Christmas is a holiday here in the states that I have mixed emotions about. On one level I love it especially because of the meaning behind it which we will explore a little more in a moment. I love the time with family and watching my children get excited. I enjoy the overall intended spirit of kindness, generosity and caring. In all honesty though I do get a bit cynical because of the consumerism that arises and the challenges that come with that aspect.
What does this holiday teach us about leadership? In this brief post I cannot go into all the great lessons we can learn, but I want to look at the Christmas story and highlight a few leadership lessons we can learn.
Whether you believe the Biblical account to be truth or a story we can all gain from what we see in the account of the birth of Jesus Christ. As I look at this account I see a courageous leader and a cowardly leader. Two men who do not know each other demonstrate the two extremes of courage.
Joseph. If you are not familiar with the story he is engaged to be married to Mary, but then finds out his wife is pregnant. As you can imagine this is quite disturbing to learn because it looks like he was with her before marriage which would bring extreme shame to him and his family. The reality was actually different than what people thought.
In the Bible in Matthew 1:18-21 it says Joseph wanted to do the right thing so he was thinking he would quietly divorce Mary, but God had a different idea. He said (this is my translation) “Um, Joe, no. This baby came from the Holy Spirit. You will have a son and name him Jesus.”
So what does this have to do with leadership? As a leader in an organization or your family you may have to make intuitive decisions. These are decisions based on a gut instinct which may have some factual information backing them, but also require courage. This was exactly what Joseph had to do. Joseph had to put his faith into action and courageously lead. Instead of leaving he had to have the courage to stay and love his new wife and raise this child.
King Herod. Now there was another man during this same time whose leadership influence was much broader than Joseph the carpenter. Herod was the Roman ruler over Judea at the time which we now know as a part of Israel. He learned a story that out of Bethlehem would come a ruler over the people of Israel. When the Magi informed him this king was about to be born his authority was threatened and he was afraid so he asked the Magi let him know of the child’s exact location when they returned.
Now the Magi had a sense of Herod’s intention to murder the child so they did not return. In Matthew 2:16 we learn that after he realized the Magi were not going to tell him he “was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under.” This response demonstrates the exact opposite of Joseph.
Herod heard something he did not want to hear and in his fear he acted cowardly instead of courageously. As a leader he could have said I will meet the family of this new “king” and develop a relationship and we can rule together. This response would take both courage and humility because when a new leader arises people want to protect their territory. But Herod tried to remove this threat through violent means.
I know it feels easier for me to protect my territory when my leadership is threatened and I am scared to enter into the unknown and trust like Joseph did. What kind of leader are you when you get news that you may not want to hear? Do you courageously, with faith, move in the direction you think you should go? Are you like Herod and stubbornly, with fear, resist this news and try to keep everything from changing by manipulating the situation? Sometimes you need someone to come alongside you to help you in the process . . . but I will talk about that next time. May you lead courageously at home and work this holiday season.
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