A disciple means a follower. In Mark's gospel there is reference to the disciples of the Pharisees (2:19) and the followers of John the Baptist were known as disciples.

accepted in the Kingdom of God. ‘As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.  ''Come follow me,” Jesus said “and I will make you fishers of men.''  At once they left their nets and followed him. When he had gone on a little farther , he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets.  Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired and followed him.’(Mk1:16-20) The fact that they accepted the call immediately shows how charismatic a figure Jesus must have been and he must have had some sort of aura. Here we see some ordinary people being chosen by Jesus but the next was Levi, a Tax Collector .  Tax collectors were scorned in Jewish society because they were often greedy and were seen as co-operating with the Romans but Jesus showed that Christianity was for all: ‘While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.  When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the “sinners” and tax collectors, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” We have seen how the disciples just dropped everything to follow Jesus but it was not always so.  In the case of “The Rich Young Man” (Mk10:17-31) the man, when offered discipleship, refused because he felt had too much to give up.  Jesus then explains to the Apostles how hard it is for people who have a lot of worldly possessions to be rich in the Kingdom of God because to enter the Kingdom of God, you must be willing to sacrifice all that you own on earth for God.  In fact, he tells us in the story of the Widow of the Treasury (Mk14:41-44) that you must be prepared give all you have to God to be a true disciple of God: ‘Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury.  Many rich people threw in large amounts.  But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, this woman has put more into the treasury that all the others.  They all gave out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty, put in everything - all she had to live on.” He tells us that we must model ourselves on this woman and her devotion to God. Jesus also chose a Zealot to be one of the twelve.  The Zealots were an extremist Jewish group that believed in killing in the name of their religion.  Jesus would have had to change Simon’s views drastically before he would join him as Jesus taught never to use violence but to “turn the other cheek”.  This is important for Mark’s readers because they were being prosecuted at the time by the Romans because of their faith. In Mk8:34-38 Jesus clearly outlines the cost of discipleship: “If anyone wants to come with me he must forget self, carry his cross and follow me.” When Jesus says this he means that to follow him you have to put yourself last in everything, to not care about your social status and to not want privileges - to deny yourself luxuries that the world offers. When he says “carry his cross” he is saying that his disciples must be prepared to follow Jesus even when it means persecution to the point of death.  This is also displayed in the Request of James and John where Jesus teaches to be first in Heaven, you must be last on earth - you must be the servant of all. Another point that Mark displays in his gospel is forgiveness i.e. that God will forgive you no matter what you have done as long as you are sorry.  We see this when, although Peter promises Jesus at the Last Supper that he will never disassociate himself from him, he does when faced with persecution.  However, he is forgiven and is still “the rock on which the church was built”.  We learn from this that we all sin and go astray from time to time no matter how devoted we are but God is always willing to forgive, we just need to ask for forgiveness.