What a Study of Saint Mark's Gospel Can Tell Christians about Being a Disciple We can learn a lot from a study of Mark’s gospel about what it means to be a disciple. Firstly what exactly is a disciple? A disciple is someone who follows Jesus in every way possible, someone who follows and is a disciplined learner. (A disciple is also one who has received initiation from a spiritual master and then follows the path shown by the master.) The people who Jesus chose to be disciples were fishermen and tax collectors. They required an immediate response, to become a disciple they had to give up everything, their family, all their possessions, and leave to follow Jesus. "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." The first call of the disciples was when Jesus saw Simon and his Brother Andrew fishing on their boat and called to them, they immediately left their nets and followed him without question. As Jesus went on he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John who were mending their nets in their boats, Jesus called them and they immediately dropped their nets and left the boat leaving their father and hired men on the boat. The people Jesus chose to become disciples were ordinary people. They had no special qualifications to become a disciple. He called them in the midst of their everyday life, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." Our call to discipleship is to follow Jesus in our daily lives. Many of the disciples failed many times, for example in the story of the epileptic boy they failed to cast a spirit out of a person, Jesus done so and told them that anything can be done if you believe. Another example of the disciples failing Jesus is the story of the calming of the storm, the disciples wake Jesus as the waves beat off the boat and the wind gusted strongly, Jesus told the wind and the rain to be still and silent. His disciples were amazed.