I take the ecclesio-philosophical risk to scan the Mission of John The Baptist in relation to Jesus’ Mission. Philosophically, with all the amplification of the message of John as the trail blazer for Jesus, the argument abounds in my mind whether John fully understood Jesus’ mission by asking “…art thou he thou should come, or do we look for another?”(AKJV Mtt. 11:2-3). On the basis of this mind bugging thought, I am asking, whether you too, as a follower of a political leader, understand your leader’s intentional mission?
What is a mission? Generally, a mission is a specific task with which a person or group is charged (Merriam-Webster Thesaurus 2005). On a more technical note, to securitize the same word, a mission is an operation that is assigned by a higher headquarters. The effective implementation of a mission, must be preceded by a ‘mission brief’, which is used under operational conditions to impart information or to give specific instructions for accomplishment of the mission. Lest I forget, it is significant to understand, as well, the commander’s intent (what a successful mission will look like in its end state) in the execution of a mission.
The biblical account is told about John shouting to make straight the path for the coming Jesus Christ. But later on John is thrown into prison and Jesus is not bothered but instead He departed into Galilee (Mtt. 4:12). From the human stand point, it is assumed that John was eclipsed by frustration for two reasons: first, John might have expected a coming King with a preponderance of power capable of subduing all other powers and second, John might have felt abandoned by someone whom he has advocated for his coming and personally baptized. Assumedly, John’s frustration level grew to the extent as expressed in these verses: “And when John had heard in prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said unto him, Art thou he thou should come, or do we look for another?”(AKJV Mtt. 11:2-3). This discourse by John clearly expresses, again, on the margin of assumption, that John did not receive a full mission brief about Jesus’ mission, and therefore could not derive and interpret the “commander’s (Jesus) intent”. How does the narrative about John transcend our own cultural, historical and political realities? Have you understood the mission of those persons for whom you are advocating, agitating or pitching their causes come 2023? This is the submission of this essay.
Scanning our Cultural and Political Environment:
In 2017, Liberians made conscious democratic decisions and elected their national leaders at the level of the legislature (Senators and Representatives) and executive (President and Vice President). Intermittently along the path of democratization, Liberians elected people during the mid-term senatorial and by-elections. The stakes are high as Liberians pace towards 2023. A new breed of political leaders are emerging while the ruling elites are determined to cling on to power. I’m raising the empirical query, from where have you build your whiff of inspiration to trust your future into the hands of people whom you see as your political leaders or strong deliverers over time? Have you gotten a missional brief from this person whose horn you are touting? Have you understood the intent of this political leader as either national, institutional or selfish? What about the character of this your political leader? Is he/she assessed to be a periodic or pseudo-political philanthropist? Could he/she be someone who pretends to have the panacea to all individual and national problems combined? Is the one you are trusting with your future an egomania-someone who is extremely self-centered and ignores the problems and concerns of others? Do you know your political leader as someone who has shifty dealings and seasonal character or a person who maintains a consistent pattern of integrity? Check a little further to confirm whether your political leader is someone who loves to see others within the realm of people described by Professor Paul Collier as the “bottom billion”. In this category, your political leader would be someone who wants to see you live on strategic and seasonal handouts. Under such a scheme, I’ve seen the emergence of a new class of citizens-“the alms receiving constituency for all politicians.” And history has vindicated our assertion that most of the “periodic and political philanthropists recede into what I call economic and political obscurity’ following their ‘political jamboree’.
The way forward:
Class system, military coup d’état, tribalism and finally the asymmetric or revolutionary war, all failed the nation. Instead, in the words of Professor Amos Sawyer, we saw that “[t]he…growing centralization and personalization of power only served to nurture the African State as a’ Leviathan’, often autocratic and sometimes predatory and despotic”(Governance & Decentralization, p.96). For two hundred years of nationhood, we are yet to live up to our own hype on development as a nation.
I wonder why people are so fast to assimilate into a political renaissance they seem not to understand. Like the biblical John the Baptist, you are yet to understand the mission of your political leader. In 2023, the decision to elect or re-elect rational leaders to manage our nation reverts to the eligible voters. The quality of such decision produces the quality of leaders to whom you are about to surrender your nation and future. Whether that person has moral deficit, whether that person swims in a pool of economic woes and needs recovery at the expense of the national coffers; whether that person is a reward seeking philanthropist with shredded intent; whether that person is someone who strives to gain economic and social dividends from pleasurable lost past, the decision rests with the electorates. How does the governance promise made to you give reliability about other future promises?
I now close with the beginning of the Aaronic Benediction from the Bible “May the lord bless you and keep you”, so that you may insist on first understanding the mission and clear intent of your political leader as we gallop towards 2023. Anything short of scrutiny, like the Biblical John the Baptist, who, out of frustration sent disciples to find out whether Jesus was one they expected or another person was to come, you may stand in bewilderment, asking similarly, “Is this the political leader in whom my hope was anchored to transform the economic miseries of my country or should I look out for another to come?”