Who's In Charge Here?

Matthew Hutson of the New York Times recently wrote an article about the proper use of power. He claims that when rightly wielded, power makes leaders more, not less, sensitive to their subordinates. The difference, he says, is whether one views power as freedom or responsibility. As I read Hutson’s list of factors that make a person in charge more likely to become servants than tyrants, it struck me that Jesus demonstrates all of them.

• Examples: People with power used it more beneficently when they learned that their predecessors had done so. "Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing.” (Jo 5.19) Jesus modeled his use of power on the example of the Father, who unleashed power out of compassion.

• Accountability: Those with power tended to be more compassionate when they knew they had to explain their decisions to others. “‘Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’” (Jo 12.28) Jesus refused to seek the glory of the Greek philosophers because he knew he acted under the authority of the Father.

• Identification: Students who wrote about a personal experience of being evaluated showed an increased tendency to judge the work of others with sympathy. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.” (Heb 4.15) Jesus judges us with mercy, because He judges us as one of us.

• Presence: The physical proximity of a shared workspace made bosses more empathetic. “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (Jo 1.14) In Jesus, God occupied a cubicle of vulnerable human flesh in the workplace of this fallen world.

• Security: Leaders who feel secure in their power wield it selflessly.  "For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father." (Jo 10.17-18) Jesus, conscious of a power he could not lose, embraced the freedom to lose everything else.

(For more information, see When Power Makes Leaders More Sensitive by Matthew Hutson.)