The Preparator


"Teach them to expect the unexpected."

Daryl R. Conner (tt)


Renald Hennig

Jesus did not expect to be with them forever, to be able to continually lead the work he had begun himself (82). Consequently, he had to prepare his group for the inevitable.

Much of what he did was to that effect, and some of it has already been mentioned in this treatise. His use of memorable parables for example; the way he organized his followers and gave them leadership besides himself; the network he established that would continue to exist after his departure, though with a very different situation. Most importantly, the way each of them had been moved in a particular and for some of them enduring way.

Two additional features can be found in the record with this preparation focus in mind: He gave an outlook - and rituals to remember.

He gave an outlook: "I am sending you like sheep among wolves." (83)

The modern reader has possibly heard this phrase before, knows some of its context. The disciples though had an image in their mind, when they heard these words. Each of them had seen sheep killed by wolves. It was by no means a pretty sight. And they were to be like the sheep? Jesus didn't fool around with what lay ahead of them, and he was not a follower of the school of positive thinking. It was more "stark realism" that he preferred. This had been a theme of his from the very beginning:

"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me." (84)

This had been during the sermon on the mount, with masses of people around. But by so doing he prepared them for the actual reality of preaching a foreign sounding gospel in a hostile world.

Not all of his preparatory outlook was believed or even understood:

Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them,

"We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!" (82)

They did not only not believe him; they were in fact totally surprised when it did happen. And destroyed, when they saw him crucified.

Well, by the time of the crucifixion only one of the twelve could witness it - all the others had disappeared like a fog in the sun.

But if I may add a personal comment: Somehow I don't think he was surprised about that. And, later on at least, he might have actually smiled about it.

He gave them rituals to remember: The importance of rituals has been mainly lost to the modern world, and in particular the business world. Rituals have not only the power to serve as powerful reminders of realities felt (whether real in fact or not), but they serve as mile stones and bonding opportunities. There is no human life without ritual, may it be as profane as the regular cup of morning coffee.

Jesus wanted them to continually re-remember what his mission and their mission was about; in a way that stimulated much more than just the cerebral cortex.

When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them,

"I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer."

And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying,

"This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you."(85)

What he did was to take something they knew and had deep meaning to them - the Pessah or Passover with its remembrance of the delivery from Egyptian slavery - and gave it an added, hugely enlarged meaning. None of the participants of that occasion would be able to attend a future passover ceremony without thinking of, and feeling, what transpired that very night.

He had prepared them.

Guillory and Galindo (uu) make an interesting remark: "Leaders essentially project themselves into the vision and literally pull the organization into that future reality."

How much of that did Jesus do?

The above mentioned outlook methods can be found in Nevins and Stumpf (vv): "Threaten ego or job security: Significant life events, particularly those that are unexpected and personally threatening, have the ability to create years of learning in only a few moments."

When Jesus told his followers to "take up your cross and follow me" (86) they were vividly reminded of the corpses of dead Jews hanging from the Roman crosses on the way to Jerusalem.

Other authors add different aspects to preparation. Senge's classic "The Fifth Discipline The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization" (ww) states team learning as one of the five disciplines, thereby ensuring a higher learning output as compared to the individual learner - and consequently a better preparation for future problems.

Conner (xx) is more outspoken: "You must be prepared to handle the waves of unrelenting, complex change that flood the market and your business." He then presents an array of ideas of the how to to that point, ranging from "Attend to Human Due Diligence", "Sharpen Your Resilience Skills" to "Allow Workers to Break the Rules When Necessary" and "Experience Is a Powerful Teacher."

Jesus' world was very different from our own. His mission was not a mission of creating share holder or customer value. Still there are principles of leadership independent of time or place, as we are dealing with humans. And it can be argued that humans haven't really changed, after all.


'And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.' (87)


Next: The Renovator