Lesson 79 · Unit 12 · The Monday Disciple
When the Authority Is Yours
Whoever wants to be first shall be servant of all — authority is a trust, not a trophy.
Open
The evening the promotion notice came through, the system pushed you your first task: one of your reports has applied for a day off in lieu. Approve, or decline — one click away. Staring at the screen, you suddenly understand: from today, one passing thought of yours is somebody's weekend; one line of your review is attached to a family's mortgage and their peace of mind. People congratulate you on finally having come through, and what you think of are the applications of yours that got declined, and the credit that got taken from you. You quietly swear you will never be that kind of person — and you know, too, that the man back then probably swore the same thing. The first lesson when authority arrives is not how to use it. It is to get clear on what it actually is.
Scripture
First hear the new rule Jesus sets for power, then Paul's reminder to those who are masters. (Mark 10:42-45; Colossians 4:1, WEB)
42Jesus summoned them and said to them, “You know that they who are recognized as rulers over the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.
43But it shall not be so among you, but whoever wants to become great among you shall be your servant.
44Whoever of you wants to become first among you shall be bondservant of all.
45For the Son of Man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
1Masters, give to your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.
See
"It shall not be so among you"
The occasion for this passage is not a dignified one: James and John privately asked Jesus to reserve the two seats at his right and left for themselves, and when the other ten disciples heard about it they were indignant — indignant, most likely, not on principle but because they had not asked first. Jesus called the twelve together and described the world's default setting: the rulers of the nations "lord it over them," and their great ones "exercise authority over them" — power presses down from above. Then one sentence turns the table around: "But it shall not be so among you." He does not abolish the desire to be "great" or "first"; he reroutes it: whoever wants to be great shall be a servant, and whoever wants to be first shall be bondservant of all. The kingdom of God has leaders too. The measuring stick is simply different — not how many people serve you, but how many people you have served.
The Master in heaven
Colossians 4:1 is a single sentence, and it puts the boss back in the middle of the org chart rather than at the top: "you also have a Master in heaven." Above the hand that signs is a pair of watching eyes. And the Master above is the one in Mark 10:45: the Son of Man who was not served but served, and gave his life as a ransom. At the Last Supper what he picked up was not a scepter but a towel. Your boss is a Master who has washed feet — a fact that settles the pattern at one end and accountability at the other. "Just and equal" grows hands and feet from there: wages on time, not a day late; credit to the right person, said out loud so everyone knows who did the work; criticism behind a closed door, praise with the door open; targets pressed down from above absorbed and carried, not doubled and passed along below. None of that is written in the letter of the text, and all of it grows out of the word "just."
The temptation of authority, and the you of tomorrow
The most dangerous thing about authority is not that it turns people bad; it is that it magnifies them — that bit of pride inside you (the wick Lesson 57 trimmed) grows wild again once power arrives. Here is a measuring stick to carry with you: watch how you treat the people who cannot hit back — the intern, the cleaning lady, the new hire who said the wrong thing. Servant leadership is also not being a soft touch: Jesus himself was gentle and extremely clear; he asked what had to be asked and corrected what had to be corrected. Serving people is not pleasing people. And if you do not yet lead anyone, don't turn the page: this lesson is to be read for tomorrow. How you talk about your boss now is mostly a rehearsal of how you will be a boss later.
Deeper
"Not so" (Mark 10:43)
the kingdom of God comes with a different grammar of power; the stick changes from "how many serve me" to "how many I have served."
Ransom (Mark 10:45)
the price paid to buy a slave's freedom; the greatest exercise of authority in history was laying down a life for the people underneath.
The Master in heaven (Col 4:1)
there is a boss above the boss; accountability comes before results, and every signature you make has an audience.
Servant leadership
leadership aimed at making people whole: gentle and clear, serving without flattering.
Story
In 1780, at twenty-one, William Wilberforce entered the British House of Commons on the strength of family money and his own eloquence, with a future that people thought might reach the office of prime minister. After he came to faith he thought for a while of leaving politics to become a preacher, and his pastor John Newton — the former slave-ship captain who wrote "Amazing Grace" — urged him to stay: a seat in Parliament is a harvest field too. In 1787 he wrote his mission in his diary: the abolition of the slave trade. Year after year he introduced the bill, and year after year it was defeated; he was mocked, he was threatened, his health broke down, and he lost for twenty years, until the slave trade was abolished in 1807. Then twenty-six more years, and in July 1833 the news that the emancipation act had passed reached his sickbed; three days later he died. He held for a lifetime the authority and the connections other people dream of, and spent almost all of it on the people with no vote at all. (Historical. See John Pollock, Wilberforce, 1977; Eric Metaxas, Amazing Grace, 2007.)
Respond
Reflect — alone, or talk it through together
1What authority do you actually hold — a title, seniority, a budget, or the final word at home? Whom is it currently serving?
2"You also have a Master in heaven": which decision you are currently stuck on changes its answer when you remember that sentence?
3Think of the best and the worst boss you have had; what did each leave in you? Which one are you growing into?
Saved on this device only — visible to no one but you.
Pray together
Son of Man, who came not to be served but to give your life as a ransom: I admit that I have envied high positions, and quietly practiced the tone of voice that lords it over people. Thank you for first being my Master and first being my servant. Put the towel back in my hands: let me pay on time what should be paid, give back in public what should be given back, and say behind a closed door what should be said there; and let the people who cannot hit back be safest with me. You are watching from heaven, so I neither dare nor need to go on reading the faces of people. Amen.
Walk
This week's actionabout 20 min
If you lead people, get three small things done this week — return one piece of credit publicly to the person who actually did the work; hold one criticism until you are behind a closed door; settle one payment that is due, on time. If you do not yet lead anyone, pray for your direct supervisor by name three times, and write one sentence: "When my turn comes, this is the kind of person in authority I want to be."
Mark it when it happens — this week, at your pace.
Spiritual practice
Before every signature, every assignment, every click of approve or decline, run one line through your mind: "I also have a Master in heaven."
Memory verse · Mark 10:45
FortheSonofManalsocamenottobeservedbuttoserve,andtogivehislifeasaransomformany.
Walk further
Joseph, who held great power and used it to save lives; the Last Supper and the towel; Lesson 57 on pride and humility; the theme of the kingdom of God; and Wilberforce's forty-six-year campaign.