Caught in the Act

One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” Mark 2: 23- 27

Notice how the Pharisees have to gone to such lengths as to follow Jesus around just so they could find fault with Him. They desperately wanted to catch Him doing wrong so they would have something to build a case on and discredit all the miraculous things He did. To their utter disappointment, they couldn’t see anything wrong with Him so they began attacking the lifestyle of His disciples.

Same thing goes for insecure people. They focus more on the weaknesses of others than on their strengths. They are quick to find fault but when something good is done, they never say a word of appreciation. They’d rather catch you doing wrong than doing right and when they do, they make sure they say it out as nastily as they can.

When they can’t find anything wrong with you, they’ll pick on the people you associate with. The worst thing is that they do it under the pretense that they are concerned about you. In reality, they’re loud, obnoxious, mean and they drain the life out of you. As much as possible, stay away from them!

Jesus had his fair share of people who hounded His steps, not because they loved to hear what He had to say but because they were so insecure about the momentum of Jesus’ ministry in ancient Israel. You know what Jesus did to them? He called them on their pretenses by directly quoting the truth in the Scriptures. No He didn’t try to argue, it would have been pointless. He let the Scriptures spoke and said no more. That left them dumbfounded and speechless.

The Killing Spree

One of the often forgotten part of the Christmas story is the massacre of children in Bethlehem shortly after Jesus was born. Herod heard of the birth of Christ from the wise men and in a brutish act to protect his position of power in Israel, he ordered the murder of all the young boys in all of Bethlehem to get rid of Jesus. He was too late though. By the time this atrocity was committed, Joseph was already transporting Mary and Jesus to Egypt.

What happened was a classic example of how much damage insecurity can cause in leadership. Herod was threatened by the rumors of a leader who was supposed to deliver Israel from oppression. He ordered the slaughter of countless children just to eliminate one particular boy who won’t definitely be doing anything political in at least twenty years.

Insecurity is a terrible driving force in a leader’s life. When one stops acting like a leader and starts chasing after his rivals, real or fancied, that person’s leadership is obviously in decline.