What is Lead Like Jesus? What does it mean to lead like Jesus?

Mark well how the Holy Spirit has recorded this for us: “ Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands.” Let the force of it come home to us. Whatever the Lord did in this chapter was done in the full consciousness of the incomparable dignity that the Father had put upon Him. His right hand was filled and His left hand was filled, all things had been put into His hands—into the hands of JESUS whom men despised. The whole range of the glory of God had been committed to Him—the control of angels, the blessing of men, the judgment of devils; things in heaven, things on earth, and things under the earth; proof of the absolute confidence that the Father reposed in Him. He knew it, and knowing it, what will He do? What would any other man have done? Would he not have unveiled the glory before the astonished eyes of those who had despised Him and displayed the seals of His splendid office? Did Jesus do this? No, He did not. What did He do? Arising from supper, He laid aside His garments and girded Himself with a towel and washed His disciples' feet. In the tenderness of Divine love He did for them the labour of a slave! I am bringing before you our pattern, I am wanting to show you what the life and grace of the assembly really are. Look at our great Saviour, the Lord of glory, bending low to wash the feet of those uncultured and ignorant men, and doing it in the full knowledge that the chief place in the universe was His. He, the highest of all, served them in the lowest possible service, because He loved them with the greatest possible love. From Luke's Gospel we learn that they, poor self-centred men, so much like our wretched selves, were always seeking self-vindication and striving for the first place, that they were doing it even at the supper table, and that He said to them then what they well knew: “I am among you as he that serveth.” If there was one task more menial than another it fell to Him, to Him their Lord and Master. Many a time had He been up while they slept and prepared their breakfast. You may ask me how I know that. Recall that memorable morning on the shore of the sea, following their night of fruitless toil. They were disappointed men, tired and cold; but they found upon that shore a fire to warm them, lighted by His hands, and bread and coal thereon prepared by Himself to feed them. It was as though He said, “I want you to understand that I have not changed one bit; death and resurrection have not changed me; many a time before I died I showed my care for you by preparing a breakfast for you, and I am still just what I was, your servant.” It was on “ this wise that He showed Himself to them ” for so we read in John 21, “HE SHOWED HIMSELF”; not the splendour of His majesty or the greatness of His power, but His tenderness, His care for their needs, the love that found its relief in serving them, He showed His heart, Himself. And now, says He, As I have done to you, so do ye to one another, I have left you an example.

Mark well how the Holy Spirit has recorded this for us: "Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands." Let the force of it come home to us. Whatever the Lord did in this chapter was done in the full consciousness of the incomparable dignity that the Father had put upon Him. His right hand was filled and His left hand was filled, all things had been put into His hands — into the hands of JESUS whom men despised. The whole range of the glory of God had been committed to Him — the control of angels, the blessing of men, the judgment of devils; things in heaven, things on earth, and things under the earth; proof of the absolute confidence that the Father reposed in Him. He knew it, and knowing it, what will He do? What would any other man have done? Would he not have unveiled the glory before the astonished eyes of those who had despised Him and displayed the seals of His splendid office? Did Jesus do this? No, He did not. What did He do? Arising from supper, He laid aside His garments and girded Himself with a towel and washed His disciples' feet. In the tenderness of Divine love He did for them the labour of a slave! I am bringing before you our pattern, I am wanting to show you what the life and grace of the assembly really are. Look at our great Saviour, the Lord of glory, bending low to wash the feet of those uncultured and ignorant men, and doing it in the full knowledge that the chief place in the universe was His. He, the highest of all, served them in the lowest possible service, because He loved them with the greatest possible love. From Luke's Gospel we learn that they, poor self-centred men, so much like our wretched selves, were always seeking self-vindication and striving for the first place, that they were doing it even at the supper table, and that He said to them then what they well knew: "I am among you as he that serves." If there was one task more menial than another it fell to Him, to Him their Lord and Master. Many a time had He been up while they slept and prepared their breakfast. You may ask me how I know that. Recall that memorable morning on the shore of the sea, following their night of fruitless toil. They were disappointed men, tired and cold; but they found upon that shore a fire to warm them, lighted by His hands, and bread and coal thereon prepared by Himself to feed them. It was as though He said, "I want you to understand that I have not changed one bit; death and resurrection have not changed me; many a time before I died I showed my care for you by preparing a breakfast for you, and I am still just what I was, your servant." It was on "this wise that He showed Himself to them" for so we read in John 21, "HE SHOWED HIMSELF"; not the splendour of His majesty or the greatness of His power, but His tenderness, His care for their needs, the love that found its relief in serving them, He showed His heart, Himself. And now, says He, As I have done to you, so do ye to one another, I have left you an example.

The disciples did not understand Christ Jesus, so He humbled Himself that they might learn humility. It was to show His humility, that He emptied Himself and took upon Him the form of a servant, and bent down to wash the feet of the traitor apostle. He said, “Know ye what I have done to you? if I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye ought also to wash one another's feet.” Have we the grace to do it? It must be grace in us to enable us to go down; for if we are to wash the feet of others we must go down beneath them. We must get below them; we must not stand upon a pedestal and elevate ourselves. No, we must bow in the presence of our brethren, and catch thus the spirit of our Master and our Lord if we are to serve our brethren in the mind of Christ Jesus. There should be no self in the service of Christ.

But the indignation of the ten at the two brethren shows their kinship with them morally. And now the Lord lets them see their common error, and the true glory of that Kingdom which they had been thinking of as if it were but like a kingdom of the nations. What! did they imagine that in His Kingdom there would be the gratification of ambition, of the desire for lordship? or that the places of rule with Him could be such as this would imply? No: for service was the road to rule, and this could only be because rule itself would be but more ample service. Whosoever would be great among them would be their minister, and the chief among them by that very fact be but bound to serve them. Must it not be plain that the Son of man; the King, "came not to be ministered unto but to minister"? Glory might change the character of this service ― not the spirit nor the fact of it. The Cross might be lowest humiliation for Him, but it was His glory too. Could they cease to remember it? Could the love shown there be measured by aught else? Could it change or be exhausted? Would He be upon the Throne to be ministered unto or to minister? What must the places of rule be in the Kingdom of which He would be the King!

The kindness with which the Lord speaks to them is precious, however. He first calls them to Him: He does not drive them away with censuring words, but wants them near Himself. Then He reminds them of what they knew concerning the world's principles of government. Though men are called "public servants," they are given places of dignity and authority above the common people. Of course they saw this in the rule of the Gentiles over Israel.

But this was not to be so among the followers of the Lord Jesus. If one would be great, he must take the lowly place of ministering, not of ruling. The one who would be first would be servant of all. They had seen this in the Lord Jesus Himself, though they had not really taken it to heart. He, the Son of Man (showing His relationship to all mankind) had come, not to receive service and honor from others, but to minister to them and to give His life a ransom for many. Marvellous service indeed What an example to subdue every believing heart in desire to follow Him in a path of self-sacrificing service to His glory and for the blessing of others

You remember when the disciples were indignant with James and John because they had asked for places on the right and left hand in His kingdom, the Lord turned to them, and said, "You know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them; but so shall it not be among you; but whosoever will be great among you shall be your minister, and whosoever of you will be the chiefest shall be servant of all; for even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."

How beautiful! Not merely does the Lord inculcate humility, and forbid the craving after place and power; hut the places themselves are not such as would suit those ambitious to get them. They would not satisfy ambition — the greed for place. They are places of service in which the highest ministers to the lowest, as the mountaintops send down their streams to the vales below; and the highest place of all is His whose love made Him come not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many. "It is more blessed to give than to receive," is His own utterance, and ever true — in glory as well as on the way to it.

True Greatness. — Meanwhile other thoughts had occupied the rest, evidenced by a strife among them at the table as to which of them should be accounted the greatest. What a time for such a contest! Self in a sordid way was working in Judas. Self too occupied the rest. The Lord then, knowing what was passing, took occasion to instruct them in the lesson of true greatness, as well as in the favour in the kingdom in store for them all. True greatness would be shown in serving. And the Lord Himself exemplified this "I am among you as he that serves." What a rebuke! Had not He been serving throughout? What more could they say? Ashamed they must have felt of that unseemly strife. "He that is greatest among you," the Lord went on to say, "let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve." What, too, must they have felt when they saw Him rise from the table, gird Himself, and begin to wash the feet of each one of them (John 13)! for it was when at the supper that the Lord stooped to that lowly service. What an illustration of His words, "I am among you as he that serves," when He who had come from God, and was going to God, ministered in that way to the Apostles!

"But Jesus called them unto Him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them; and they that are great exercise authority upon them" (ver. 25). He put His finger upon that very love of greatness in themselves. They were loud in condemning it in James and John; but their feeling betrayed the same thing in their own hearts. "It shall not be so among you," says the Lord, "but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant." There is a difference between the two words. The word translated "minister" means a servant. But in verse 27 it is a bondman or slave. Do you want to be really great according to the principles of My kingdom? Go down as low as you can. Do you want to be the greatest? Go down the lowest of all. Whoever has least of self is greatest in the Lord's eyes. For "the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many" (ver. 28). He took the lowest place of all, and gave His life a ransom for many. Blessed for ever be His name!

He set Himself before them; they were not to be like the Gentiles, but like Him; they were not to exercise lordship over one another, but to follow His example and serve one another in love. It is in the world that men endeavour to be great, and jostle one another in their scramble for the chiefest places; but these disciples, and we like them, are not of the world, then the spirit of the world had not to show itself in them, nor must it in us. They belonged to Christ and so do we, and consequently it is His spirit that we have to bear and to show.

Let us incline our ears to hear His words. He said to them, "I am among you as he that serves." Are there any more affecting words in Scripture than these? Consider what they mean! When they awoke in the morning He had often been awake before them and prepared their breakfast; they never needed a servant if He was near; His love made Him watch for opportunities to labour on their behalf, and if there was one task more menial than another that was the task He undertook. He, the Lord of glory, was the servant of those rude, unlettered fishermen; His love bound Him with unbreakable fetters to a life of service. He is our pattern, and our witnessing for Him must be after that pattern. He who loves most, serves most, and he who would be most like his Lord must take the lowest place amongst his brethren that he may serve them all.

He set Himself before them; they were not to be like the Gentiles but like Him; they were not to exercise lordship over one another, but to follow His example and serve one another in love. It is in the world that men endeavour to be great, and jostle one another in their scramble for the chiefest places; but those disciples, and we like them, are not of the world, then the spirit of the world had not to show itself in them, nor must it in us. They belonged to Christ and so do we, and consequently it is His spirit that we have to bear and show.

Let us incline our ears to hear His words. He said to them, "I am among you as he that serveth." Are there any more affecting words in Scripture than these? Consider what they mean! When they awoke in the morning He had been awake before them and prepared their breakfast; they never needed a servant if He was near; His love made Him watch for opportunities to labour on their behalf, and if there was one task more menial than another that was the task He undertook. He, the Lord of glory, was the servant of those rude, unlettered fishermen; His love bound Him with unbreakable fetters to a life of service. He is our pattern, and our witnessing for Him must be after that pattern. He who loves most serves most, and He who would be most like his Lord must take the lowest place amongst his brethren that he might serve them all.