A Sinful Leader is a Good Leader

Ezekiel 7:1-9:11
Hebrews 5:1-14
Psalm 105:1-15
Proverbs 26:28


It's interesting to compare the description of what a High Priest should be like with the description of Caiaphas (the high priest who tried Jesus) in the Gospels.  He does not come across as someone who is "able to deal gently with ignorant and wayward people because he himself is subject to the same weaknesses."  Instead of dealing gently with Jesus he is harsh, violent and intolerant of him.  We see in these two images of a high priest two very different visions of what it means to be a leader.


For many people being a leader is about harshly directing from the front, being the person who sets a perfect example and shows that he or she is leader by virtue of being better than everyone else.  And if they are not better then the only thing to do is go and find a new leader who lives up to such exacting standards.


The Bible takes a much more realistic view of human leadership.  Every High Priest in the Old Testament was directed to offer sacrifice for their own sin as well as for the sins of the people.  What this act presumes is that the High Priest will be a man who sins and gets things wrong.  Hebrews actually goes so far as to tell us that this then becomes a positive quality in the High Priest because he can then deal gently with people who go astray because he is prone to the same sins and weaknesses as they are.


We all have to fight against sin and no sin is ever a "good sin" but having an awareness that you are a sinner should generate in you an ability to not only tolerate the sins of others but to be able to deal gently with them.  In the Calvinist branch of the church that I come from there is a much misunderstood doctrine called "Total Depravity" which doesn't mean that everyone is a depraved mindless beast but instead tells us that everyone is broken in sin.  Everyone sins and everyone is so burdened with sin that they themselves can do nothing about it but throw themselves on God's mercy.


I find it very freeing to know that everyone is broken and that even the most pious person you can meet has their own sins that they wrestle with.  It's freeing because it lets me know that I'm not alone but also it is freeing in that when they do something to really annoy or hurt me I can find comfort in the fact that they do this because they, like me, are broken.  I can't fix them but one day God will.