The Commitment of a Servant-leader
A great number of people call themselves Christians who want to be served rather than to serve. There are many who aspire in leadership but very few will aspire to servant-hood. Do you believe that a good leader is a good follower? That is the question I hope that you will be able to answer as we walk through understanding what it takes to become a good Christian leader. In order to become good leaders of our Lord Jesus Christ, we must first learn to follow and be committed; this is the foundation of becoming a good follower. Please read Luke 9:57-62.
These three persons in the passage were perhaps just representations of the many Christians today. Many were attracted to follow Jesus because He had performed great miracles. Jesus enabled the blind to see, the lame to walk, and cast out demons. Many had seen how Christ multiplied 5 loaves and 2 fishes into enough food to feed 5000 people. And many, like these three persons in our passage would then come and express their desire to follow Jesus. Today the Lord Jesus still requires more than that same kind of commitment from those who would serve Him. I want to discuss three important points in committing our lives to follow Jesus Christ. The first is you must be willing to sacrifice for Jesus. According to verse 57 the first man promised, “I will follow you wherever you go.” This sounds very good. But what exactly did he mean by saying this? Perhaps he was thinking more about the glory of being a follower of Christ. He was thinking of how glorious it would be to be closely associated with such a great person. So, in His reply, Jesus did not want the first man to think of the glory of being His follower. He wanted him to know that there is a price to pay. Jesus was saying that even the very poor creatures have a relatively comfortable life compared to His life. A servant-leader of the Lord Jesus should be prepared to endure hardship, discomfort and inconvenience.
Secondly, you must be available in serving Jesus. No one can claim to have commitment if he does not make himself available. In verse 59 we find a man who was also busy doing something else and so was not available to Christ. He said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Now this sounds like a very good and reasonable excuse. What then did Jesus reply, “Let the dead bury their dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God” Was Jesus being unkind or insensitive to the man’s needs? Not at all. God’s Word shows us that Jesus was always most compassionate and concerned to those who were distressed. When He was dying on the cross, He even asked His disciple, John, to look after His mother. So let us be careful how we understand this situation. One important thing to observe is that this man was together with Jesus at this point in time and not in his own home. This shows that his father was probably not dead yet. If his father had already died, he would not have been where Jesus was. He would have been at home, since it is always the Jewish custom/tradition to bury someone on the very same day that he died. So probably what this second prospective disciple was really saying was this, “Lord, please excuse me this time. Please wait until my father dies and is buried, and then after that, I will follow you. I cannot be available to you now, but maybe later on.”
Perhaps at some time of our lives we may have also done this. We know that God wants us to bring our loved ones and friends to Christ, or be involved in Church activities. But at the same time, there are other things in our lives which distracted us and call for our attention. So we end up postponing the things we should do. In effect we tell the Lord, “Please wait until a time when I am free. Don’t ask me to do things for you now. There are other things that I need to do first.”
The third point is you must be single-minded in following Jesus. Verse 62 says Jesus said, “No man, having put his hand to plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.” If a farmer wants to plow a straight line he must concentrate fully on controlling the direction of the plow. He must keep his eyes looking in front and no where else, otherwise he will start to drift off course. Good plowing requires single-mindedness. In the same way, our commitment to the Lord requires us to be single-minded. Why did Jesus need to emphasize this point to the third prospective disciple? Because our Lord knows what is in every person’s heart. Perhaps he knew that this man’s attentions were divided. The man said “Let me go and bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.” God knows that his heart is divided and his attention would seriously affect his commitment in Christ’s kingdom. A person with divided attention and loyalties is unfit for promoting God’s kingdom. If you want to succeed in life as Servant-Leader, the only requirement is your true commitment in Jesus. Be willing to sacrifice for Jesus; be available to serve Him, and be single-minded in following Christ.
Serving His Kingdom Together,
Travis Mowell