A Leader with a Heart Like Jesus
In the book of Mark (10:35-45), we get a front-row seat to a curious interaction between Jesus and two of his friends, James, and John. They present Jesus with this request: "We want you to do for us whatever we ask." Their request was strange, and the attitude behind it was stranger. Jesus replies with a question, "What do you want me to do for you?" Their answer was very revealing (bordering on insanity, perhaps?) "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory." What James and John are requesting reveals what's going on in their hearts: selfish desires, position, status, and pride to the point of losing perception of who they were talking to.
Jesus confronts their hearts and introduces them to their limitations by asking, "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?" If only James and John knew what they were answering when they said, "We can." But Jesus stops their questioning by revealing that those places are for "whom they have been prepared." That decision belongs to the Father.
Jesus ends by revealing HIS own heart. In verses 42-45, he breaks the logic that James and John had in their hearts by revealing HIS own heart. "Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
The world's approach to leadership does not reflect what Jesus, the greatest leader ever, taught us. Instead of pride, position, status, and selfish desires, we must take on the heart of Jesus. Of course, we will struggle just as James and John did; that is our human nature. But we can learn to serve instead of being served—it starts with asking the Holy Spirit to give us a heart like Jesus.
Eduardo Mendes
Founder and President
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