Easter Tide, a fifty-day celebration of the resurrection, reminds us that Jesus, having vanquished sin and death on the cross, declared, “It is finished!” Then, God raised him from the grave—a powerful and miraculous confirmation that Jesus Christ, the first born from the dead, is the first born of the new creation. Jesus Christ reigns as King over all things.
What difference does this make? If the true story of the whole world, the story that encompasses and explains all of history, gives meaning to every story including yours and mine, how does the resurrection impact us? I considered this question recently as I prepared to provide a devotional on the topic of unity for a group of executive leaders.
The kind of unity that we as followers of Jesus and members of the holy and royal priesthood strive for and talk about and pray for is, really, humanly impossible. I know this from experience. For more than four decades, I’ve been on teams that struggled to find unity sometimes because of my stubbornness. I’ve led teams where personality differences, competing strengths, and opposing ideas, made our work nearly impossible.
Our quest to find and maintain unity is often thwarted by differences of opinion and can lead to disputes and even division. Over time I’ve come to understand that the pain and the process of leading from a unified front is part of the puzzle and surprise of following Jesus.
The puzzle: God often uses a lack of unity for much greater purposes than we could ever imagine. In fact, sometimes God uses our biggest leadership gaps to get our attention, to teach us more about the gospel, and to bring about the unity we try so hard to achieve.
The surprise: God continues to invite us to follow the Spirit’s lead, to believe in, strive for, and prioritize unity despite our immaturity and self-centeredness. God’s strength shines through our weaknesses and our brokenness to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not ourselves (2 Cor. 5–7).
As we read the Bible, we find ourselves in good company when it comes to the failures and successes of leadership. Men and women called by God to lead, struggled time and again to achieve unity due to disagreements, competing agendas, different perspectives, pride, fear, indifference, and stubbornness.
Moses sent spies into the land-the majority didn’t trust Joshua and Caleb’s assessment of the promised land. Joshua and Caleb then waited or forty years to finally enter the land of promise (Numbers 13).
Nehemiah in a great act of organizational leadership brings about unity among the Israelites evidence in the first four chapters of his book. Then, throughout the rest of the book, Nehemiah faces opposition from without and within. Several times he rages due to the Israelites unbelief, idolatry, infighting, and consequent disunity (Nehemiah 3–4; 5:1–14; 13:1–30).
Jesus, on his way into Jerusalem—his crucifixion being immanent—is questioned by James, John and their mother as they vie for key leadership positions in their perceived picture of the new order. Somehow, they missed the very essence of Jesus’s teaching and example. Their presumptuous requests created jealousy and dissension in the ranks (Matt 20:20–28).
Paul and Barnabas’s famous parting is an oft cited example of discord, and yet, this is not the only time leaders in the Bible held opposing views. In many ways, this incident provides an example of how God used dissension to redirect his people (Acts 15:36–41).
The unity that God calls us to is otherworldly and is only possible because of the crucifixion. On the cross, Jesus, in obedience to his Father and for our sake became sin for us and vanquished sin and death. Then, Jesus, through the resurrection causes us to be born again into God’s family, transformed, and made new.
Being born again doesn’t necessarily mean that unity comes easily or that we have achieved unity once we are all on the same page. No, in fact, Jesus by example shows a cruciform unity, one that goes against the grain of cultural narratives and often cuts through our egos,
A cruciform unity is one that willingly yields and gives way to others despite position, power, or ambition. This yieldedness is necessary both individually and corporately.
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it (Matt 16:24–25)
This requires that we march, so to speak, to the beat of a totally different drummer than the one that makes so much noise in our culture today. We don’t stop leading, but we lead with a bold humility.
A cruciform unity follows in the footsteps of Jesus who took on human flesh in the form of a no-good Nazarite, and gave of himself generously and in astounding ways.
Those who yield to God’s leadership in bold yet humble ways are most often generous and selfless—they are the “wind at our backs.” Generous leaders willingly and eagerly consider different opinions and proposals and do not hesitate to champion someone else’s idea or way of leading.
Acts of humility and generosity cultivate a transformed unity.
Jesus through the resurrection makes what feels utterly impossible possible—brotherhood, patience, fruitfulness, encouragement, forgiveness, commitment, other-centeredness. Peter reminds us that God, through the resurrection of Jesus, caused us to be born again to a living hope. We are transformed and empowered to fervently love one another from the heart (1 Peter 1:3, 22–23; 2:9–11).
To lead in this cruciform way means that as we plan, lead in the midst of change, as we seek to redesign, or strategize, we lead and follow by the mercy of God and as brothers and sisters, born again into a new family, transformed one and all through the resurrection. As new creatures in Christ we are freed up to fervently love one another from the heart.
Conclusion
This beautiful painting hangs in our home as a constant reminder of what it means to yield to God. It was painted during a presentation I gave nearly twenty years ago. At the time, I shared moments of surrender that had, up to that point, marked my journey with God in significant ways—surrendering my desire to have children, following my husband’s leadership even to the Soviet Union, and yielding to God’s will as I battled a chronic and often debilitating illness. I remember many times repeating the phrase, “Even if…I will follow.”
Dying to self is a constant and enduring component of cruciform leadership.
Since that time, I’ve realized that the surrender and self-denial that Jesus calls us to is required all of the time! Often, when I am struggling with pride or frustration or when I feel impatient or overlooked I glance at this painting. It reminds me of Jesus’s call to die to myself and live into my born again identity (made possible through the resurrection) in my marriage, my family relationships, my friendships, and in my roles as a leader, a writer, and as a team member. This radical self-denial, I have found, is a constant and enduring component of cruciform leadership.
Notably, the “take up your cross daily” clause in Jesus’s call for self-denial is most sobering—it indicates that the leadership journey will in no way be easy; however, self-denial will lead us, in small and profound ways, to a place where we share in the sufferings of Jesus and learn to love him like he loves us.
I leave you with Peter’s words written not to an individual but to the church—the body of Christ dispersed across Asia Minor—and to us.
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls (1 Peter 1:6–10).
What does cruciform unity look like it your experience as a leader?
