(Mel Brooks- a comedian)
The above quote is a paraphrase of Jesus’ saying:
“For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mt 16:26 NKJV)
In our context we can paraphrase it farther; “what will it benefit a politician if he gains political power and then there is The Hague?” Though this should be taken with some sense of humor it is important to reflect the course that we take in life. Reflect on what our values in life are. According to Jesus there are things we hold dear in life that if critically considered should never be our first priority. Fame, money and power should never take the center stage in our lives, because they are not permanent. You can lose all these in a minute. What is happening in the Arab world can be summarized in one line “power is not permanent, though you exercise it for years one day you will lose it.”
We are most deceived if we fall for the glamour of power/fame and money and join in search for them without considering the higher goal or responsibility for which power/fame and money are given. Jesus seeks to bring our search into the true perspective. If we seek money and power as an end in itself we will end up as a disappointment or disappointed. We will learn when it’s too late that it is not enough to be rich or powerful, you need to be so the right way and for the right reasons.
Greed for money and power drive people into corruption and even violence to protect their loot. If greed consume leaders they may go to the next level where they either structure corruption or violence to make sure their interests are covered. Great nations and companies fall because those in positions of power are only interested in themselves. They ignore any wise counsel and exclude those that disagree with them to make sure there desires are met.
Why do leaders cling to power until they are removed by force or end up undoing the good they had done? Countries’, Political Parties’, Societies’ and even churches’ constitutions are changed not on matters of principle, national/public or kingdom interest but to favor an individual who is power hungry. It is self deception to think ourselves indispensable and if this be our mentality we are headed for a big crash. We major on minors and minor on majors, our lives becomes a disarray of mixed priorities. We look smart but are as Jesus said foolish (Luke12:13-21) and when called upon to answer the most important call—of eternal significance—we are found wanting.
Jesus second question carries a lot of weight, “what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” When Jesus spoke thus to his disciples he wanted to stretch their perspective from one that is myopic to one that sees far, one that has its priorities right. He wanted them to see the ultimate so that they won’t be enslaved by the immediate.
His message was that the disciples were not to worry about the same things that worry other people. If the greatness of a man as someone has said is determined by the course he lives for and the price he is willing to pay to achieve it, then the disciples were indeed very great people. They were carriers of a great deposit more than all the gold that could ever be mined on earth. Their message had the ability to turn men away from hell to a life of eternal bliss in heaven. They had to commit fully to this course in order to help humanity not be ensnared by the temporary things of this world, things that we see and enjoy which have no value for eternity.
Like the true north, Jesus focuses our compass so that he can empower us to say no to the minor things and yes to the major ones, say no to the temporal in order to embrace the eternal. Without Jesus and an eschatological perspective men are caught up by the web of their own greed that greatly hinders their potential and service to fellow man. They will spend their entire life running on empty and without an exit plan. When they finally find the door marked exit, they are shocked by it because they were never prepared for it.
Jesus teachings are quite relevant today. People who have succeeded as leaders and who have brought significant difference to their own people are those that came into leadership to serve people not to gain something or prove themselves. They did whatever they did knowing that their time was limited. They had an exit plan and wanted to exit honorably. They surrounded themselves with honorable people and crafted honorable policies to establish and not to destroy. They left a good legacy because they were willing to give nothing in exchange for their integrity because integrity is the only thing that we can carry with us beyond this life. They knew it before they got into leadership and they practiced and retained it beyond their tenure because to them integrity was too expensive to trade it for anything else. Integrity was their very life.
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