Humility

By Micah Colbert. Reposted from Rooted Thinking.

Introduction

Servant leadership is something people frequently talk about but rarely understand or practice. Many Christians seem to equate servant leadership with passive or subservient leadership. They envision the servant leader as a gentle, accommodating person who works hard to meet everyone’s needs and keep everybody happy. True servant leaders, however, are not docile. They’re driven. Captivated by the love of God and the mission of God, they use “their gift of leadership by taking initiative to focus, harmonize, and enhance the fits of others for the sake of developing people and cultivating the kingdom of God.”¹ They proactively labor to equip and empower God’s people so that they can accomplish God’s purposes in the world together. They serve so that each person under their care becomes all that God has called and gifted them to be.

Last Sunday, my son and I visited a nearby Orthodox Presbyterian Church. As a Baptist, I don’t quite fit in there, but then I don’t quite fit in at a lot of Baptist churches either!

I’d visited this church before, some years ago, but my son had never worshiped with Presbyterians. So for him it was an educational field trip, and for me it was a chance to catch up a bit with some friends and former students—and worship together.

The way this congregation worships is always a blessing to me. Call to worship; lots of Scripture reading; psalms and old, old hymns; time for repentance and confession. A place for everything and everything in its place—which could probably work as a tagline for Reformed Theology in general. That orderliness and tidiness can be of great comfort in rapidly changing, chaotic times.

There’s much more I could say in appreciation for this little church, but there’s some reflection and confession I want to get to because of the sermon that morning.

The text was 2 Peter 3:8-13. I reproduce it in full here, because it’s such a joy and such good medicine. If you read it slowly and let it soak in, you might, like me, feel your thinking pop back into proper place like a dislocated joint (that you had somehow not noticed!).

It is interesting that verse 20 refers to John as “the one who had been reclining at table close to him” right after Jesus gives Peter a chance to retract his threefold denial of Jesus with a threefold affirmation of his love. We could easily surmise that Peter the Denier is going to suffer martyrdom while John the Beloved will escape such a fate, and each will do so based on their faithlessness or faithfulness. Yet, there is no hint in the text that this is so. Their differing fates were the result of the good pleasure of God—“if it is my will.”

When I was young it was common to tell nosey people to “mind your own beeswax” instead of “business.” I don’t know why, but it seemed cleverer. This is essentially what Jesus tells Peter. John’s fate was not Peter’s concern. Jesus was not bound to explain this any more than he was bound to be “fair” in how their lives panned out. Peter simply needed to obey the call of Jesus to follow him.

What motivated Peter’s question? We don’t know for sure, but it was probably more than simply curiosity. It could very well have been rooted in covetousness. Peter certainly wasn’t happy at Jesus’ prediction and perhaps wanted someone to share his misery. Perhaps he felt that if the Beloved Disciple was going to share his fate that it wouldn’t be so bad and he wouldn’t feel so singled out.