Where should we look for spiritual and moral principles to guide our actions? They are not to be found in the rules and practices of institutional decision-making. Leaders cannot find them by the simple calculus of “What is the rate of return on this investment?” or “How many votes will this bill cost?” Instead, moral and spiritual decision-making requires that leaders move our thought to a higher level—to the level of meaning and value. [1] When Isaiah describes the Suffering Servant, he sets a different standard for leaders. It is terrifying. Here is how he describes the Messiah to come:
He had no physical beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. Instead, he was despised and rejected by humankind, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Like one from whom people hide their faces, he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Yet, he took up our pain and bore our suffering, while all along, we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted by his own failure. It was only later that we realized he was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; and the punishment that brought us peace was on him; by his wounds, we are healed (Isaiah 53:2-4, GCS)
The Leader as Servant
For Christians, leadership requires that we emulate the One who said that leadership within his kingdom was not about power, pride, or position but service (See Mark 10:35–45; Matthew 20:20–28; Luke 22:24–26). The Way of Jesus is the way of service in the spirit of self-giving love. The dilemma for Christ-Followers is how to discern and apply the wisdom of Christ and the Christian tradition in an ever-changing and often challenging environment. Something like a “Tao of Christ” helps leaders develop an attitude and approach that invokes the Spirit of Jesus and the spiritual resources needed to solve day-to-day problems.
In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the fool (unwise) and the wicked (those who habitually violate the moral law) act against the grain of the Cosmos, against the rational order of Creation, and against the moral order God embedded in human nature. The wise person faces this reality and lives according to reason and the moral law. This moral order is summarized in the Great Commandment to love God and others. The practical implication of the Law of Love is seen in the life of Jesus Christ.
Those who accept this ancient way of wisdom understand that scientific knowledge, faith, and moral insight are parts of a seamless web of created rationality binding the physical, moral, and intellectual universe together. Eugene Peterson captures this notion when he writes, “. . . God’s law is not something alien, imposed on us from without, but woven into the very fabric of our creation. There is something deep within . . . that echoes God’s yes and no, right and wrong” (Romans 2:14, Message).
Leaders and Practical Wisdom
It is important to reacquaint people, and especially leaders, with this older tradition, a tradition that sees moral inquiry and ethical decision-making as an attempt to bring human life to wholeness personally and socially. This wholeness is achieved as the rational moral nature of the universe is reflected in the lives of concrete human beings who are attempting to live wisely and well and human institutions. The wise life is not something we create by decision (as in existentialism and postmodernism). We discover the wise life by observation and meditation on reality in light of God’s revelation in Christ.
In a world where many people have lost confidence in the existence of truth, it is important for Christ-Followers to humbly make known the Gospel as communicating real truth about how the world is and its relation to its Creator. In a world where many people consider religion as something backward, it is important to remember that Christians have always believed in the search for truth in whatever form, for God is the author of all truth. In a world where many people think of Christians as captured by superstition, it is important for Christians to proclaim Jesus Christ and him crucified, not against the facts, but as a way to make sense of the human condition and God’s interaction with human beings. [2]
This has practical implications for Christians. Following Jesus is a discipline by which we consciously open our minds and hearts to the deep wisdom of God revealed in Christ. This is why Christians are called “Disciples.” If, as Christians believe, Jesus embodies the wisdom of God, then true wisdom, wherever found, deepens our understanding of Christ. TheTao Te Ching is full of this kind of wisdom. It contains an understanding of life that can deepen our Christian understanding of the riches and depth of God’s wisdom and help us live more authentically as Christians.
This is especially true for leaders, who must make wise and prudent decisions in managing affairs. In leading people and organizations, leaders must constantly search for the true, the beautiful, and the good. Furthermore, leaders must do this with the constant awareness of their failures, faults, limitations, and brokenness. This sense of limits and fallibility is often lacking in contemporary leadership, in business, in government, in private organizations, and unfortunately, in the church.
The Way of Deep Love
As the Apostles, New Testament writers, and early Christians meditated on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, they came to understand Jesus as God in human form—embodied Divine Love. One of the earliest names for Christians was “those who belong to the ‘Way'” (Acts 9:2). Jesus showed his disciples both a way to fellowship with God and a way of life. The Beatitudes are a beautiful description of the Way of Christ. This Way involves serving and leading others with a gentle, other-centered, sacrificial love.
There is a technical word for God’s willingness to serve creation at its deepest point of need. The word is kenosis, which means “to empty.” It comes from the words of Paul:
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:5-8, NIV).
In the older translations, the phrase “made himself nothing” (ekenosen) is translated as “emptied himself.” This is the classic testimony to God’s self-giving nature.
Christ reveals the limitless, vulnerable, self-giving love of God. In Christ, God served the greatest need of human beings and creation by emptying himself of overt power to redeem a fallen world. The message of the Cross is that God is the One who gives himself without limit, without restriction, without any holding back for the sake of his broken creation and his sinful people.[3] This is what Christians mean when we say, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). The love of God patiently bears with us even as we presume upon the mercy of God. The love of God endures our sins, shortcomings, and brokenness as the Spirit works patiently and in love to redeem and restore.
Conclusion
Interestingly, Jesus is more than just the model for religious and non-profit leaders. The world needs leaders who model the humility, servanthood, wisdom, and love of Christ. While there are differences in personalities, capacities, etc., between leaders in the church and those in government, politics, business, and other areas, the fundamental requirements of practical wisdom and deep love for others remain the same. This Easter, we might remember that the King of Kings and Lord of Lords was a person of humility, servanthood, and hidden wisdom, willing to give himself for the world and us.
[1] This meditation is based upon sections of the Introduction to my book, Centered Leading, Centered Living: The Way of Light and Love for Christ-Followers rev. ed. (Booksurge, 2016).
[2] See, Lesslie Newbigin, Truth To Tell: The Gospel as Public Truth (Grand Rapids, MI & Geneva Switzerland: William B. Eerdmans and the World Council of Churches, 1991).
[3] See, W. H. Vanstone, Love’s Endeavor, Love’s Expense: the Response of Being to the Love of God (London, UK: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1977). See also John Polkinghorne, ed, The Work of Love: Creation as Kenosis (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans 2001) for a deep analysis of how creation reflects the One who is love and became love incarnate to redeem and restores his handiwork.