Coursework part 1: Explain what a study of Mark's Gospel can tell Christians about the nature of discipleship

Authors Avatar

Anna Marie Treloar

10 Campion

R.E. coursework

Coursework part 1: Explain what a study of Mark’s Gospel can tell Christians about the nature of discipleship. You must use the text of mark to support and illustrate your answer.

The nature of Discipleship in Mark’s Gospel.

        In this essay, I am going to investigate the key ideas about discipleship from studying Mark’s gospel. I shall use these texts to illustrate points of discipleship and explain a fuller meaning to them.

        Firstly, near the beginning of the Gospel, Mark shows how God will use his disciples and what their main role is: that God will use them as missionaries to call people to Christ. This is one of the main Christian vocations of preaching What I mean by all this is that God works through his disciples on earth and inspires them to lead others to Christ through missionary work, preaching, healing and many other Christian works and vocations. In all these vocations, the inspiration for the work they do will come from God- if it doesn’t, it cannot work. My evidence for this teaching is in mark 1:17 where Jesus says ‘ I will teach you to catch people.’

        Another point is the immediacy and total commitment of discipleship. In mark, the disciples left immediately and followed Jesus on his mission. This show that anyone who wants to become a true disciple must make a 100% sacrifice of themselves and have a full commitment to Christ, prioritising him above everything else. This is backed up in mark when he says ‘ At once they left their nets and followed him,’ (Mark 1:48) and that James and John ‘ left their father in the boat’ (Mark 1:20).

         There is also a main theme throughout mark’s gospel that illustrates further the point of God calling people to be disciples. Jesus is the caller, not the other way around. No one is ordered to be a disciple; it is only through free will. Similarly, it is God that chooses you to be called not the other way around. You choose the 100% commitment of following God’s call and your vocation. Further on in the gospel, mark shows how God does not give up on his chosen ones. In Simon Peter’s Denial, he forgives Simon even for betraying him and calls him to be the most important disciple and entrusts his church to him. But the main point illustrates the full meaning of Mark 3:14 and many other times in the Gospel where it states specifically that ‘ I have chosen you… I will send you.’

Join now!

           Following on from this, even the terminology use din marks gospel names followers of Christ apostles and disciples. The Greek translation of this (the language in which the bible was written) has a fuller meaning. An apostle means ‘ one who is sent out.’ Similarly, we can notice the use of ‘sent’ and, in the context that this first appears, it says that Jesus calls them apostles, showing a belonging to god and a deliberate calling for the mission. The word disciple has other meanings. Its literal meaning is ‘One who learns ad follows’. Disciples, therefore had to learn from ...

This is a preview of the whole essay