Fishing for People (1) (Matthew 3:13 – 4:11)

C.S. Lewis made the observation back in the nineteen fifties that in modern times, especially in Britain, there's been a great shift in how we speak about political leaders.

And I think the point has some truth for how we speak about leadership and leaders in general.

He says political leaders, they used to be known as rulers, and now the word is leaders.

And he says in just a small change of vocabulary, there's a deeply significant cultural change about how we think about their authority.

I guess the reason why, if you're anything like me, we kind of cringe at the idea of using that language of rulers for our political leaders is, um, I just really don't like the idea of having a dictator, being under a dictatorship.

Don't like them.

So don't mishear me.

The aim-- my aim today is not to get us to reuse, um, that language for political leaders today.

My point is that these days, I think we think of leaders having less authority over us than years ago than when people would have used that language of ruler.

And I think there's a few more things in the air with how we think of that word leader today.

Now, some of these are, are really, um, quite sensible.

I guess you could see them applied in lots of areas of life, again, from our prime minister to, I don't know, the, the coach at your local sports club or anything like that to work.

Leaders these days are tested, and if they're not up to it, they're replaceable.

We are, after all, on our seventh prime minister in ten years, um, which pretty su-- tells us quite a lot of things, but one of the things it must tell us is that being a leader is really hard.

But one of the kind of things in the undercurrent that probably does to us is just make us think, well, don't get too attached to them.

Perhaps don't take their authority that seriously because in a year's time it might be someone else.

A good leader these days is one who knows how to consult, shape consensus, and lead where the people will follow.

What if I don't like the direction? Do I need to follow? And a leader these days is really one of us rather than an untouchable, uh, destined elite.

So I read an article this week on the Channel Four website about Andy Burnham's very careful aura farming.

That was a new word for me, aura farming.

Uh, they said his social media paints a very deliberate picture.

Let me quote, "Less polished Westminster operator, more bloke from the North who just happens to be running the country." But with all that in the air, how we think about leaders, I'd just like us to pause and consider what kind of a leader do we think of Jesus as? And more specifically, what kind of authority does Jesus have over us? The next three weeks, we're gonna be in Matthew's gospel.

Uh, today, the story is all about the commissioning of Jesus as God's Messiah.

It will show us the kind of leader he is and so the kind of authority he has.

And this point really matters because this Jesus we read in Matthew's gospel makes huge authoritative commands on our lives.