Divine Discipleship Descriptors

22nd Sunday after Pentecost, Mark 10:35-45


Divine Discipleship Descriptors
I. An attitude of humility
II. A willingness to suffer
III. A desire to serve others


You probably don’t notice them, but they abound in your every-day life. In fact, you depend on them countless times every day. I’m talking about descriptors. Descriptors are words or data that identify.

By federal law you’ll find them on every package of processed food that you ingest. The descriptors identify exactly what that package contains. And the descriptors in the nutrition table help you determine just how healthy this food item is for you.

Likewise, descriptors are found on every bottle or package of over-the-counter medication. Those words identify which chemicals you’re about to use and their potency. That information is critical to your health and wellbeing. Too much of the right chemical can be hazardous to your health. Too little of the right chemical and you won’t achieve the desired effect.

The next time I write a computer code will be the first for me, so I’m no expert in the field by any means, but I’ve read that descriptors are critical to the success of computer software. Those descriptors enable the program to sort and use the data so that the user achieves the desired outcome.

Accurate descriptors are necessary in the hiring process. The employer wants the open position to be described as well as possible so that only the most qualified people apply. And when the applicant submits a resume, he or she has likely taken great pains to list accurate descriptors about their education and employment experiences.

Since descriptors play such a prominent and critical role in our daily lives, should it come as any surprise that our Lord Jesus uses them when it comes to our lives in service to him? How can we know what he expects of us as his followers unless he describes it? How can we know what the position entails unless he informs us? And how can we measure how well we’re doing as his followers? Are we aimlessly wondering in our daily discipleship or are we hitting the mark? What does Jesus expect out of you each day? Love for Jesus fills us with the desire to follow him, but just what does that look like?

Those are good questions. And Jesus doesn’t leave them unanswered. This morning’s text from Mark chapter 10 contains divine discipleship descriptors. Let’s see what they are and may love for Jesus empower us to attain them.

Part I.

There are few things more insufferable than an egotist. Just being in the same room with one is hard enough; having a conversation with one is brutal. It’s always all about him or her. How did this person get the impression that the world revolves around him? If you can get past the temptation to loath him, you might be able to pity him. He could be such a wonderful person if he would just shed the ego.

Listen to the ego on display in today’s text. “Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. ‘Teacher,’ they said, ‘we want you to do for us whatever we ask.’ ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ he asked. They replied, ‘Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.’” So, how did James and John come to think more highly of themselves than they should have? The Bible doesn’t tell us. The gospel writer Matthew informs us that their mother had something to do with it. She wanted these positions for her sons as much as they did. Along with Peter, these two often formed the inner circle of the disciples. Jesus allowed them to experience things the other nine disciples didn’t. Perhaps it went to their heads. We also know that just recently Jesus had promised that his disciples would sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Mt. 19:28). We’re not certain exactly what Jesus meant, and I doubt James and John did either, but they wanted it, so they asked for the favored positions.

But before we come down too hard on these two for their sinful egos, let’s not overlook the reaction of the other ten disciples. Our text says they were indignant. They resented James and John for their self-promotion. No doubt they were sorry they hadn’t asked Jesus for these positions first. Right up until the night before his death the disciples argued who was the greatest among them.

It was a little ugly what was going on here. Their sinful pride is not something we want to emulate. Humble is so much more attractive. And that’s our first divine discipleship descriptor—an attitude of humility.

Paul once wrote, “In humility consider others better than yourselves” (Php. 2:3). Let’s admit it—that’s not easy. The “others” Paul mentions isn’t limited to the people we look up to. It includes the people we so easily look down on. People with lesser opportunities, lesser abilities, lesser achievements, even people who’ve made a mess of their lives by the choices they’ve made. But that means we’re going to need a major attitude adjustment—an adjustment only your Savior can make. Let’s set aside the false humility when we sing the words, “that saved a wretch like me,” and realize how accurate those words are. The same sins that openly foul our world out there lurk right inside here. We’re no better. But Jesus has made us better—spiritually better when he accomplished all that his Father had sent him to do. His perfect life for our sinful lives. His innocent death for our eternal life. Those are the truths that instill an attitude of humility.

Part II.

I shouldn’t be surprised anymore and neither should you. The next time Christianity is mocked or bashed, the next time another Christian is martyred, the next time another law is passed that violates God’s holy will, remind me that Jesus said it would be that way.

He stated, “It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master” (Mt. 10:24). Jesus was referring to the way he was treated by his own people. They ultimately crucified him.

And so he questions James and John, “‘Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?’ ‘We can,’ they answered.’” What’s the cup of which Jesus speaks? It’s the one he referred to in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before his death. It was the cup of suffering and it was filled to the brim.

He also refers to a baptism, but not the one he experienced at the hand of John the Baptist in the Jordan River. He’s referring to a bloody baptism, the one he would undergo on a hill called Calvary.

Jesus’ next words state an eerie prophecy, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with.” In just a few years James would be the first apostle to be martyred at the bloody hands of King Herod. Many years later the elderly Apostle John would live out his life in exile on the island of Patmos. They shared Jesus’ cup and his baptism.

And to an extent so will we. It’s been said that, if you’re not suffering for your faith, you’re probably not living it very much. Stand up for what God says is right and you’re going to get knocked around. Declare God’s truths and then prepare to listen to blasphemy in return. Do what’s right and suffer what’s wrong.

But don’t be surprised. Jesus said it would happen. It’s another divine discipleship descriptor—be willing to suffer.

It’s been said that what’s worth having is worth fighting to keep. That’s certainly true of your walk of faith with your Savior Jesus Christ. Following in his footsteps will not be glorious like so many want to believe. And when it is easy, you’re probably walking so far behind him you can hardly see him. Get closer to him! Let him give you a bold faith through his word and sacrament. Make use of every opportunity to confess your moments of weakness in your walk with him and receive the certain assurance of his forgiveness. He won that forgiveness when he walked—bruised and bloodied—to Calvary’s cross for you. That sacrificial love instills in us a willingness to suffer for him—a divine discipleship descriptor.

III.

Jesus has one more discipleship descriptor for us. It has to do with our position, our spiritual location.

Which one of these do you prefer? Looking up at everybody else or looking down on everybody else? Be honest when you answer that. We want to be on top. We aspire to reach it and we attach our happiness to finally achieving it.

That’s the way things are in our world. Greatness is measured by how much influence—meaning “power”— you have over others. Jesus used the example of the Gentile rulers of his day—the Caesars and Herods and Pilates. Those were the giants of the day.

But that’s not greatness in God’s kingdom. Jesus reminds us, “Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.” Slave of all? That’s what he said. Another divine discipleship descriptor.

The old evil foe can’t stand it when we serve in God’s kingdom. So he attacks from two positions. He sows the seed of laziness and complacency. He gets us to think that it won’t matter if we don’t serve; someone else will do it. But when he doesn’t succeed at getting us to do nothing, when we are in fact serving others, then he’ll attack our attitude. He’ll ruin our service by sowing the seeds of sinful pride, or sinful judgment of others, or a spirit that is not at all Christ-like. But perhaps the biggest challenge to serving is our own sinful nature. Your sinful nature and mine wants to be served, not to serve. Sounds like we’re up against some other-worldly forces if we want to be the kind of disciples Jesus describes. So what can we do? Focus on Christ. Focus on his serving you. Jesus said, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” He served you and me to death—literally. He made us his own so that we can serve others in love, not out of compulsion. We get to serve!

It’s my prayer that our Savior’s divine discipleship descriptors will be abundantly evident in your life this week. Be a blessing to others! Amen.