Day 33: Hebrews 2:17

“Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”



There is something very important about Jesus in these verses. Well, a couple of things. First, Jesus was just like us, except that He didn’t sin. That’s why He can relate to us, and we can relate to Him. He knows what we are going through, because He went through it. He faced every temptation we face. He faced every heartache that we face. He knew every joy that we know. But Jesus did it all without sin, which makes Him the perfect sacrificial lamb of God.


We can learn a lot from what Jesus did while He was on earth. One of the things that we as leaders need to learn is that we need to be of the people. There are many “leaders” who think that they don’t need to mingle with “the little people” who work for them or follow them. Nothing could be farther from the truth.


To become what Jesus needed to become, He lived with us. In fact, Jesus even lived homeless, relying on the goodness of people to take Him and His disciples in at night, or sleeping under the stars when it was required. The point is, Jesus didn’t insulate himself in some nice mansion and keep Himself apart from the people. He lived with them, among them, as one of them.


As leaders, especially a successful one, our tendency is to drag ourselves away from the people, to see ourselves as better than the people, and to think of them as not worth our time. We have to look to Jesus to be our example and model in how we deal with people. The truth is, we are no different than anybody else, God has just given us a leader’s stewardship for a time.


If we follow Jesus’ example, we become better leaders. Why? Because we can lead, and others follow better, when our lives are intertwined with the lives of those we lead.


CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLE: Like Jesus, we aren’t to separate ourselves from other people. We aren’t to think of ourselves more highly, or believe that spending time with others is beneath us. We are good leaders because we understand people and share in their lives.


Here’s a set of verses to meditate on today: John 11:28-37


Prayer: Lord, help me be humble and to identify with others around me. Help me be a better leader by being like Your Son Jesus, who lived among and with other people. In Christ’s name, amen.