Jesus the Servant Leader A few years ago, historian Scott Berg wrote a superb biography of Woodrow Wilson. Throughout much of his public life Wilson enjoyed the admiration and respect of people around the world. He was President of Princeton University, Governor of New Jersey and then President of the United States. Wilson tried desperately to keep the United States out of World War I, but when events forced the country into war, he was determined to make the world safe for democracy. At the conclusion of the war, he became committed to a League of Nations where the nations of the world would police each other, hold each other accountable, and prevent war from ever happening again. Wilson thought his popularity would carry the day. After all, he was the most popular international figure in the world. He even got a hero s welcome in Paris. But Wilson s star gradually diminished. The victorious leaders were not interested in his grand plans to make the world safe for democracy. They were intent on inflicting heavy burdens on Germany and the other Axis powers. They wanted revenge and retribution, not healing and reconciliation. In the United States Wilson ran into fierce opposition to his League of Nations, with several prominent U.S. Senators, including Henry Cabot Lodge campaigning against him. Under immense strain, the President s health began to break. In the 1920 election his party was soundly defeated. So it was that Woodrow Wilson, a man who barely a year or two earlier has been acclaimed an international hero came to the end
of his days a broken and defeated man. It s a sad story, but one that is not altogether unfamiliar. In today s Gospel, Luke writes: When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Here on this first Palm Sunday the crowd hailed Jesus as a king. But what kind of king was this Jesus? Was he a king like David who consolidated the tribes of Israel into one great nation? Was he a king like Solomon who centralized power, expanded Israel s borders and built the great temple in Jerusalem? Was he a king like the Maccabees who fought Gentile oppression, slaughtered their enemies and established a renewed Jewish state? One thing we know: the kings and queens, the presidents and prime ministers of this world exercise power. We can define power as the ability to get what you want and to prevent what you don t want. Just look at our politics in Washington. It is amazing to me how ruthless and often self-contradictory politicians can pursue their political objectives, whether it be destroying a political opponent or furthering their agenda. Too often in politics, power is not moral or immoral but amoral it is a means to achieve one s objectives, whether those objectives are good or bad, helpful or hurtful, furthering the common interest or one s own self-interest. Jesus turned this understanding of power upside down. Just days before he entered Jerusalem Jesus told his disciples that his kingdom was not one of power and pomp, of ruler and being ruled. He said to his disciples, You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead,
whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be slave of all. Jesus is giving us a vision of an upside-down kingdom where the values of the world contrast to the values of God. Instead of the love of power, Jesus shows us the power of love. Instead of being served, Jesus shows us the way to serve. Instead of the ambition to be successful, Jesus demonstrates the passion to be faithful. Instead of upward mobility, Jesus chooses downward mobility. Instead of making himself the center of attention, Jesus views himself in relation to the hopes and needs of other people. Instead of self-will, Jesus wants only to obey God s will. Paul says in Philippians that Jesus who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave Jesus the servant leader reveals the Servant God. No wonder the crowd would turn against him. Shouts of hosanna on Palm Sunday would become cries of crucify on Good Friday. The mob expected the power of the sword but Jesus offers the power of love. You don t out-hate your enemies; you out-love them. Jesus just wasn t their kind of king. Mexican author Carlos Fuentes writes that when Christian missionaries first presented their doctrines to the Aztecs, the Aztecs were totally uncomprehending. Fuentes says, In a universe accustomed to seeing men sacrificed to the gods, nothing amazed the Indians more than the sight of a god who had sacrificed himself to men. And yet, that is the kind of God Jesus is. He is not a God who expects his subjects to die for him; instead he dies for his subjects. He gives his life so that we might live. He ransoms us,
redeems us, saves us, from the bondage from which we cannot save ourselves and he does it because he loves us. When Abraham Lincoln s body was brought from Washington to Illinois, it passed through Albany, New York. The train moved slowly so that bystanders could pay tribute to the fallen president. One black woman stood on the curb and lifted her little son as far as she could reach above the heads of the crowd and said to him, Take a long look, honey. He died for you. That is what Jesus did for us. He died for us. He is a king who gives his life to save our life. He doesn t just teach us about salvation, but he saves us. With the kingdoms of the world, soldiers go into battle and die, but the rulers stay home and live. But with Jesus it is the opposite. He is a king who sacrifices himself for his subjects and dies for the ones he serves. Some of us may know the story of Christian X, King of Denmark during World War II. In 1940 Nazi Germany invaded Denmark and quickly conquered the small nation. But King Christian X was determined that the Nazis would never conquer the Danish spirit. On one occasion, the king noticed a Nazi flag flying over a public building in Copenhagen. He went to the German commandant and asked that the flag be removed. The flag flies, the commandant replied, because I ordered it flown. Request denied. I demand that it come down, said the king. If you do not have it removed, a Danish soldier will go and remove it. Then he will be shot, said the commandant. I don t think so, said the king, for I shall be that soldier.
The flag was removed. You may be familiar with the most famous story about Christian. The order came from the Nazis that all Jews were to identify themselves by wearing armbands with the yellow Star of David. King Christian said that one Danish person was the same as the next one. So, the king donned the first Star of David and let it be known that he expected every loyal Dane would do the same. The next day in Copenhagen, almost the entire population wore armbands showing the Star of David. The Danes saved 90% of their Jewish population. King Christian paid a price for his courage. The Nazis imprisoned him in 1943 until the fall of the Third Reich in 1945. An old man in his seventies, imprisonment was hard on his health. He died two years after his release. King Christian sacrificed his life to save the life of others. He stood up to evil and oppression by doing the right thing rather than the expedient thing. Against the forces of loveless power, he stood in the power of love the same love that drew Jesus to Jerusalem to die for you and me. Dear people, this Holy Week it won t do to stand at some safe distance and gaze at the old rugged cross on a hill far away. We don t honor Jesus with our lips unless we follow him with our lives. We need to give ourselves in order to find ourselves, because the only way to lead is to serve. That s what Jesus shows us as he enters Jerusalem in the last week of his life. Dr. Gary Nicolosi Text Philippians 2:5-1; Luke 19:29-40 April 14, 2019 Palm Sunday, C