Introduction
If you could, would you take a photography class taught by Annie Leibovitz? If you could, would you take a cooking class taught by Gordon Ramsey or Wolfgang Puck? If you could, would you take tennis lessons from Serena Williams or get coaching in gymnastics from Simone Biles?
If you could, would you take a class from film maker James Cameron, or famed writer Margret Atwood, or even conservationist Dr. Jane Goodall?
What if today’s great minds in the fields of business, design, writing, wellness, the arts, and more were available to be your teacher—would you take a class from them?
Well you can. Such classes are available on MasterClass, an online streaming platform that offers classes taught by talented and successful professionals.
Margaret Atwood offers a class on writing. Gordon Ramsay shows people how to make amazing cuisine. Williams and Biles coach their craft and sport. And coming soon—music lessons from both the legendary cellist Yo-yo Ma and the legendary heavy metal band Metallica.
All are masters of their fields, offering their instruction through glossy online videos available for streaming on any device—for a subscription fee of course.
MasterClass launched in 2015 by offering just three classes: Dustin Hoffman on acting, Serena Williams on tennis, and James Patterson on writing. “Since then, the company has grown exponentially,” says The Atlantic magazine, “raising $135 million in venture capital from 2012 to 2018. It has now added more than 85 classes across nine categories.”
The program claims to offer “a premium, high-level learning experience, with classes taught by the very best in the world.”
And now some of you are thinking, “I wonder if they offer premium, high-level learning for sermon writing taught by the very best preachers in the world?”
To which I would say… “Sadly, they don’t. I looked. Sorry.” Which means I am just going to have to keep stealing sermons from preachers like the wise Rev. Joe Johnson and incomparable Rev. Amy Gopp.
And while the MasterClass website is a rabbit-hole of learning potential—for that subscription fee—we all have access to a master class on a little subject called discipleship, taught by the master of us all, Jesus Christ.
Move 1
In the 10th chapter of the Gospel of Mark, we find a portion of this class being taught by Jesus to his disciples, but most specifically to James and John. He talks to them face to face as they are on the road, not through a glossy video streamed through a device.
James and John are two brothers who really want to be the best. You could say they wanted to be masters at their craft, but really they just wanted status. So they say to Jesus, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you” (v. 35).
To which Jesus says, “What is it you want me to do for you?”
So they say to him: “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory” (v. 37). These two brothers want to be seen as the very greatest of disciples, with places of honor at the right and left of Jesus in the kingdom of God. They are the target customers of the MasterClass video series— people known as CATS: “curious, aspiring 30-somethings.”
But Jesus shakes his head and says to them, “You do not know what you are asking” (v. 38). Jesus knows you don’t rise to the top by simply asking for recognition, or by watching an online video taught by a master. It takes more than a class to be able to act like Samuel L. Jackson, or perform on a balance beam like Simone Biles.
And Jesus is about to make this clear, asking, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” (v. 38). This question according to New Testament professor Pheme Perkins, is Jesus asking “Can you accept the same kind of suffering I am about to face? Both ‘baptism’ and ‘cup’ are metaphors not for worldly success, but rather for suffering. Jesus is asking if they are able to join him on the path to the cross, to which they reply, ‘We are able.’”
While you have to admire the enthusiasm of James and John, their quick and confident response sounds, and is, quite naïve. Do they really think they will rise to the level of Jesus? That’s kind of like a preacher thinking if he takes an online class from James Patterson he’ll soon be preaching “edge of your pew” sermons. Just not gonna happen, right?
Jesus then speaks the raw truth to them: “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized” (v. 39). Sure enough, James will be killed in Jerusalem by Herod Agrippa, while John will suffer but survive (Acts 12:2).
Now it’s about this time when the other 10 disciples catch out to what James and John are doing, and they are none too happy that their fellow Disciples might get a high place of honor over them.
And it’s at this point when Jesus offers the Masters Master Class on discipleship—a class he’s been teaching, and still continues to teach.
Move 2
To begin his Masters MasterClass, Jesus kicks things off with an explanation of how the rulers of the Gentiles are often tyrants: “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them.” A teaching about what is, but what not to do.
Next he invites his students into a workshop where they have to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty as a servant: “… whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.”
And finally, Jesus ends with a demonstration rooted in, and focused on, him and what he is doing: “For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” Jesus shows, quite literally, the wise managerial adage that you never ask your subordinates to do something you yourself would not do.
And that’s the Masters MasterClass. Understand. Learn what not to do. Hands on workshop. And a live demonstration—for the time being anyway. These are the lessons of the Masters MasterClass on what discipleship is, and what it looks like. Straight forward. Simple to understand. Difficult to do.
And when you break all this down in such a way and I can’t help but wonder if Jesus were making glossy online instructional videos today, he would probably talk about how many leaders today are fighting for dominance and power and act like tyrants.
He might talk about servant leadership, and about how servant leaders put the needs of their people first, helping them to develop as individuals who can do their very best.
He might even lift up Abraham Lincoln, Mother Teresa, and Martin Luther King Jr., as examples of servant leaders.
He would certainly invite us to step into a real life workshop, where servanthood is needed—where God’s children are in need of an empathetic and loving presence— pushing us to find our greatness in service to others. After all, one of the key qualities of discipleship, of servant leadership, is empathy— the ability to see yourself in someone else’s shoes— a quality critically important whether you are serving a church, mentoring a teenager, serving a hot meal to a homeless woman, having a conversation with a grieving friend, or even when trying to be a friend to someone society says is your enemy.
Empathy is a critical piece of Jesus’ MasterClass.
Biblical scholar Jennifer Stasak agrees with such, saying, “Jesus emphasized empathy because empathy is a key aspect of servant leadership. It’s easy to get hyper-focused on tasks and the work we do. Work is important and accomplishing goals is, too. But if we are not careful we begin to see people as problems to be solved instead of human beings to be loved. Jesus always led with love.”
That’s a powerful statement, isn’t it? Without empathy, without a servant’s heart, without discipleship to our MasterClass Master, we risk putting too much focus on our tasks and we end up seeing people as problems to be solved instead of human beings to be loved.
This is why Jesus teaches us to love human beings by serving them in their place of need because discipleship is about being servant leaders who are empathetic, which means we see people through the eyes of Christ.
Conclusion
Jesus was, and is always, teaching a MastersClass on discipleship, and he teaches it through ongoing servant leadership. He “came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (v. 45). And Jesus embodied this teaching by always putting others first: Feeding thousands of hungry people, healing the sick, washing the feet of the disciples; allowing himself to be lifted up, not on a high pedestal but on a cross, offering his body and blood to bring us forgiveness and new life
*******
Albert Einstein, who has been popping up in my world a lot lately, said, “Once you stop learning, you start dying.”
So let us always be striving to learn—maybe by getting a subscription to MasterClass and being taught how to cook by Gordon Ramsey, or how to write better sermons by someone who knows how to write.
But let us also keep learning from the Master himself—our Master—the one who teaches us again and again that learning discipleship, empathy, and love are what we should always aim to master. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer, October 17, 2021
Eternal God, when we walk with you, and are faithful to the ways of Christ, our discipleship is as you would have it be.
But we confess we often fall short of true faithful discipleship.
And because we do, we need our hearts challenged O God, like Jesus challenged his disciples.
We need to be challenged because often we don’t know what it means to drink the cup He drank, or to be baptized with the baptism He was baptized with.
And because we don’t always understand, because we often want Jesus to put us in a high place of honor, we often demand “we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”
And so we, like the disciples, need confronted with his question that demands we answer, “Do you not know what you are asking?”
We know O God, that so often what keeps us from serving others as Christ serves others, and even us, is ourselves.
We revel in the good things we do, forgetting our purpose is to glorify you and not ourselves.
We are quick to display our piety before others, but are remiss in developing a faithfulness to your call to do the hard thing of being a humble servant to all your children.
Forgive us we pray. Forgive us for walking a walk that is not lead always by you. Forgive us for wanting to take a short cut to the life you promise.
Forgive us, then, teach us. Teach us, again and again, what it means to be a servant.
Teach us to have grace-filled spirits so we learn to be less condemning, judgmental, and rejecting. Teach us a more inclusive way where we are even more willing to reach out to all your children.
Teach us to be less inclined to build walls between ourselves and others so we may learn the ways of Jesus, and serve others with his hope, peace, joy, and love. Teach us to love ever more deeply, just as the Master has loved us.
Hear now the prayers of our hearts as we offer them to you in this time of Holy Silence.
All this we pray in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ, who taught us to pray saying, “Our…