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...
... middle of paper ...
...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.
of life to do this they need to take in account what Mark said about
This research assignment aims to analyse and interpret an influential part of the New Testament – Mark’s Gospel. An analysis of Mark and his community will be discussed as well as interpreting Jesus’ teachings and his significant theme of Discipleship as it was then and in present society.
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.
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.
A curious thing that Mark never mentions throughout the entirety of the gospel is Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father. The beginning of Mark continuously reiterates that Jesus is the Son of God, the gospel’s first verse is a clear example, “the beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.” Again towards the end of the gospel in verse 15:39 Jesus is clearly declared as the Son of God, “and when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, ‘Surely this man was the Son of God!’” The beginning of Mark does not have a nativity story and the end does not continue to the resurrection story, so in beginning and ending the gospels with the proclaiming of Jesus as the Son of God the author is saying that Jesus was the promised savior and he was perfect rather than being seen as a simply son of a
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.
...ch the world through his sayings and actions, rather than waste words on the doings of his mortal followers. Peter's importance is determined by this difference of views, leaving two different pictures of him behind. In Matthew, his personality is unfolded through several insightful passages that leave behind a lively and devoted friend and follower. In Mark, he is merely one of the disciples, more important definitely, but nothing compared to Jesus. The absence of those few important passages throw a shadow over this figure and leave him humbly depicted, rather than the outspoken, involved man shown in Matthew. Yet his faith and deep devotion to Jesus make Peter stand out from the other disciples in both passages, and leave him weeping in misery over the denial and loss of his friend and teacher.
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...
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’s portrait of Jesus as a servant originates from the middle of the first century, Mark wrote his gospel during this time of persecution because the people being oppressed lacked faith that God would provide for them. Mark gives them the model of Jesus as a man submissive to the Lord so that they can receive salvation if they remain faithful to the servant of God. Mark stresses that Jesus is a suffering Messiah with the passage concerning Jesus praying to God that “Abba(Father), all things are po...
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.
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.
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.
Rich Man asks Jesus why he can not enter the Kingdom of God when he
“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.