Sitting At The Table With Jesus

The methods and “business practices” of Jesus don’t make much sense to the modern American who works in the competitive marketplace and relaxes at home in the evenings – watching The Apprentice, Shark Tank, or The Voice.

We’re used to the threat of elimination. And we’re keeping an eye out for others who ought to be eliminated.

Jesus gave individuals a place at the table with him who didn’t deserve to be there. In fact, none of them deserved it. They looked more like a bizarre collection of characters who shouldn’t be hanging out together than some kind of messianic super team.

What about potential?

Did the disciples have management or even leadership potential?

In a book by Greg Ogden, the following memo from the “Jordan Management Consultants” to Jesus suggests only a little potential…

Dear Sir:

Thank you for submitting the resumes of the 12 men you have picked for management positions in your new organization. All of them have now taken our battery of tests; we have not only run the results through our computer, but also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant.

It is the staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education, and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in managerial ability and proven capability.

Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper. Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership. The two brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interest above company loyalty. Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale.

We feel that it is our duty to tell you that Matthew has been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau. James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus definitely have radical leanings, and they both registered a high score on the manic depressive scale.

One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He is a man of ability and resourcefulness, meets people well, has a keen business mind and has contacts in high places. He is highly motivated, ambitious, and responsible. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man. All of the other profiles are self-explanatory.

We wish you every success in your new venture.

Sincerely yours,
Jordan Management Consultants

Of course, Jesus didn’t use management consultants or consider what Jim Collins had to say in Good To Great.

“I wish Jesus had read Jim Collins’s Good to Great so He could have gotten the right people on the bus and then the right people in the right seats on the bus. At the very least, He should have run the Myers-Briggs profile on them to ensure that everyone had the right gift mix and He wasn’t accidentally putting an ESTJ together with an INFP and causing a personality conflict.” —Jonathan Martin, Prototype

You see, the Kingdom of God doesn’t have the same rules / values / power structures as the kingdom of the world… What works in one place doesn’t in the other.

The church must take its cues from the Kingdom of God, not the kingdom of the world.

Places at the table are given, not earned.

This is a family, not a business.

Success isn’t achieved, it is received. Christus Victor – Christ is victorious. Our life – and everything good in it – comes from Him!

And so we welcome anyone and everyone to the table….

The strong and the weak. The rich and the poor. The dark and the light. The young and the old. The famous and the unknown. The troubled and the troublers. The disciplined and the impetuous. The faith-filled and the skeptic.

Everyone is welcome. No one is perfect. Anything is possible.

So pull up a chair. There’s a place for you. Yes, you. You belong here – sitting at the table with Jesus.

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