The Last Supper, A Lesson In Leadership

 Perhaps the greatest example of leadership comes to us from the story of the Last Supper. 

He got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. When he has finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” He asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher” and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for it is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you should wash one another’s feet.  I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them”

He gave us this example on the very night one of them would betray him, a betrayal he predicted. That betrayal did not diminish the lesson, in fact, it amplified it. “Nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.”  The role of a leader is not to be lifted up and glorified, it is to carry a message to those who will listen. And, it is to serve, not be served.