Jesus Loves to Delegate: His Delegates Get Their Feet Wet
Jesus Loves to Delegate: His Delegates Get Their Feet Wet.
God could, if He chose, repair our bodies miraculously without food, or give us food without the aid of framers, bakers and butchers; or knowledge without the aid of learned teachers; or convert the heathen without missionaries. Instead, God allows soils and weather and animals and the muscles, minds and will of humanity to cooperate in the exercise of His will. For He seems to do nothing of Himself which He can possibly delegate to His creatures. He commands us to do slowly and blunderingly what he could do perfectly and in the twinkling of an eye. He allows us to neglect what He would have us do, He allows us to fail. Enabling finite free wills to co-exist with Omnipotence seems to involve at every moment almost a sort of divine abdication.” (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity).
I believe in an almighty God who shares His power. I believe in a Ruler of the universe who happily delegates authority. I believe in an omnipotent Lord who is perfectly willing to share the workload. I believe in a God who delights in welcoming His followers to participate in His miracles. The all-powerful God of the Bible has never wanted to hoard power, He has never developed an insatiable thirst for keeping all the authority to Himself.
The Almighty sharing power… the Sovereign Ruler distributing authority… the unthinkably strong and independent Lord sharing the workload. What does this tell us about the character of our God? The humility of God is astounding, and His wisdom is matchless. Only God could understand how important it is to strengthen and empower the powerless likes us mere mortals. God knows that delegating to us gives us a vote of His confidence in our capabilities; it enables us to develop our giftedness and grow in our abilities; it gives us a stake in His work in the world; it enables us to participate with Him in His miraculous care of His world; it reveals to us that He trusts us to do His assignments; it provides a tangible way for us to experience the satisfaction of accomplishing great things for Him and others; it provides joyful and challenging things to do that is meaningful; it allows us to have part ownership in His plans and actions. God’s plan of delegating authority and sharing His power is the best possible plan for us to mature in the power and authority of Christ.
Like Father, like Son, since Jesus was a perfect delegator Himself. We observe all through the gospels that Jesus excelled in delegation, and He was happy to enjoy the same leadership style as the Father. For all the reasons listed above, Jesus loved to ask his followers to participate in His work and ministry. He enabled His disciples to share responsibilities and take some ownership of God’s mission to extend His Kingdom. If He wasn’t sending them out to heal, preach and cast out demons, He was asking the friends of Lazarus to roll way the stone of his grave. If He wasn’t telling Peter to go fishing for the Temple tax with his fishing pole, He was asking those nearby the risen Lazarus to unbind his grave clothes. Sometimes Jesus would assign the disciples the task of finding some lunch in a nearby village, while another time it appears He wanted his disciples to do the work of multiplying the fish and bread out in the middle of nowhere. Jesus asked the servants at the Cana wedding to fill up all those water jars, while another time He politely asked a couple of disciples to “go fetch” the donkey for His triumphant ride into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. He seemed to especially enjoy giving orders to His fishermen friends, directing them to cast their nets on the other side of the boat or go out deeper into the water. Jesus loved to share the workload with His followers, for their betterment, for the sense of partnership, and for whatever needed to be done.
“The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but His disciples. When the Lord learned of this, He left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.” (John 4:1-2).
A Delegate (noun) = A person who has been assigned a duty or responsibility and given the power and authority to act on behalf of someone; a representative; an agent to whom something was delegated.
Here we find Jesus, early in His ministry no less, delegating something very important to His disciples. They are all together in the Jordan River, baptizing new converts into the cleansing of the Messiah. One might ask, Did His disciples even know what they were doing? On the one hand, these disciples were brand new in their relationship with Jesus. So in some ways they didn’t know the importance of what they were doing. They were trusting Jesus that this was the right and proper thing to do as they followed Him. No doubt they figured that baptizing new converts must be significant, or else Jesus wouldn’t bother asking them to do it. On the other hand, they knew enough to proceed obeying Him. We can safely assume that Jesus had instructed and empowered them to continue in the Jewish tradition of bathing, getting cleansed by God, to prepare for a life of following Him. It appears that this wasn’t the first time, though, according to John 3:22, “After this, Jesus and His disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where He spent some time with them, and baptized.”
A good question here might be… What might have Jesus been thinking as He asked His young disciples to baptize? And why did Jesus stop these baptisms after such a short time? This has been discussed many times by others way more qualified than me to read Jesus’ mind. Here are some of the possible reasons:
… It would appear almost downright silly for Jesus to baptize others in the name of Himself;
… There are suggestions that Jesus stopped His disciples from baptizing more, because He didn’t want to compete with John the Baptist’s prophetic task of baptizing others as he prepared the way for the Messiah;
… Maybe He left the baptizing to John because the River would be too crowded for his ministry, if there was too much of a crowd doing the baptizing;
… Paul commented on the apparent competition that might ensue if being baptized by Jesus became a bragging point. Imagine the one-upsmanship that might happen if new converts began bragging that they were baptized by Jesus Himself, instead of one of His followers, as if that were some point of special honor (1 Corinthians 1:12-15);
… Jesus delegated baptisms early on because He wanted to give a vote of confidence to His new disciples, to show that He believed in them to the degree that He wanted them to have direct participation in His ministry;
… Perhaps Jesus wanted to reveal that He would not baptize by water, but the Holy Spirit (John 1:33 and Mark 1:8);
… Maybe Jesus wanted to give His disciples some practical experience in the baptism business, since only Jesus knew that after He was gone, the disciples would be called upon to baptize thousands.
… Jesus wanted to share His power and distribute His authority to strengthen the faith of His disciples and provide them with a sense of ownership in His ministry;
… Jesus thought it wise at this point that His disciples “get their feet,” so to speak, and start to become more comfortable and confident when taking part in what He wanted to do in His mission of extending the Kingdom.
This scene is a case study for why Jesus thought it so important that He engage in the ministry of delegation.