Mark’s Gospel and the Nature of Discipleship

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Mark’s Gospel and the Nature of Discipleship Discipleship is an initial theme in Mark’s Gospel. It was important to the early Christians and is till for Christians today. Christian disciples are followers of Jesus Christ. They learn from his teachings and way of life. True disciples must be committed and put God first. Christians should aim to be a good disciple in all aspects of life to do this they need to take in account what Mark said about discipleship. Mark tells the story of the calling of the first four disciples (1:14-20) in his gospel. Jesus asks some fishermen to “Come with me” and “they left their nets at once and went with him.” This shows disciples should be willing to put Jesus first without any doubts and tells Christians that nature of discipleship has to come before everything else. Jesus tells the disciples they will be “fishers of men” as they welcomed and encouraged people into the family of God. This applied to all the disciples to follow. Even looking at who the disciples were, in the choosing of the twelve (3:13-19), can tell us more about discipleship. Some of them were ordinary fishermen which shows us that whatever occupation you have you can be a disciple. James and John had bad tempers, as they were named “Boanerges” meaning “men of thunder”, and they were still good disciples. Jesus chose these men as they all had the qualities of a good disciple. This shows that all Christians can become true disciples if they are committed. In the call of Levi it is the same principle, he was a tax collector but as soon as Jesus said, “follow me”, ‘Levi got up and followed him’. This shows that Jesus was willing to accept anyone as a disciple if they were going to truly follow God. Mark’s gospel also shows the role of the disciples when Jesus sends out his disciples (6:7-13). This tells Christians about how to put the nature of discipleship into practice. Jesus sent out the disciples to

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