How Did Jesus Use Incentives?

The following post is courtesy of Bill Higgins. You have probably read a couple of his posts here before. This post is the third of a three-part series about leadership and motivation through the use of incentives. There is more information about Bill at the end of this post.

Coming from a Christian perspective you have to ask – are incentives just a human engineering invention or did Christ demonstrate the principles when He walked the earth? Did Christ treat people differently as individuals, or was His a cookie cutter incentive plan? Did He also use tangible incentives to help motivate people to believe, follow Him, and commit to His way of life?

Valuing Individuals

The first post in this series focused on the need to value and empower individuals; to encourage them to make their unique contribution to the team. These few examples show how Jesus valued people:

• Christ and Peter: Peter, the one with foot in mouth disease, yet the one the Lord said would be the foundation of the church (Matthew 16:18). Peter, the one who denied the Lord shortly before His death, yet the one whose name Christ changed from Simon (meaning little stone) to Peter (meaning unmovable rock)(John 1:42). Peter, the one that did not want the Lord to wash his feet, yet the one Christ had walk on water and lead the ministry to the Jews.

• Christ and Mary: In John 12:1-8 Mary bathed Jesus’ feet with costly perfume and was criticized because it was not sold and the money given to the poor, but Jesus affirms her choice as a tribute to His time on earth. In Luke 10:38-42 Jesus is visiting Mary and Martha’s home and Mary chose to worship Jesus while Martha criticizes her for not helping serve, but again Jesus affirms Mary’s choice as the one thing that’s really important.

• Christ and Zaccheus: Zaccheus was a small man as recorded in Luke 19:1-10, not only in stature but also by cultural standards. He was a Jewish tax collector, and an outcast from society because of his occupation, where most tax collectors were known to be thieves as well, and from his Jewish heritage because he worked for the Roman government to extort taxes from his fellow Jews.

  The one thing he probably wanted more than anything was acceptance. Then this Jewish celebrity named Jesus comes into town, and the road He travelled was packed by those wanting to see Him. So Zaccheus climbs a tree for a better view and Jesus calls out that He wants to have lunch with him. That was probably the most valuing thing He could have done for Zaccheus; include him in a very public way when others shut him out.

Yes, Jesus valued people for who they were and for who they could become. We need to catch some of that vision for the people we work with.

Individual Treatment

The second post focused on the need for incentives that were designed for the individual. But did Jesus incent individuals differently, or did He treat them pretty much all the same? While we have only a very small part of the dialog Christ actually had with individuals, what we do have will provide insight on this question.

• Christ and Peter: The dialog Christ had with Peter was blunt, bottom-line, and straight forward. With the exception of the dialog Christ had with religious teachers, He had no more forceful exchange than with Peter. When he says to Peter, “Get thee behind me, Satan,” in Matthew 16:23 He wasn’t just saying that for effect. He communicated with Peter in a way he would hear and understand.

  When He also said to Peter, “Upon this rock I will build my church,” it was for the same reason. Peter had tons of potential, but he also had a lot of rough edges. Peter wasn’t sophisticated, so Christ’s communication with him wasn’t sophisticated, and yet He showed him true love and a vision for what he could be.

• Christ and the rich young ruler: Here was sophisticated businessman, used to being rewarded for his effort and energy. He recognized his spiritual need, but approached it as a business transaction. In Matthew 19:16-22 Christ met him where he was, but moved the transaction from a business dealing to a relationship.

  When He said, “Go sell all you have and come and follow Me,” these two commands got to the young man’s essence. He had great wealth, and he was used to being his own boss. Christ spoke to him in his language, business, and reached him in his need, a relationship with Himself.

• Christ and James and John: While they were referred to as the “sons of thunder” because of their fiery temperament, they must also have been somewhat lacking in self-esteem and assertiveness. It was their mother that asked that for her sons to sit on Christ’s right hand (Matthew 20:20-23).

And how did Christ relate to them? James and John were fishermen like Peter, but their father was a wealthy fishermen. They would inherit the business but Jesus called them to serve, and related to them as a father.

John especially had a greater capacity to love and be loved, and Christ responded to Him in love. The Bible repeatedly refers to John as the one Christ loved. He asks John to care for His mother when He’s dying. John reclines on Jesus at the last supper. There was intimacy there.

Each of these individuals was treated as an individual. Christ addressed them at their point of need, and in began building them into what He saw they could be. That is repeated throughout the New Testament. Thankfully He still does that today. He relates to each one of us individually, where we are, who we are, and builds us into what He alone sees that we can be.

That is true incentivizing; giving a vision for what a person can be and then providing the resources for them to be able to pursue that. We need to catch the same vision for the ones we work with.

Christ’s Tangible Incentives

When it comes to tangible incentives, He did promise to start a new ‘kingdom’ and that the disciples would play a significant role. That could be seen as a tangible incentive, even though what they understood and what He promised were worlds apart.

He did say that if they had even a little faith they could do more than He did. Then he went on to feed crowds with small lunches, pluck money from a fish to pay His taxes, and turn ordinary water into fine wine. Those could be seen as tangible incentives, but He had so much more in mind.
The true incentives He used targeted people’s deeper needs, and in so doing He won their loyalty and their trust:

• The woman at the well: Jesus incented her with respect and acceptance. – John 4:7ff

• Nicodemus: Jesus incented him with fulfilling his quest for truth. – John 3:1ff

• The royal official: Jesus incented him by healing his son from while a ways off. – John 4:46ff

• The woman in adultery: Jesus incented her with recognition, acceptance, and a vision for her life. – John 8:1ff

And the list could go on. Wherever He went, He touched people’s lives and changed them forever by incenting them in ways to spur them to greater things.

While Christ did not use tangible incentives as we think of them, His focus on meeting the deeper needs of people would imply that incentives can touch something deeper in an individual’s inner being. Yet, He also demonstrated the place of tangible incentives by feeding the hungry, providing for the poor, and contributing to a festive wedding celebration. In these He shows us that emotional needs satisfied by tangible incentives inspire greater motivation.

Bottom line, Christ met needs in a manner appropriate to the situation, and related to individuals in a manner consistent with their personality and the way God made them. Can we do any less with the people we work with?

SMART Incentives

To be practical, and for incentives to be most effective, they need to be:

• Specific – the incentive should be tied to specific acts of behavior so that the recipient knows what it is being given for.

• Meaningful – incentives need to be tailored to the individual, reflect company/program values and the cost of the reward should be relative to size of the act for which recognition is being given.

• Achievable – the incentive should be something that each individual has the capability of achieving, and not awarded on a competitive basis.

• Reliable – the measures and decision criteria by which the incentives are given need to be clear and specific so that individuals know why something is being incented and what they have to do to achieve the incentive.

• Timely – the incentive should be given close in time to the specific act for which reward is given.

About the Author:

BILL HIGGINS is currently the Managing Director of MindWare Incorporated, an independent training and career coaching consulting firm. He previously served on the pastoral staff of churches in the U.S. and Canada, and worked in a managerial capacity for industry leading organizations.

Bill is a graduate of Biola University and Talbot Theological Seminary and his book; Your Road to Damascus: 6 Biblical Secrets for an Effective Job Search is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and MindWare Publishing websites.