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I am no fan of politics. As far as I can see, it represents much of human behavior at its very worst. At least in our culture, politics seem to have devolved into the extremists and their screaming voices holding the larger percentage of us in the middle hostage. The more we try to shut those voices out, the louder they become, and the wider the chasm dividing our country becomes. And, in the meantime, every important issue politics touches gets hijacked into the feeding frenzy of labels and manipulation. In short, politics poisons everything it touches.

This week, I am reading the story of Jesus’ crucifixion. It is so filled with ugliness and power struggles and politics and manipulation, it is an amazingly frustrating story to me. A few religious leaders who feel threatened by Jesus incite a virtual riot and use their influence to create an angry mob to ensure Jesus’ crucifixion…it is a portrait of how truly ugly humanity can be when politics take over.

It saddens me that this kind of ugliness has invaded the church today in the same way it did 2,000 years ago. In fact, some of the nastiest, ugliest pictures I have ever seen of an angry mob have been church business meetings or staff retreats or deacons meetings or committee meetings. Crucifixions, as it turns out, have become a dangerously common phenomenon in the contemporary church culture.

Sad, isn’t it?

But if you have been in a leadership role in the church … 


Into your hands I commit my spirit; deliver me, Lord, my faithful God. Psalm 31:5 It occurs to me, there are two prayers which every church leader (and most especially every pastor) really must learn if he/she is to survive the daunting and often painful responsibility of shepherding God’s people. The first one is, “Lord, not my will but thine.” The second is, “Into thy hands I commit my spirit.” Jesus demonstrated the very different circumstances for each.

Jesus prayed, “Not my will but thine” in Gethsemane. There was still much for him to do. There were still “discussable” options available to him. His own choices were still in play and there was still plenty of discernment and judgment to be exercised on his part. He made it clear what he wanted and he was exploring options, because there were options. But he also made it clear that he wanted the option his Father wanted. This is what we pray when there are critical leadership decisions to be made and we want guidance. We may be in pain, we may feel in the dark, we may be frightened of the path we are on and of the direction it is headed. We are stressed, to be sure, but we can legitimately see more than one option and we do not necessarily trust our own judgment in the matter. We know what we want (we think), but we suspect God may have something else in mind. We can say to God, “Seems to me it would be a good thing for this certain thing to happen…do this for me, unless you’ve got something else in mind.”

But do you see, my leader friend, that the second prayer (“Into thy hands I commit my spirit”) may be along the same … Watching Jesus verbally spar with the teachers of the law all through the gospels just makes it harder for us to understand how he could be essentially silent during those last two days before Pilate and Herod and the chief priests.  There were so many things he could have said…so many ways he could have embarrassed them!

Doesn’t it seem to you that he had some moral and spiritual obligation to have said more to them?  Do you wonder whether any of his followers accused him of being ashamed of the gospel, because he wouldn’t speak up when he could have…when he should have?  I mean, he KNEW the truth! Is it ever wrong to just speak the truth?  Isn’t this the truth that sets men free?  These are the questions rattling around in my head as I read the accounts of Jesus in Court before his crucifixion.  And, of course, I ask them satirically, because these are all the same arguments I think we, the church, …