Wednesday,
July 26, 2023
“Look at my Servant, whom I have chosen. He is my Beloved, who pleases me. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations. He will not fight or shout or raise his voice in public. He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. Finally he will cause justice to be victorious. And his name will be the hope of all the world.”
Matthew 12:18-21
The religious rulers (Pharisees) were concocting a plot
to kill Jesus because he did such horrible things, like heal a crippled man on
the Sabbath. Well, that was the premise –
the real reason was Jesus’ popularity with the masses, and the resultant
diminishing power of the Pharisees. Becoming
a Pharisee gave one power over others, and there are few who give-up that kind
of power once they have it! (The
insurrection of January 6, 2021 ought to be viewed in that light!)
By contrast, Matthew, the former tax collector, holding
riches and a fair amount of power over his countrymen, was now a disciple of
Jesus. He looked at the unfolding drama
of Pharisees vs. the upstart preacher, and immediately recalled Isaiah’s prophecy.
The ancient prophet said God’s chosen
Messiah would not be a power-monger, shouting orders and brawling; he would be
the victorious hope of the entire world, in the gentlest
of ways[1]. This is one of
the most startling, counter-cultural statements one finds in Scripture about
true leadership.
By nature, counter-cultural movements are defined by
confrontation. Truth confronts lies. Darkness confronts light. Hope confronts despair. So, wherever counter-culture and presiding-culture
intersect, you will also find confrontation.
In the realm of good and evil, it is a spiritual war, fought in the
recesses of the mind, and evidenced in behavior we accept, or would even die-for.
In the penultimate war between Heaven
and hell, eternity’s finest leader set the pattern for all leaders…meekly hanging
on a cross, for the souls of all humankind.
What Jesus enacted on the cross was the shedding
of blood for the remission of sins[2], for the whole of humanity, for all eternity. A side benefit of seeing how
he did this, humbly, the quiet sacrifical lamb, offering himself for our lives,
is to see the quintessence of true leadership.
It is the embodiment of what God told the prophet Zechariah about the
way Zerubbabel would cut a path to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple:
It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says
the Lord of Heaven’s Armies…. Do not despise these small beginnings,
for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, Zechariah 4:6b, 10
The work of Christ on the cross for us was (in the eyes
of Rome’s Caesar, and even the apostles, and much of the world today) a small
beginning. And it’s a reasonable
thought – one man’s death is hardly noticed by the world. But the death of one, inhabited and led by
the Spirit of God, to do the works of the Father, is that which brings
rejoicing in Heaven.
For You Today
Precious in the sight of the Lord is
the death of his saints. Psalm
116:15
Lest we forget that the Lord rejoices over the
smallest of beginnings in His service; whatever
you have done, led by His Spirit, done in righteousness for His name, will live
on as the holy Temple built without human hands.
You chew on that as you
hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!
There are about 2,600 devotional
posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.
Title Image: via Pixabay.com Images without citation are in public domain. Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT©
