At the time of Paul’s letter, the city was under the rule of Emperor Nero – a ruthless narcissist who made human candles out of Christians, forced people to worship him as a God on Earth, and murdered his mother and his first wife.
One historian describes him as someone who “lost all sense of right and wrong and listened to flattery with total credulity”.
If this is what your civic leadership looks like when you’re trying to live day to day, the alternative is pretty compelling.
In his letter, Paul quotes a poem about the nature of Jesus’ leadership, which is probably one of the earliest pieces of Christian scripture.
He talks about a Jesus who, “though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave”.
A Jesus who “humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross”.
It’s this kind of leadership – the kind that lays down power, instead of lording it over others – that turns the world upside-down.
This month saw one so-called “Liberation Day” take place – a day of diplomatic and economic upheaval that reverberated across the globe. You’ll probably have some opinions about who that “liberation” most benefited. But be encouraged: we’re in the midst of a whole Liberation Weekend.
We’ve seen the effects of flip-flopping leadership, both overseas and in our own country (Treaty Principles Bill, anyone?), but Jesus knew his own manifesto from the beginning.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,” he said, “because he’s anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He had sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”
Jesus’ platform was not the podium, the press briefing, Parliament steps or the White House garden. It was ordinary places with ordinary people – streets, neighbourhoods, hillsides, the sea.
His final platform was death on the cross, where he willingly chose to give himself to what seemed like defeat, and in doing so, demonstrated the ultimate power of a way of being that puts others first.
If that really is the nature of the God who holds the whole universe together – that he would choose not power or status, but humility and sacrifice – then I wonder what it would mean for us to live that way too? Wouldn’t our lives, our world, be so different?
Imagine what it would look like in our own families, communities and world if we embodied Jesus’ self-emptying posture, willingly taking the lowest position to allow others to thrive.
Over the past 2000-odd years, the world has seen Neros of many kinds come and go. Yet I’m convinced that it’s Jesus, whose self-emptying leadership style keeps on quietly transforming hearts, families, and societies, who is worth giving my allegiance to.
As this Liberation Weekend draws to a close, I invite you to celebrate at your local church, to join in the Easter story and be transformed by it.
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