was the greatest”. (Mark 9:33)