Discipleship in Mark's Gospel

Discipleship in Mark's Gospel

Primarily the definition of a disciple is a person or a group of

people who learn from a religious leader/teacher and live according to

his/her teachings. By divulging and studying the hidden realms of St.

Mark’s Gospel, we can conclude that a “Christian” disciple is someone

who learns from Christ and lives according to his teachings. And from

this conclusion, and a more detailed insight into the many hidden

meanings in St. Mark’s Gospel I can say that mark’s Gospel can tell

us a lot about the nature of discipleship as well as the mandatory

requirements to become a Christian disciple.

From this analogy one can say that a necessary requirement to become a

Christian disciple is a sense of total commitment to God and Christ.

And it is because this ultimate sacrifice that few are willing to

commit themselves to the permanent post of being a disciple. For

discipleship is not merely a part-time occupation – for once you

become a disciple you must be willing to commit yourself for life.

One of the most prominent examples of this comes in Mark 10:17-31, The

Rich Man asks Jesus why he can not enter the Kingdom of God when he

has always kept the Ten Commandments and Jesus tells him, “You need

only one thing. Go and sell all you have and give your money to the

poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me.”

This has various meanings for Christians today but for now I will

focus on the main issue of this piece – commitment. What I mean is

that the man was not totally committed to Jesus for he would not give

up his riches, thus he could not become a disciple.

On top of this a study of St. Mark’s Gospel can tell us about the

vocations disciples receive. A prominent example comes in Mark

1:16-20. Disciples are still called today but not in such an obvious

way. Priests, nuns, Brothers etc have all received vocations from