The Importance of Studying Mark's Gospel for Christians

The Importance of Studying Mark's Gospel for Christians

Disciples were followers of Jesus. The first disciples that Jesus

called were fishermen, Simon, who later became Peter, and Andrew. He

told them to leave their nets. He said: "Come with me and I will teach

you to catch people." (Mark 1:16-20)

Next, he called two brothers, James and John, who left a lucrative

family

business straight away, to follow Jesus, a stranger that they had

heard of.

Then, soon after, when a crowd was following Jesus, he saw a tax-

collector named Levi. He said: "Follow me." (Mark 2:13-17) And Levi

got up and followed him. The Israeli people hated tax collectors. They

were rich and

had certain privileges, but Levi chose Jesus rather than keep working

for the Romans

Jesus needed disciples because he knew he didn't have much time before

his

death, so he had to have people to spread his word after he had gone,

to

preach and to cast out demons.

He told them: "I have chosen you to be with me." And he said to them:

"I

will also send you out to preach, and you will have the authority to

drive out

demons." (Mark 3:13-19) This is significant because these were the

twelve men who were going to carry out his work after he died, and

Peter became the first Pope and the rock that the church was built on.

The disciples were far from perfect. The future head of the church

denied Jesus three times before

his crucifixion. We can take solace from this because it shows that

the disciples were not perfect and that even though we should strive

for perfection we do not necessarily need to achieve it.

Jesus sent out his disciples in twos...

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...me to the elderly, the homeless, etc, and

showing

respect for others. By following the greatest commandment, love God

and love yourneighbour, the reward will be eternal life.

Jesus reassured us that we don't have to be perfect, and that we can

sin,

like the prodigal son, and be forgiven by our heavenly father, if we

are sorry

for what we have done.

In conclusion, I do agree with that statement - modern society does

make it

difficult to be a true disciple, but with determination, courage,

faith, love, humility, trust in God and loyalty, this is possible

because in my own experience there are a lot of temptations for young

people especially. Turning down drugs for instance is showing true

discipleship. That is my personal reason for why I agree with the

statement because it is hard but it can be done.