The Jesus Administration

UNDER REVISION

Introduction 

Many books have been written, marketed, and consumed on leadership systems, styles, and technology. One such book ennobles Attila the Hun [1] as a wonderful manager like a world class philharmonic conductor directing horse archers in lieu of an orchestra through a sublime aria of sacking villages. Yet, another book depicts Genghis Khan [2] in a similar manner. If I were looking for someone who could consistently produce an enormous body count, Atilla would be high on my short list of candidates. Also in contention for this dubious distinction would be would Nero, Genghis Khan, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, Queen Elizabeth, Julius Caesar, Vlad the Impaler, and Caligula to name a few contenders with a qualifying curriculum vitae. The short list is nearly inexhaustible in the mass production of death, destruction, and the occasion Dark Age, just to leave your mark on the world. These kinds of leaders, the ones we are most inclined to emulate, are a dime a dozen but their cost are incalculable.

Many of Rome's Caesars were profoundly deranged sociopaths. Periods of great military conquest and imperial expansionism happened under the reign of individuals we would designate criminally insane today. These were not periods of graceful enlightenment when the civilized Romans pushed back the ignorant barbarians encroaching on their borders, although the accounts of exclusively Roman historians may portray them as such. These times were, to the community of common people, marked with barbarity, violence, and draconian rule.

Any idiot can break things and they do so with alarming regularity. Smart people break things at a marginally slower rate. The list of world-class destroyers is nearly endless: Hideki Tojo, Saddam Hussein, David Koresh, Shoko Asahara, Marshall Applewhite, and Charles Manson would serve as fair warning.

I regret feeling that their only purpose was to be a omen crying out, "Do not follow people like me!" I feel guilty for thinking that the only purpose to some people's lives are to serve as a warning to others. However, I am increasingly convinced that I suffer from an overactive conscience.

Currently, one of the most respected books on leadership, The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene, proposes ideas such as;

• Use others to do the work, but always take the credit
• Never trust your friends too much
• Pose as a friend, but work as a spy

If we wish to mismanage, miscalculate, and misanthrope there is no one more qualified for the position than your average self-centered, self-seeking, and narrow minded person. The exceptional ones are the ruthless looters, tyrants, and world-class sociopaths I have already mentioned.

Leadership on planet earth is often determined by the ability to do the most violence to others without fear of retribution. We acknowledge and agree with this form of leadership, mainly due to fear or a lack of options. Yet, some admire and imitate this leadership style because it seems to work. These are not leaders at all, they are followers, minor henchmen of a serpent who blazed the trail. The trail of death and destruction right through the bloody pages of human history. Like any snake, he sheds his skin and can appear to be a new creature; bold, forward thinking, innovative, productive, progressive, or whatever cloak will cover the carnage in his heart... and we follow. We follow.

Often times, humanity finds itself waking up from this leader's dream into a nightmare. It's necromancy and the serpent is the necromancer who recruits legions from the spiritually confused or worse. They believe God needs their help to achieve a better world because He is not sufficient for the task. Then, when the mass hallucination ends with the death of the sorcerer, those duped by his twisted incantations find themselves asking,  "How could we have been so wrong? So beguiled? How could we have been so bad when all we wanted was to do good?"

That's when we say, "The devil made me do it!" It seems plausible. We know that kind of evil is not our nature. We are good people, aren't we?

Maybe we constantly follow the wrong kind of leader. Maybe we keep electing or accepting the same serpent in a different skin, time and time again, expecting a different result. Maybe we are the definition of insanity in application. It's like hitting yourself in the head with a hammer, we'll feel better when we stop. 

What's the alternative?

Jesus is a leader. The Leader. He followed no one but the Father. He is the Good Shepherd. He's the example we should be following because it works. Let's take a look at the leadership style of one itinerant Jewish rabbi from the hills of the Galilee and see how they compare to the serpents from the vipers dens of everywhere.

Choosing Disciples

Jesus predominantly picked a particular type of person to be His executive. The majority were self-employed, entrepreneurs, men willing to take risks and deal with adversity. Andrew, James the Elder, John Boanerges, Simon the Zealot, Simon Peter, and Philip were all fishermen who supported themselves and their families by the sweat of their brow on the Provision of God. 

Matthew was a tax collector (or publican, as it is called in the King James translation). In a manner of speaking, Matthew was a form of independent contractor. In Roman occupied Judea tax collection wasn't delegated to government officials. Instead, revenue was left to the tax collector, a kind of privateer for profit. The way the publican operated by confronting a person in the market, a major crossroads, or other populated area and ask for proof of payment. If the taxpayer couldn't produce the right documentation, they were fleeced for virtually all the coin in their possession. A tax collector was expected to procure a minimum amount of revenue per day, anything above that base amount was the tax collector's pay. The tax collector was so loathed by the Jewish people because they were Roman collaborators and pariahs to their own countrymen.

As for the previous occupations of the other Disciples, there isn't much information provided by Scripture. Still this poses an interesting question, Why would Jesus prefer self-employed men, as the numbers infer?

I can only hypothesize an answer...

A salaried individual is issued a paycheck at the end of each pay period. Preaching the Gospel would have no such certainty. It would take long hours, hard, and dangerous work, often with little tangible return. Determination, perseverance, vision, and taking initiative were essential job skills, and these are often concentrated in the self-employed.

Employees often look for excuses or reasons to avoid work as they fail to make the connection between their productivity and their pay. Conversely, the self-employed seek solutions to problems since their livelihoods depend upon their performance. Entrepreneurs know that excuses never feed a hungry mouth. The Disciples had to be self-starters, task driven, and firm believers in their own product. The Great Commission could be considered both spiritual mobilization, and a compensation package.

Jesus didn't recruit priests from the Temple or learned scholars. He didn't want intellectuals or bureaucrats. He wanted drive, a willingness to learn, and the ability to think outside "the box", way outside the box, the box known as The Temple in Jerusalem.

This would be a field job, entailing much travel, fraught with hazards, significant risk, and given a long enough timeline would lead directly to their death.

That's one serious job description. Posting that on Craigslist will avail you few candidates, and most wouldn't pass the psychological screening process. You would have to be in a word, “nuts” or be in The Word and nuts for The Word. That is exactly the Disciples that Jesus built around Him when He launched His seemingly untenable start-up ministry. Instead of setting sail in a polished, state of the art flagship, Jesus started with a simple wooden fishing boat and some rough and tumble fishermen.

Perhaps, the most striking facet of the way Jesus selected His first few Disciples was the lack of reluctance to follow Jesus. These men had considerable investments in their fishing trade; boats, nets, line, and the tools necessary to bring their catch to market. Yet, all Jesus called walked away everything they knew, loved, and had without hesitation or so much as a backwards glance. The raw recruit Disciples had to know something was very special about this (Son of) Man who drew them to His side. As to what it was that made His chosen few so inclined to follow without reservation, the Scriptures remain silent.

Concentrate Effort

Managers don't put all their eggs in one basket. They spread their assets in many baskets . This is a simple diversification strategy which limits risk and preserves assets. Diversification was a sound management principle long before Jesus's time. After all, you may have to break a few eggs to make an omelet. But Jesus wasn't cooking breakfast. He was fixing broken people, just like you and I. But, more importantly He came to mend a broken relationship between Mankind and it's Maker.

So, Jesus didn't take that conservative, ivy-league management route. He had a hard deadline with a cross just thirty-six months down the road. He had to go viral. There would be no second chances, no regrouping, no rallying the troops. It was victory or death. No, make that Victory over death... His own and ours in the grandest coup de gras topping what the Serpent had pulled off in the Garden. 

So, He collected His Disciples and He poured His Heart into them. The burning Heart of God for the love of His children. He chose twelve, a number with deep significance to His Disciples, one for each of the tribes of Israel. This was His all Jewish, all-star team. 

Jesus always handled the difficult work and left the easiest things for His Disciples. Like a father, He included them in His Work so that they would learn, grow stronger, more confident, and all the while closer to Him. Taking on His Nature not only by exposure but by participation.

They were being made holy, molded into holiness, crafted and carved from the rough hewn timbers of men that they had been into individual masterpieces shaped by the hand of The Carpenter.

Today, He is still plying His Craft with you and I as the raw materials. Once in a while, you can feel His quiet presence, His gentle touch, and His Graceful nature if you focus on finding Him.

Like the ancient armies of Israel, Jesus trained His Disciples. One teaching a few, the few in turn teaching another handful, and by the process of multiplication creating an unstoppable force. Jesus was going to war and His troops had to be ready.

Be Honest

Honesty is remarkably absent from most businesses today, especially in corporate governance. Integrity is morally relative, a subjective musing. What really matters is how you can boost next quarter's profitability.  There is very little incentive for businesses to be honest.

• How many telemarketers begin their sales pitch with, "Hello, I'm a telemarketer...", zero.

• How many banks advertise, "We are the the same as every other bank, we're all Federal Reserve institutions", none.

• How many rent to own stores advertise, "Own this 40" Flat Screen TV for only $3,200!", not a one.

Their is no incentive to be honest in a business transaction beyond the minimal obligations required by law. The only relationship they have with you as a customer, is most likely the revenue stream you provide. 

In government, honesty is related to ethics and ethics are a philosophical exercise. The art of compromise becomes the science of compromised principles. When you compromise on principles, you don't have any. This was not the Jesus School of Management

He spoke the Truth whether you, Pontius Pilate, the Pharisees, the Sanhedrin, or anyone else cared to hear. It angered many, confused most, and it was His flagship product. He was "honest to the point of a fault", we might say today. Only in a world schooled by the serpent would too much honesty be considered a fault. Like most of the serpents lessons it inverted the natural order of things; good is evil, virtue a vice, love is contemptible, and the Truth is a lie.

Jesus came to restore the order that He instilled in Creation when He spoke all of it into existence, except for human beings, which He lovingly fashioned with His own hands.

Jesus was a reformer and He was the Founding Father. He was the Defender of the Realm, and the Creator of it. His people were in peril and He was going to make the Ultimate Sacrifice. He was going to be the Ultimate Sacrifice. He had a zero tolerance for BS policy. He told His Disciples they would have to do the same.

Train for the Real World

Putting boots, or in this case sandals, on the ground is how you take territory. Jesus walked twenty miles a day with His Disciples in blistering heat and deep behind enemy lines. He trained for all of the hardships to come. He fed them, He taught them, He protected them from the weather. He pushed them to their limits, He even washed their feet... and then He died for their sins.

This was special ops training and it appeared to have only one washout. §

Remember,when the woman caught in adultery was brought before Jesus by the Pharisees ? The Pharisees thought they were doing God's work. But Jesus had to remind them, I want Mercy not Sacrifice. This is a definitive attribute in the nature of God. He is Just, but His Mercy always trumps Justice. If this were not the case, we would all be held accountable for our sins. That is what we deserve, because the wages of sin are death. But God never issued that paycheck, instead He skipped that payday altogether. That is Merciful, and we should praise Him for it.

When we review how well Jesus's hand-picked posse fared, He couldn't have done better. This is a track record only attainable by the right leader, the Leader of Righteousness. This was no classroom exercise, He had ran the course Himself in the Wilderness after His cousin John witnessed Jesus' receiving His Commissioned as He stood in the River Jordan.

Jesus was a veteran now, a warrior who had looked the Enemy in the eye and had won. Not just once, but many times. Jesus was undefeated. He knew how to win. Now, He had to train His Disciples to believe victory was possible. No, victory was certain if they would only endure. Inspiration, perspiration, blood, and flesh: the recipe for readiness in the real world. Jesus would provide the elements they needed for success; the Body and the Blood.

Stay above the Fray

Leadership has one serious problem. There can only be one leader. In Rome, the only thing more dangerous than being an enemy of Caesar was to be Caesar. Jesus was going to have to fend off the pretenders, the posers, and find the path through their daggers...at least for now. He was a renegade, a beautiful revolutionary, and He was going up against an entrenched and fortified enemy that had ruled the known world for centuries.

This was the big leagues and He was a bush league rabbi from the sticks of Galilee, or so the Enemy thought. But as Jesus bobbed and weaved His way through their defenses, their concern began to grow. Their dismissals became denials, and their denials melted into desperation. This Jesus must die!

Yet, the Cinderella boy from Nazareth never let them see Him sweat. They would watch Him bleed, but they would not drag him down, instead He would raise them up. He came lowly riding on a donkey into their stronghold, Jerusalem, and He was going to make them give it back. He would stay above the fray.

Endure the Unendurable

I know this seems to be an oxymoron, because it is. My point is one of persistence in the face of adversity. Do you know why so many small investors loose money in the stock market? Fear. When the market takes a hit, they see their paper losses mounting and sell at the bottom. They turn paper loses into realized losses, both have the same tax advantage, but only one final.

Jesus experienced such a market crash. He went from being hailed as a king, the King, to enjoying dinner with His Disciples only to be arrested in the middle of the night for a crime not yet determined. All of this occurred within a matter of hours. His Disciples headed for the hills and He would have to endure the unendurable alone.

Brought before The Sanhedrin, Jesus faced the very people who should have been His strongest supporters. Yet, only one of the Council would raise so much as a procedural point of protest under the Law they pretended to uphold. It was a sham, an abomination of due process. On this night the Roman goddess of justice we still use as the symbol of objective law would wear her blindfold because she could not bear to watch. While human Justice has always been arbitrary, Jesus is the Truth.

He stood falsely accused, mocked, and badgered, and then set-up to take the fall for crimes He did not commit, our sins. Yours, mine, everyone's, all of them, every act of violence, adultery, every bitter word spoke in anger, every act of omission or commission that was not an act of love towards our fellow brothers and sisters in the Family of God would be placed upon His head. The same head that had been anointed with sweet scent of nard the night before, would now carry the stench of our sin. The burden, our burden, would be taken up willingly by the God we abandoned, the same God that many consider a fairy tale today. Jesus stood eyes wide open while Justice hid from His amazing Grace.

He could have copped a plea. He could have bargained for His life. Perhaps, He could have bartered a deal to return to Nazareth and remain silent, living a long anonymous life in the house in which He grew up. Jesus wouldn't do that, it wasn't His leadership style. He was in it for the long term. He was fully invested even when the blood on the street was soon to be His own.

The sin is real, our guilt is real, and the cost was real, the cost that would be paid in full by the God who became a man, a man who became a slave. Then He endured the unendurable.

Perfect Execution

Good is okay, but great is better. In leadership you need a plan, a solid plan. A timetable, objectives, and final project strategy, these are all the essential elements that define the performance of a leader. How do we get from where we are now to where we are going and how will we know when we get there? These are the criteria which a leader must define and the execution of these elements in turn define the leader.

Jesus had a plan, a Perfect Plan. His Disciples didn't need to know every detail, just their part. If they had the Faith to follow His Plan, the Perfect Plan, the results would be perfect. Only the leader needs to have full situational awareness, too much information can cause death by analysis paralysis. The chaos of quibbling over a jot or a tittel. He had trained His Disciples, laid out the plan, and now came the time to stand His ground for the Perfect Execution. The battlefield would be the high ground atop a hill called Golgotha. He was ready, and so were His Disciples.

By the time the sun had reached it's zenith, the Son was in deep despair, and the priests were congratulating each other pleased everything had gone according to their plan. As they looked on, the troublemaker, the outsider, the bumpkin upstart who threaten to disrupt their profitable corruption. He hung gasping for breath as his lungs were compressed under the weight of His torso and the burden of all our sins. Crucifixion is a form of slow suffocation.  The ritually clean priests stood at a distance enjoyed the cool air that blasphemous rabbi struggled for with each waning breath.

The crowd was mixed, His mother attended, she should be ashamed for raising a blasphemer with the audacity to claim to be the equal with God. The priests, quipped, "Yes, cry woman, show God how sorry you are for bringing this... this twisted knot of flesh into the world."

The priests mocked and scoffed at the object of their derision, as Mary , His mother, wept bitterly crying out to God for mercy. Not mercy for her, as the priests thought appropriate, but for Him. Her miraculous child, the One the angel said would be called, "God with us" lay cross checked in agony before her, and she could do nothing, nothing but weep. Her baby who she had whisked away from the clutches of the murderous monster King Herod was now suffocating in the talons of imperial Rome. The soldiers of Rome surrounded Him now, like many bulls of Bashan.

They had stripped Him naked, gored Him with whips, then flayed His flesh from the bone, only to hang His remains in front of her upon this Cross. Her first born was pouring out like water before her, and she is dying with Him inside. Many times He seemed to stop breathing as He slumped down and she would breath a sigh of relief. His suffering was over. But then He would straighten His legs pushing up on the spike driven through His feet, and gulped in air at the price of excruciating pain. He still suffered, she still suffered, this was hell for her. 

When her grief became unbearable, she hears His sweet, strong, and vibrant voice one last time between His failing breaths,

"Look mother, I make all things new."*

The account was settled, the debt was paid. You and I, and everyone we will ever know, those that have or ever will be born were redeemed. All of us, every last one of us, from Adam and Eve until then, and from then until now, all things new. All things!

And the Greatest Act of Love ever enacted, ever imagined had just been Perfectly Executed.  

We win! We win! We win! We lose the sin!

Keep Looking Up

Complacency is a common convenience of success. Once you get to the top, you begin to focus on all you have accomplished, how big an impact you've made in the world, and how astonishingly brilliant you are. The sky is the limit and once you reach that limit you stop.

Now is the time to slow down, spend more time looking sideways rather than up. After all, you're more concerned with upstarts sharing your glory than pushing the limits. Why risk all your hard work, all you have accomplished, and your sterling reputation on speculation?

Jesus didn't know limits, the sky was a direction not a terminus...

[The Disciples] were looking intently up into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them."Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven." -  Acts 1:10-11

After winning a complete victory over death for us, He came back to life, limitless life, and He offered us the best profit sharing plan ever. He left us some work to do, so we should all tend to the tasks at hand, but keep looking up for our Leader to return because He's coming to take us home.

He told me so, and I believe Him.









Footnotes:

§ Yes, Judas. However, if you pay close attention to the Gospels, you may notice that at the very moment Judas was identified as the betrayed, he was being offered and accepted Communion with Jesus Christ. Judas the sinner, who has been reviled for nearly two millennium as the poster child for treachery was doing exactly what Jesus told him to do after eating with Jesus. It begs the question, "which of us does not nail Jesus to the Cross every day with our sin?" Are we not  all murderers? We are found Justified, Sanctified, and acceptable to a Holy God only by the Blood of the Christ. Nothing we can ever do will allow us to make it on our own. No, far from it, we make ourselves contemptible by our self-righteous works, they are but filthy rags before God. We don't even know how to be good. That's how screwed up the human condition stands, and Judas was just another one of us.

* - I know this statement by Jesus does not exist in any Gospel,  but I used it for dramatic effect.  It is in substance, true. 

1. The Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun - Wess Roberts

2.  The Leadership Secrets of Genghis Khan - John Man