We don’t need hypermasculine world leaders. We need ones who lead like Jesus

We seem to have returned to an age where might is right, where military strength and domination are perceived to be the ways in which global leadership is asserted. Within much of the discussions and actions taken by leaders over the past few years – from Putin’s war in Ukraine to the Israel-Gaza war to strikes on Iran and the subsequent war in the Middle East – we see a pointing towards forms of power that are hypermasculine. Or at least that point towards the dominant perceptions of what it is to be masculine.

The person of Jesus offers us all a completely new and different way of being human

The Americans named their intervention in Iran ‘Operation Epic Fury’, with Pete Hegseth, the US secretary of war, declaring “death and destruction from the skies all day long” and boasting that the Iranian regime “are toast”. For Hegseth and his colleagues, many of whom express a faith in Jesus Christ, I wonder what image they have of what it means to be a man like Jesus.

Jesus meek and mild

I have long been fascinated with the fact that Warner Sallman’s 1940 painting Head of Christ is one of the most popular images of Jesus there is. The image depicts a soft and contemplative, blue-eyed, white-skinned Jesus in the style of an American high school yearbook photo. Reproduced more than half a billion times worldwide by the end of the 20th century, one of the things I find most fascinating is that it was distributed by organisations like the Salvation Army and the YMCA during the second world war. For writer Lynn Neal, Head of Christ was one of the popular evangelical images and highlighted “the salvific power of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, as well as how he experienced the sufferings of humanity while remaining without sin”.

I have critiqued the dominance of this image because of its portrayal of Jesus as white (when He wasn’t), but what I appreciate about it in this moment of militarism, overt displays of brute strength and dominance, is that it is a gracious and humble depiction of Christ. This is not the Jesus of Operation Epic Fury, but gentle Jesus, meek and mild. And in this context, I don’t mind it.

A different type of man

The truth, of course, is that Jesus does not fit into any of these boxes. The person of Jesus offers us all a completely new and different way of being human. This Easter, many of us will read again the stories of the Passion, including the moment in which Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate and the crowds. In this crucial moment, we see Pilate saying the famous words: “Behold the man” (John 19:5, ESV).

This is not the Jesus of Operation Epic Fury, but gentle Jesus, meek and mild

This bruised and vulnerable Jesus is the one who offers us a vision of manhood and humanity that runs counter to the dominant narratives we have in our society. Instead of brute strength and dominance, we find sacrificial servanthood. Instead of violence, we find gentleness. Instead of hatred, we find a love that’s poured out for all.

As the mother of two boys, I want to raise men that know they are so indescribably loved. So loved that they are secure in who they are, and who God has created them to be. So loved that they break down barriers between people, rather than build walls. So loved that they choose to love others, just as Christ loved them.