Reb Jesus

There’s an ad on the internet showing a job interviewee wearing a Doc Brown (of Back to the Future fame) contraption on his head. Whenever he uses a buzzword, he gets zapped. The word leadership these days has almost become a buzzword, but I hope you won’t zap me too much. After all, that is the track for the Doctor of Ministry program I begin next month. Actually, the reading has already started.

I really enjoyed the first book Leadership on the Line, by Ron Heifetz & Marty Linsky. The last chapter, “Sacred Heart,” touched me. Ron and his wife Sousan were in England over Rosh Hashanah. Meaning to travel to London to mark the holiday in a synagogue, they ended up in a village. While exploring they came upon an Anglican chapel. Put off at first by the large image of Jesus on the cross, Ron chose to speak to the figure as Reb Jesus, asking what he might have to teach Ron. A few minutes later, he spoke excitedly to his wife.

“Sousan, I need to share this with you, but I can’t tell you, I have to show you. Could you lay down here beneath this tree and stretch out your arms spread-eagled, and just stay there?”

Together they lay there outstretched, both of them looking up into the high branches of the tree. After a few moments, he turned to her.

“How do you feel?” he asked.

“Really vulnerable,” she answered.

“Me, too. And that’s it! That’s the message. That’s what we learned about sacred heart—the willingness to feel everything, everything, to hold it all without letting go of your work. To feel, as Reb Jesus felt, the gravest doubt, forsaken and betrayed near his moment of death. To cry out like King David in the wilderness, just when you desperately want to believe that you’re doing the right thing, that your sacrifice means something, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ But in nearly the same instant, to feel compassion, ‘Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.’ Jesus remained open.”[i]

What a powerful image of leadership.

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[i] Heifetz, Ronald A.; Linsky, Marty (2002-08-09). Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive Through the Dangers of Leading (pp. 229-230). Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.

Ephesians 2:17-18

So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father.