Selfish greedy leaders

Eddie Obeid is a retired politician and convicted criminal, who served as a member of the NSW Legislative Council between 1991 and 2011. In 2016, a jury found Obeid guilty of misconduct in public office. He was sentenced to five years in jail. Then in 2021 he was sentence to 7 years jail for a similar offence. He misused his position as a Member of Parliament to benefit his family’s financial interests. On many occasions he failed to declare a conflict of interest. He was corrupt and dishonest and looked after his interests instead of the people of NSW.

In the Old Testament, King Ahab and Queen Jezebel had Naboth killed and seized his property (1 Ki. 21:19). This was a selfish greedy abuse of power. They looked after their interests instead of the people of the kingdom of Israel.

Similar behavior is seen in the New Testament. The Jewish religious leaders hated Jesus because He was popular with the common people and they were losing control over them. So, they decided to arrest Him as soon as possible and have Him killed by the Romans. They tried to get Him arrested for saying something subversive against Caesar (Lk. 2:19-26).

When that didn’t work Judas told them where they could find Jesus alone so they could take Him without the crowds knowing (Lk. 22:1-6). He was secreted away under the cover of night to the home of the chief priest (Lk. 22:47-54). There He was questioned and beaten throughout the night. This was a violent abduction, a private torture and a backroom deal among the religious elite to protect their own political might.

On the Friday morning they presented Jesus before the Roman authorities with the false charge that He was a political usurper (Lk. 23:1-2). They wanted Jesus dead and they wanted the Romans to be the ones to kill Him. They roused the crowd against Jesus (Mk. 15:11).

Pilate knew the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him purely out of self-interest (Mk. 15:10). He believed Jesus was innocent. Yet out of his own self-interest he went against his wife’s advice and wanted to satisfy the crowd (Mk. 15:15) and handed the innocent over to be tortured and executed (Mt. 27:19-26; Mk. 14:14-15; Lk. 23:1-25). Another leader was dishonest for their own agenda.

The evil that led to Jesus’ death is another example of selfish abuse of power. But the Easter story is unique. As Jesus unjustly suffered, due to corruption, lies, greed, violence, and selfish ambition, He did so willingly.

Jesus was never an unsuspecting victim to the ploys and deceptions of the powerful men who wanted to kill Him. He not only predicted it, He planned for it (Mt. 17:22-23; 20:18-19; 26:2; Mk. 9:30-32; Lk. 9:43-45; Jn. 12:23-27). This is the ultimate plot twist.

It looked like the self-serving leaders had won. Jesus died on a cross. His lifeless body was put in a tomb. But what the religious and political leaders intended for evil, Jesus Christ and God the Father planned and used for the ultimate good. Jesus chose to suffer evil in order to conquer it. His innocent death and suffering was the only worthy sacrifice of atonement for human sin.

This is what Christians celebrate at Easter – Jesus’ death and resurrection is the conquest against death and evil and the means of our forgiveness and eternal life. Jesus is all powerful, all good and all loving – that is the leader we all want.

Prayer

Father God, we thank you for sending Jesus to be the leader we all need. In direct contrast to the leaders who had Him killed, Jesus is a leader who used His power to serve His people. He is the ultimate, loving, giving leader that we long for. Our perfect leader.

We thank you for His sacrificial death that enabled our sin to be forgiven and us to be reconciled with God. And we thank you for His resurrection back to life which was a great victory over death, sin and Satan. Amen

Acknowledgement

This article is based on one from Outreach Media.

Posted, April 2026