Jude on Leadership - Jude vv. 12, 13, 19, 20

Jude verses 12 and 13 and verses 19 and 20 – Jude is referring to dodgy leaders and the negative impact they can have and encouraging his readers to take a different track, and he writes:

These people are a danger at your love-feasts with their shameless carousals. They are shepherds who take care only of themselves. They are clouds carried along by a wind without giving rain, trees fruitless in autumn, dead twice over and pulled up by the roots. They are wild sea waves, foaming with disgraceful deeds; they are stars that have wandered from their courses, and the place reserved for them is an eternity of blackest darkness. ...... These people create divisions; they are worldly and unspiritual. But you, my friends, must make your most sacred faith the foundation of your lives. Continue to pray in the power of the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God, and look forward to the day when our Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy will give eternal life.

Jude is concerned about there being right leadership within the church. That’s why he bothers to scribble this note.

Here, in verses 12 and 13, we have that kind of scenario which I am sure we have all sometimes used of taking the negative approach. We say something like – well, the easiest way I can explain things is to tell you how it shouldn’t be. Jude here uses images of disordered or useless natural phenomena to press home his argument. If we were to look at the whole letter, we would see Jude moving from depicting his opponents as misguided human who rely on dreams to describing them as irrational animals – “brute beasts” – and now they exhibit the chaotic behaviour of some parts of the natural world. They are like clouds without rain, like waves that drive foam up on shore. Jude here grabs five such images and uses them to describe what leadership should not be.

First, they are described as shepherds who take care only of themselves. There is an element of brazen rejection of what should be here. They are not shepherding the sheep. They are shepherding themselves. Shepherds frequently provide a Biblical image of leadership. The shepherd models the care and investment that the leader must make for the nurture and growth of the followers. But this lot corrupt the image by being out only for themselves. Leadership is about influence and service.

The second image is equally potent – clouds carried along by a wind without giving rain. Travellers in the Middle East are often exasperated by heavy clouds which fail to produce rain and serve only to increase the excessive heat. The suggestion is that these leaders are all show and no substance. Leadership is about vision. It is about what we are going to be doing tomorrow. It’s about hope.

The third image is of trees fruitless in autumn, dead twice over and pulled up by the roots. Trees without roots are absolutely useless. They are never going to produce fruit. This again focuses on the results we might expect – but it’s not a good picture. It’s a picture of failure. Leadership should produce growth. In commercial terms, there should be a product.

Fourthly, Jude identifies this useless lot as wild sea waves, foaming with disgraceful deeds. When I lived in Panama I once ended up in a small boat in a storm being tossed around. Not an experience I would seek out. Scraps of debris collect and are cast up by the foam on the shore. It’s a picture of unharnessed power. Leadership is about power – but good leadership uses that power to produce and enhance good relationships.

And then the fifth of these images is of stars that have wandered from their courses. Ancient thought recognised that the planets moved, but they did so in set and fixed patterns. Comets and meteorites were rather terrifying phenomena, apparently out of control. Leaders can be like shooting stars, streaking on to the scene with flash and excitement, but quickly fading and disappearing. Quick fix leadership doesn’t really do what’s necessary. Leadership needs to be about accountability and dependability.