Examining crisis leadership and teamwork with Jesus, we consider three episodes in the final act in the drama of his ongoing conflict with the religious leaders. When Jesus came to Jerusalem for the last time, he and his followers were under attack. Jesus responded with a spiritual superiority that overcame every intellectual and physical challenge that his enemies could muster. He brought peace to the soul that would lead to a wonderful planetary destiny, but that peace—and the movement that was carrying the message—needed to be protected for future generations. When a movement of love and peace is attacked by people who are trying to destroy it, love does not smile quietly at sin. Jesus’ movement needed to be protected by militant, and forceful action.
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Jesus began this fateful week by entering Jerusalem riding on a donkey. This was a symbolic action, recalling the words of the prophet Zechariah. “Your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey; . . . and he shall command peace to the nations.” The Master thereby communicated that his mission was one of peace. Indeed, Isaiah had spoken of the one who was to come as the Prince of Peace.
Next, we recall that part of Jesus’ mission was to open wide the way for the people to worship God in spirit and in truth. The Master cleared away ritualistic obstacles. His one revolutionary act occurred in the Temple where the poor majority were being oppressed by a minority. “When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.” (John 2). Vendors were charging unfair rates to exchange money into the coin in which the Temple tax had to be paid. Jesus overturned the tables of the moneychangers, and there were animal pens containing the ritually perfect animals that were sold at high prices for the noisy and bloody sacrifices associated with the Temple rituals of that day. Jesus drove those animals out, too. This act utterly disrupted the unholy business in the Temple; but Jesus used force in a manner that did not descend into violence. It was ethically elegant: he injured no one, stole no money, and destroyed no property.
In doing this, the Master was not reacting with the human fight-or-flight instinct; nor was he motivated by an immature, hasty, combative urge. His timing and manner showed wisdom. He had spent a long time planting his positive message; and he had known well in advance that the time for this encounter had come. And he never lost control by giving vent to rage. He acted, not in anger, but expressing the beautiful wholeness of righteousness.
Jesus’ last militant episode was in his last teaching in the Temple. The Master moved back and forth between militant denunciation and merciful outreach to all his hearers as part of the universal family. In this extreme situation, speaking to a crowd that included friends and enemies, Jesus offered forgiveness and expressed the core of his original message in the most explicit and direct way: “You are all brothers.” “You have one Father, who is in heaven.”
Jesus gave a sobering lesson on what it can mean for religious leaders to be held accountable, when accountability is collective and the responsibility spans generations. We know that we are often affected by the consequences of other people’s actions. It is also the case that others have to go through the consequences of our actions. Said Jesus: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous, and you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your ancestors. You snakes, you brood of vipers! How can you escape being sentenced to Gehenna?
Therefore I send you prophets, sages, and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town, so that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly I tell you, all this will come upon this generation.” Let me repeat. This is a sobering lesson on what it can mean for religious leaders to be held accountable, when accountability is collective and the responsibility spans generations.
In this Temple talk, Jesus’ next-to-last message expressed his repeated desire to save his people. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”
And Jesus concluded with these blunt words. “See, your house is left to you, desolate.” After that, he left the Temple together with his followers. The years of repeated attempts to win over the religious leaders with love and mercy were over. He made no further critique of his enemies, and never came back to the Temple, even after the resurrection. Jesus’ conduct of open warfare was done.
Jesus’ use of confrontation on his mission of peace is an example for all followers. The peace of Jesus does not turn a person into a blissful, extreme mystic who, when things get rough, fears conflict, becomes passive on the field of action, and unable to return good for evil. Instead, following Jesus develops courage and realism along with love and mercy.
Jesus, the good shepherd, prepares a table of nourishment for us in the presence of our enemies. We continue to worship in spirit and in truth and open the door as we are able for others to do the same. And we sustain and find ways to proclaim—in thought, word, and deed—the saving truth that we all have one Father and that we are all siblings.
The Master continues to lead us in these ways through the Spirit of Truth.
We have seen that leaders may bear a portion of responsibility for the consequences that arrive sooner or later from perpetuating what is untrue, ugly, and evil.
As a leader, the Prince of Peace defended his movement from what would try to destroy it. He gave his opponents chances to wake up. And he protected his spiritual peace movement for future generations who would be more receptive.
Image credit: School of Aelbert Cuyp, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aelbert_Cuyp_-_Christ_Riding_into_Jerusalem_GL_GM_31.jpg
