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1.6 TRAINING: MANAGING AMBITION

The Ambitions of the Disciples

In almost all political systems, from the

authoritarian one-party regime of Communist China to the multi-party democratic systems of the West, personal political ambition plays a major part in initiating and sustaining the involvement of those desiring positions and offices of influence. Personal ambition is also frequently present as a driving force among persons desiring positions of influence in religious and charitable organizations.

It should not surprise us therefore to find personal ambition thrusting itself to the fore among Jesus’ band of initial followers. And since Jesus was offering the “kingdom of heaven”—“kingdom” being a political concept and “heaven” being a spiritual one—it should not surprise us that their ambitions were a combination of the spiritual and the political.

On one occasion, for example, we are told that James and John, two of Jesus’ closest and most faithful associates, accompanied by their mother, came to him requesting that they be given key cabinet posts in the future government of the kingdom.72 Needless to say, this open display of ambition by James and John stirred up indignation on the part of the other ten disciples.

On yet another occasion, while they were travelling along the road to Capernaum, the disciples fell to arguing among themselves as to who would be “the greatest” in the future kingdom.73 Apparently, they sensed that this was an unseemly argument among the followers of one who was teaching them to put the interests of others ahead of their own, because they conducted it out of Jesus’ hearing and were embarrassed when he later asked them what they had been quarrelling about.

Even on the sad and dramatic occasion of the Last Supper, when Jesus addressed his disciples for the last time and predicted his own self-sacrificial death, it is recorded that, again, “a dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be the greatest.”74 Ambition—how to advance themselves, how to be the greatest—always seemed to be not far from their minds no matter what the occasion or circumstance.

The Management of Personal Ambition

So how did Jesus deal with personal ambition on the part of his followers? In particular, how did Jesus deal with ambition combined with spiritual motivation—a potentially dangerous mixture and one often found among believers operating at the interface of faith and public life?

Significantly, he did not directly disparage the ambition of the disciples. He did not renounce it as misguided or evil. Rather Jesus sought to redirect their ambition away from the service of self and toward the self-sacrificial service of others. He did so in four ways.

First, he contrasted the route to the top in his kingdom with the politics of power and authority in the kingdoms of this world. This was his reply to James and John when they came to him requesting cabinet posts in his government, and it was his response to the surfacing of political ambitions at the Last Supper. “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them … But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like one who serves.”75

Second, he repeated on each occasion when their unseemly and misdirected ambition surfaced the same maxim, in words that are as piercing and relevant to politically ambitious believers today as when he first spoke them: “Whosoever would be chief among you, let him be your servant.”76 In other words, “You want promotion and advancement in my kingdom? You want to be chief—a leader, a cabinet minister, a first minister? Fine! Then go out and serve better and more self-sacrificially than anybody else.”77

Third, he offered himself and his work as the model of the self-sacrificial service of others that leads to advancement in his kingdom. He told the disciples, “I am among you [not as the Gentile rulers who lord it over others, but] as one who serves.”78 And on the occasion of the Last Supper it was Jesus who assumed the role of the servant, washing his disciples’ feet.

“Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.”79

The Child in the Midst

Fourth, Jesus offered humility as the quality most required to temper spiritually motivated political ambition. But how do you teach humility to the passionately ambitious? Well, watch how Jesus did it.

On each occasion where it is recorded that the disciples quarrelled among themselves as to who would be the greatest, it is also recorded that Jesus did a most unusual thing. He interrupted their quarrelling by bringing a small child into their midst and declaring that until they became like the child in humility, trustfulness, and guilelessness they were not yet fit for service or advancement in his kingdom.80 “Truly I tell you,” he said, “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”81

Implications for Us

It requires a certain amount of ambition to enter and participate in the public arenas of our day. If one is a Christian believer, that ambition may well be mixed with spiritual motivation, such as a desire to bring ethical “salt and light” to the political and public arenas and a genuine desire to serve.

If we are to be guided by Jesus, however, we can be sure that he will constantly redirect our ambition away from the service of ourselves and our party toward the self-sacrificial service of others, as he guided the ambitious among the disciples so long ago.

When I was leader of a Canadian political party and leader of the Official Opposition in our House of Commons, I had a small plaque on my office desk, given to me by one of my daughters, that simply read, “Whosoever would be chief among you, let him be the servant of all.”

Some very ambitious people came to see me during those years, some of whom became cabinet ministers in the government of Canada, one even becoming prime minister. All ended up rendering genuine and substantial public service to the people of Canada, and it is not my intent to disparage that service in any way. But I wonder to this day if their service might have been more effective if I had more strongly encouraged and rewarded those who were willing to pursue the downward route to the top as Jesus did and if I had more faithfully modelled that route myself.

Even today there is merit in employing, at least in our imaginations, the concept of the child in the midst as a means of moderating and tempering environments where partisan ambition to be the first and the greatest is the dominant characteristic.

Imagine the House of Commons during the daily Question Period—a cauldron of mistrust, ambition, and self-aggrandizement if there ever was one. The members of Parliament, egged on by the media, are hurling loaded questions, clever retorts, and assorted insults across the floor as usual, all striving to make the evening news and secure the greatest possible attention and recognition for themselves and their parties.

But what if we were also to imagine that the space between the government and opposition benches was occupied not by the mace and the tables of the house officers but by scores of young children representing more truly than any member of Parliament the future hopes of our country?

How would politicians act in the face of the child in the midst? Would it be the presence and actions of the children that would be incongruous and out of place in the Commons, or would it be the words and actions of the members that would now appear inappropriate and misdirected?

If only we would listen, Jesus of Nazareth has much to teach us—by word, by example, and through the tempering influence of the child in the midst—on the management of ambition.

72 See Matthew 20:20–28; Mark 10:35–45.

73 Mark 9:33–34; Luke 9:46.

74 Luke 22:24.

75 Luke 22:24–29. See also Matthew 20:20–28; Mark 10:35–45.

76 Matthew 20:27 (KJV).

77 No one modelled this “downward route to the top” for us better than Jesus. As the apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians, “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:5–11).

78 Luke 22:27.

79 John 13:12–15.

80 See Matthew 18:1–5; Mark 9:33–37; Luke 9:46–48.

81 Matthew 18:3–4.