Discipleship and Mark's Gospel
Mark's Gospel can tell us the entire truth about discipleship, telling
Christians about the faith, responsibility, and sacrifice involved in
following Jesus. Some may even say that we glimpse a harsh reality of
what it really means to be a true Christian disciple and to have
complete faith. Although in saying this, it is important to note that
Mark's Gospel does also cover the rewards and the actual meaning of
discipleship. This is important to include as Mark's Gospel was
written at a time when Christians endured much persecution. They may
have wondered why they should tolerate this treatment without any kind
of reward and so Mark included this in his gospel.
Mark does include what it means to be a disciple in his gospel,
particularly, why Jesus chose disciples to be with him. When Jesus
sends out the apostles for missionary work, he gives them three things
that they must do. They must preach repentance, cast out devils, and
anoint the sick.
The preaching of repentance was particularly important for the
disciples as they were to spread the good news which was that if one
does truly repent, then they will be welcomed into the Kingdom of God.
16:16- "Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved; whoever does
not believe will be condemned". Today, the tasks of the apostles have
similar meanings. To cast out devils is to fight injustice and do the
will of God and to anoint the sick is basically to care for them.
Modern disciples will still try to preach the gospel and spread the
word of God.
Another meaning of discipleship was to be a companion to Jesus, 3:14-
"I have chosen you to be with m...
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...in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be
last, and the last first.' "
Also, the rewards of discipleship can be felt in life, one's sacrifice
as a disciple will be valued by God aswell as earning the fellowship
of the Church.
Generally, Marks Gospel teaches that discipleship is not a social
status. It is not intended for a life of prestige and power but of
humble service. Throughout the gospel, the disciples are shown to be
imperfect, misunderstanding, and occasionally foolish. Discipleship is
not shown in glory, and so the acceptance of it becomes an even more
noble act aswell as reassuring modern day Christians that imperfection
is forgivable and that even Peter, who denied Jesus, could go on to
live the ideal life of a disciple, and now holds significant status in
the Christian Church.
Jesus Christ lived a very full, if short, life. He did and accomplished more in his thirty years than many men do in twice that. The gospels each tell their versions of his life. Of the four, I found the gospel of Mark to be the most interesting. I enjoy the style of writing in this gospel more than the others. I feel it gives a better summary of the events in Christ’s life. Whereas the other gospels tend to get bogged down with parables or spend too much time on specific events, the gospel of Mark moves along at a good pace and adequately gets the message across.
Mark’s gospel and John’s gospel contain many differences from the beginning, but both end with Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. The gospels of John and Mark represent Jesus as two different people. The disparity is that Mark represents Jesus as a servant while John portrays Jesus as a divine being. However, one must realize the two texts are meant to read by different audiences during different time periods. Each description presents a particular aspect of the life of Historical Jesus.
While both books of Mark and Matthew portray Peter as one of the most important followers of Jesus, Mark seems to emphasize Jesus' spiritual career unlike the broad, more in-depth pursuit of Jesus' life that Matthew embellishes on. As both Jesus' student and friend, Peter is the one disciple most commonly referred to in the stories. Yet the two passages seem to draw different pictures of Jesus' distinguished disciple. In Matthew, Peter seems to play a larger role in Jesus' teachings and seems more significant to Jesus throughout the book. In Mark, he is still important, but to a lesser extent in the eyes of the author. Mark leaves Peter out of a few of the stories altogether and only touches on Peter's importance to Jesus towards the very end. Each difference in the stories connected to Peter gives a slightly altered account of his personality and role.
When Jesus called His disciples, His invitation was simple. He invited them to follow Him. The same is true today. In Matthew 28, Jesus gave His last charge to His disciples, and the charge was simple. He called his followers to go and make disciples. Much effort has been placed by Christians to fulfill this charge, commonly referred to as the Great Commission. Jesus chose to fulfill the implementation of the New Covenant through 12 men who He called, appointed, and commissioned, and he only had a few short years to prepare them for the task (Willson, 1990). His methods were unconventional and were revolutionary for that time. His disciples were to be trained extensively by Jesus, living with Him for three years prior to His ascension. He taught about servant leadership and its meaning for both the leader and follower Matt. 20:25-28). From the beginning, Jesus put in place a careful plan, and an examination of His actions in the Gospels showed that Jesus left behind the pattern to be replicated. His methods, which included the incorporation of three different levels of discipleship, included His interaction with Peter, His closest three (Peter, James, and John), and finally the group of 12. This paper identified and analyzed the three levels of discipleship Jesus modeled, these discipleship methods were then measured against modern leadership theories, and Jesus’s level of involvement and interaction with his disciples were critiqued in light of these modern theories in an effort to determine the effectiveness of this approach.
In the Gospel of Mark translated by Richard Lattimore, and in Borges’ Gospel According to Mark, paradox plays a key role in understanding Jesus and Espinosa, as well as understanding the larger meaning of each story. In the original Gospel of Mark, the resolution of these paradoxes assists in persuading the reader into viewing life the same way Jesus does, through the lens of faith and eternal life. In contrast, in Borges’ Gospel According to Mark, paradox is used to encourage the reader to examine Espinosa, and therefore Jesus, more carefully. Through the unresolved inconsistencies between the two stories, Borges uses paradox to challenge the idea of blind faith, which is a core theme of the Gospel of Mark.
Rich Man asks Jesus why he can not enter the Kingdom of God when he
The Sermon on the Mount was the major ethical teaching event of Jesus’s ministry. Matthew’s gospel tells us that this was not a public meeting but was reserved for his immediate followers, his disciples. The disciples were all ordinary hard-working men, mainly from humble backgrounds. It would not have been an easy mixture of personalities and some of them, Matthew the tax collector and Simon the zealot, for instance, would have been openly opposed to each other in normal settings. In many ways, this mixture of backgrounds, social standing and personalities is still represented in His followers today. In the gospels, we are often given examples of the disciples’ constant struggles, doubts and their jostling for position. Having already called them to follow him, Jesus teaches the disciples the principles of being in a relationship with himself and God the Father. He laid out to them, and to us, the specific instructions and expectations of Christian discipleship. William Barclay goes as far as to describe the Sermon as the disciple’s ordination ceremony. It was certainly His rousing, and motivational campaign talk to them. Jesus’s message was clearly laid out in a simple format with explicit analogies used to emphasise his points. Only Jesus could have known at this moment that these twelve ordinary men, who were often full of doubt, would become completely transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and become powerful men of God. The transforming power of Jesus’s teaching was never meant to be restricted to the disciples. It was...
Mark 8:34 is the only time on the Gospel when Jesus calls the crowd together with disciples because his message is of very high importance. The price for discipleship is a complete denial of yourself in the name of God . And the mission of Jesus is to bring this message to humankind through his suffering and death on the cross. In Mark's gospel Jesus provides his identity which becomes the turning point in the human history. Before He was teaching, healing the sick, had scraps with authorities and established a group of disciples . Was it his mission? No. Jesus is the Messiah.
In order to properly interpret the cost of discipleship addressed in Matthew 16:24-28, a look into the literary context of the passage is a must. All three synoptic Gospels contain this similar passage. The differences in the synoptics will be discussed briefly to identify the purpose of including this passage in each context. Also, the surrounding context of the book of Matthew will be provided so as to correctly exegete the passage.
Mark was Peter's son (I Peter 5:13, possibly spiritual son), who wrote down what Peter said about who Jesus was, what He did, where He went and what happened; Mark's gospel is therefore Peter's account, an eye-witness account, written down by Mark.
This shows they were meant to help Jesus spread the good news. This story shows if you place complete trust in God you will be saved. The nature of discipleship means fulfilling the mission God gave them. The first disciples also had to make many sacrifices. The best example of self sacrifice in Marks gospel was displayed by the poor widow.
The disciples had to put their trust in God and Jesus, for example, in the Calming of the Storm. Here, Jesus saved their boat from a storm by ordering the storm to be calm. This event instilled great faith in the twelve. Nowadays, Christians must always trust in god and pay him due attention. A story from Mark's Gospel that teaches a lot about discipleship is that of the woman in the treasury.
The Gospel According to St. Mark serves to tell a narrative about Jesus’ life and the many interactions he has with both his followers and opposition. Through the various encounters involving Jesus and his disciples, the reader is presented a portrait of both based on their developing relationship. Given the characterizations included to depict Jesus and his disciples, they serve to suggest a strained, yet curable relationship between God and humanity, as God can only have so much pity on humanity before having to set forth proper judgement.
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Bible Gateway, Matt. 28. 19-20). This is The Great Commission, God’s charge to all Christians. God has called his people to be missionaries. The word ‘missionary’ for most people tends to bring about thoughts of third-world countries and grass huts, and while there are some missionaries serving in those third-world countries and some may even live in grass huts, the word missionary cannot be summed up in that one scenario. A missionary is anyone who is called by God to share the gospel and make disciples. Missionary work is very diverse and takes on many different forms based on factors such as location and purpose. Missionaries serve both internationally and domestically and for evangelistic and need-based purposes.
Theology Final The Gospel According to Mark is the second book of the New Testament and is one of the four canonical gospels. It is the first gospel and also the shortest. The main summary of this gospel is about Jesus of Nazareth who came down and suffered and died for the sins of man. We are who we are today because of him.