The Dark Saber, The Right To Rule And Servant Leadership

This statue is titled “The Man Who Measures the Clouds”  It’s a golden man holding a giant ruler, which begs the question. What give someone the right to rule? 

In the fictional world of The Mandalorian, the Dark Sabre is seen as conferring the right to lead and unite the clans of Mandalore under one banner. In the real world, political authority is much more complicated. History is replete with attempts to gain, expand, hold on to and seize power. Those struggles usually result in one person or group of people standing triumphantly on top of their golden step ladders with huge rulers in their hands. It usually doesn’t work out so well for the losers. Is there another way? Does the right to rule always come at the expense of everybody else? 

Jesus presents us with a different picture of power. Christians are familiar with the passage from the second chapter of Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi that states,

“at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

​It’s a tough sounding verse, and Christians love to quote it.

Before we rattle our sabers too much, we should look at the context. The great apostle Paul explains that God exalted Jesus because Jesus chose to humble himself, even to the point of becoming a servant. Here is the lead up to those power verses I quoted earlier.

“ 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,[a] 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,[b] 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[c] being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name…” 

This is a different way, and this paradigm is not just a religious fantasy. It works. Jesus was a strong leader. He had thousands of followers that he ministered to personally and through his group of disciples. Jesus also taught that the purpose to leadership was service. When done well, this type of leadership is self perpetuating. People love to follow leaders they trust and who have their followers best interests at heart. That’s why Jesus still commands a vast and growing following today. His ways are different and wonderful. I think that beats following the owner of the Darksaber or striving to ascend a golden step ladder every time.