Servant leadership may involve serving even when the end result of our service may not be known. Read Luke 1:26-38.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a Jewish girl from an economically depressed family living in a remote insignificant town in the Roman Empire. She is thought to have been in her early teens when the angel Gabriel appeared to her with the information that she would be the mother of the promised Messiah. Mary’s leadership may be best seen in her humble acceptance of God’s favor and her unwavering belief in God’s promises. When Gabriel informed Mary of her assignment she first sought clarification and simply said, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.”

One crucial message Jesus wanted His disciples to hear is that Kingdom leaders are servant leaders. Read Mark 10:35-45.

Jesus had been teaching some distance from Jerusalem. The religious leaders in Jerusalem had made it clear they intended to stop Jesus’ influence among the people, even if that meant killing Him, so Jesus’ followers were surprised when He started heading for Jerusalem. As they traveled, Jesus made it clear to His followers that their fears were valid and the chief priests and teachers of the law would have Him killed when they arrived in Jerusalem. It is against this backdrop that James and John, two of Jesus’ most trusted friends, came to Him and asked for favored positions when Jesus took up His leadership in heaven. To the other disciples their request felt like a betrayal of their friendship bond. James and John had sought positional advantage in an underhanded way.

The God-honoring view of how a leader gains greatness is a mirror image of what most leaders assume. Read Matthew 20:20-28.

Jesus had a very intimate moment with His disciples in Matthew 17-19 when He laid out for them the treatment He would receive leading to His death in Jerusalem. He was making clear to them how He, the Son of God, would be called upon to sacrifice for those He led. He must have experienced some disappointment when in the following hours James and his brother John, two of His closest disciples, made a request (through their mother) for positions of power when He returned to heaven. Jesus’ response clearly defines His view of how a leader gains power.

Justice flows from a leader’s Christlike attitude of serving others. Read Zechariah 7:1-14.

After returning to Israel from the Babylonian exile, the leaders wanted to know if they needed to “mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years” (v. 3). God’s answer came first in the form of a question, “When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?” The second part of God’s answer spoke directly to their question when He said, “Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.” God addressed the motives behind the behavior.

When leaders fail to practice servant leadership they will become self-serving and the organization can become a very unpleasant place to work. Read Micah 7:1-7.

The people of Israel were in dire straights. They could not trust a neighbor, put confidence in a friend or even trust their own family members. The root of the problem is identified as corrupt leaders when in verse three it says, “…the ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts bribes, the powerful dictate what they desire – they all conspire together.” There was self-centered leadership who worked for personal gain, kickbacks and bribes. They forced the people to serve them rather than them serving the people.