The reader of the Gospel of Mark must mark the stark contrast between Jesus’ view of His kingdom and that of His immediate disciples. While Jesus descends from the throne to the cross, His disciples only imagine their comfortable ascension to their thrones.

Notice that every time Jesus reiterated His impending death to them (Mk. 8:31; 9:30-32; 10:32-34), they always were busy arguing about who is superior among them (8:32-38; 9:33-37; 10:35-45).

Mark intentionally places Jesus’ death predictions just before the disciples’ preoccupation with superiority and greatness and wealth. In so doing, he paints a picture of the kingdom-minded Master with His earthly-minded disciples. Mark shows us how Christ inaugurated an upside-down kingdom that wrongfoots all those whose definitions of power and prosperity are earth-bound.

The message of the cross is that God’s power is wrapped in human weakness, and His wisdom is revealed in what men consider foolishness. That is why many missed the kingdom then, and why we may miss it now.

Mbonye’s Misconception of God’s Power

I watched the interview in disbelief. I mean the one Solomon Sserwanja posted. The pomp, the air, and the high sense of self. And as I watched, I couldn’t help but think of the disciples in Mark, before pain plundered their pride and sucked their self-importance. I thought of me too.

In the interview, I noticed how Mr Mbonye’s understanding of discipleship – if such exists in his world – is devoid of death. I saw how his definition of power has no category for weakness, sacrifice, or suffering. His view of authority is akin to Caesar’s rather than Christ’s. For, when God walked this earth in the Person of Jesus, He demonstrated His authority, not through a show of power as the world understands it, but through feebleness, death, and pain. God walked this earth, and yet many hardly noticed. He demonstrated His powerfulness by laying down His life, conquering through the death of the cross. And that is the upside-down Christian message.

But while Mbonye boasts in his mystical visits to the stars of heaven, he misses the scars in Jesus’ hands. His strategic silence about the implications of Calvary to the discipleship journey suggests he is yet to see Jesus’ nail-pierced feet. Indeed, his message flees Luke 9:23 like a plague, hiding from any talk of self-mortification. Thus, his prophecies, however accurate they may be, devoid of the cross, they, miss Christ.

Mbonye defines power as the world does. He thus misses God’s work in the world through the ‘weak’ Church. For, as he said in this interview, when he looked around the Church, he found no power. But in this way, also the Jews missed their God, after rejecting He who hung on a tree. Their messianic expectation was for a conqueror of the Romans. Instead, God came and died a criminal’s death at the hands of those whom they expected He would conquer.

And to be sure, He conquered. Not as the Jews expected, of course. It is then that He redefined what it means to demonstrate power: laying down our lives for the least. And as it turned out, this was folly to the Greeks and a stumbling block to the Jews (1 Cor. 1:23).

God is so at work in and through the weaknesses of many that those whose framework excludes frailty miss Him entirely, as His power ‘is made perfect in weakness’ (2 Cor 12:9).

Spiritual Leaders: Servants or Superiors?

“…For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve’ (Mk. 10:45).

A spirit of servanthood marked Jesus’ life and remains the only proper disposition of Christ’s slaves. Jesus’ followers lie low. They wash people’s feet rather than sit on cushioned chairs to receive feet kisses. They think and speak less about themselves. As servants of others, they refuse and diffuse any sense of superiority or self-importance. For, a high view of self often indicates a low concept of God. Their attitude and approach to life and leadership starkly differ from secular ideals (Lk. 22:24-27).

As such, I watched as Mbonye justified people kissing his shoes and bowing to him. I watched him misquote Scriptures while accusing others of being ignorant about them. I saw him citing 2 Kings 2:15 while paying no attention to its historical-cultural context. For if he had, he would have noticed how in the Ancient Near Eastern World’s monarchical setting, subjects bowed to express reverence to superiors. That was their culture. Mbonye would have known that we do not get a theological ‘ought’ from ancient cultural practice.

Superiority ought not to be the disposition of the servant of Christ. As we saw, God’s way is a descent to servanthood, before an ascent to the seat of glory. ‘Let the greatest among you become as the youngest and the leader as one who serves’ (Lk 22:26). Yet, Mbonye thinks that ‘in spiritual matters what you reverence works for you.’ Could it be, however, that God’s Word, and not subjective pragmatism, is our only spiritual guide?

Could our ‘good intentions’ make a wrong action right, as Mbonye suggested in the interview? I do not think so.

But all these issues come from a lack of understanding of the upside-down kingdom model of service that Christ demonstrated. The only feet worthy of our kisses are those of the Son (Ps 2:12). And we kiss them because those scars testify of the nail-bought redemption.

We cannot be followers of the crucified Lord by choosing the way of the world, devoid of death. We have no honour from God if we seek it from men. I think Mbonye misses God’s power by not finding it in weakness. By avoiding the painful road to Calvary, he leads many on the broadway–to destruction.

‘I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me’ (2 Cor. 12:9).