Deeper Reflection
THE PHRASE “SERVANT LEADERSHIP” WAS COINED BY Robert K. Greenleaf in 1970.¹² Greenleaf ’s model of servant leadership may be applied to secular contexts today, but its roots are found in the life and teaching of Christ, who came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (v.45).Jesus seized a teachable moment to instruct his disciples about servant leadership. James and John, members of Jesus’s inner circle, had come to him with an audacious request: to be honoured with thrones to the right and left of Jesus when Jesus ushered in the Kingdom of God and was crowned as King (v.37). They were happy to exalt Jesus, as long as they were exalted too! Jesus responded to his disciples’ worldly request by first rejecting the world’s system of greatness: “but it shall not be so among you!” (v.43a) Next, he redefined being great as becoming a servant, or worse, a slave (v.43b-44). In the Roman Empire, slaves had the lowest status and no rights at all – and seemed like the antithesis of greatness!Jesus’s teaching on being a servant is profound and profoundly difficult to live out. Yet, if He has commanded it, He will empower us to serve others as He has served us. Will we obey and find practical ways to serve someone today? Not just someone we like and love, but the last, least and the lost? May we thereby point them to the Servant King!

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¹² “What is servant leadership?”, Robert K. Greenleaf Centre for Servant Leadership, accessed 12 October 2022, https://www.greenleaf.org/what-is-servant-leadership/