Theological Commentary: Click Here
Continuing
to look at Matthew 9 through the lens of leadership, Jesus continues much of
what He did in the prior chapter. He works
with a paralytic. He has dinner with a
tax collector and invites him int a discipleship process. He readily goes into a house where someone has
recently died. He happily touches a
woman who has a flow of blood that won’t stop, which would make her
unclean. Jesus continues to move among
circles of people who need His help and have very little ability to increase
His own social standing. Jesus continues
to show us that leadership is about other people, not increasing His own
position.
What is
interesting is that Jesus doesn’t see to mind when people don’t treat His
leadership in the right way. The woman
touches Him without permission, drawing power away from Him. The blind men blatantly ignore Jesus’ request
to keep the healing quiet and tell everyone what happened. Jesus gets accused by the religious leaders
when he sits down to dinner with a tax collector. He gets accused of working with demons when
He performs a miracle. So often people
get upset when people don’t act as they should.
Jesus, on the other hand, seems to take it all in stride.
In fact,
what does Jesus have to say about this fact?
Jesus looks to the crowds with compassion. Instead of being upset, he has pity. He tells His disciples that the harvest is
plentiful, but the laborers are few.
What is
Jesus’ point? The world is full of
people who could benefit from having a good leader in their life. The problem is that there just aren’t many
good leaders. There aren’t leaders that
are willing to put others ahead of themselves.
There aren’t many leaders who will lead without an eye for what is in it
for them. The world of Jesus’ day could
use strong leaders; it still could.
Instead, the world gets selfish leaders who only think about their own
agenda and their own goals.
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