Mark’s Gospel and the Nature of Discipleship

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