The SoSA Perspective

Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh

I recently read a book on leadership. The book can remain nameless, mostly because it was bunk. To be more exact, it was pushing the sort of “get ahead at all costs,” “the guy who dies with the most toys wins” sort of mentality that is so prevalent today. The good news is it got me to thinking about what makes a good leader. What does he/she look like, what lifestyle do they exhibit and so on. All of which posed the following question:

What did Jesus do with all that gold, frankincense, and myrrh? There’s no record at all. Probably, Joseph took it and just kept carpentering until it was all gone. (Poor folks didn’t do so well in those days.) At any rate, Jesus apparently didn’t have much use for the fame, wealth, and power that comes from being “number one.” He would have made a lousy king. That’s probably why he disappeared once when his followers decided to make him king.

Jesus’ values, as opposed to those of a great number of our current religious and political bloviaters, were compassion, frugality, and modesty. (in the sense of not trying to get yourself elected king, etc.). Those values do not require the addition of much wealth, power, or fame to make them work. As a matter of fact, fame, power, and wealth tend to get in the way.

On the other hand, it does occur to me that if you need to be a wealthy, powerful blowhard to be an effective king, and if we can’t find any kingdoms that have outlived His kingdom, maybe this whole modern “leadership” game is not worth the candle. Could be that’s why our founder said that if we want to be leaders, we should become servants of all. Just a thought.