Thunder.’
Matthew – also known as Levi. He was a tax collector.
Simon the Patriot – he was a zealot.
Judas – the only disciple to betray Jesus, in the garden of
Gethsemane
Phillip
Thomas
James – son of Alphaeus
Thaddaeus
Bartholomew
Simon, who is usually referred to as Simon Peter or just Peter, was a fisherman and was also said to be the spokesman of all the disciples. He is shown to be very close to Jesus throughout Mark, suggesting that he was one of Jesus’ closest companions. Peter also had a good friendship with Mark, the author of the first gospel. Peter is known to be Mark’s main source of information for most of the recordings. Peter’s brother Andrew was a fisherman too but in comparison he was seen to be a lot less involved in the life and teachings of Jesus. Although, he is mentioned in one particular part of the gospel when, along with John, James, and Peter, whilst on the Mount of Olives, they were all discussing their futures with Jesus. (Mark Ch13: vs.3-13)
James and John were another two of Jesus’ closest disciples. They too were brothers, and both fishermen. When mentioned in Mark, they are generally referred to as a pair. Jesus gave them the title ‘The Boanerges’ - meaning ‘Sons Of Thunder’, yet there is no clear reason stated why they were given that particular title, it has only been suggested that they were somewhat thunderous in their behaviour.
Levi was another disciple called by Jesus to follow him, to whom he gave the name Matthew. Matthew was a tax collector, which was a profession despised by most people because tax collectors worked for the Romans and the Romans swindled many people out of their money. Furthermore, another of Jesus’ disciples was a Zealot, Simon the Patriot. The Zealots were a war-like group of people who were strongly anti-Roman and thought that violence was justified when it came to upholding the Jewish religion.
Apart from these six, not much is known about the others, as they are not talked about as often, except for Judas. However, as you can see the twelve men all seem very diverse, with many differences in both character and status. This may make you wonder whether there were any strong conflicts or disagreements between them all, though nothing has ever been known of. Jesus must have had great faith in them to be civil and concentrate on their beliefs. Due to this immense faith, which Jesus had in them all, he appointed them later on in the gospel to become his twelve apostles. The word apostle means ‘those who are sent.’ He called them his apostles because he wanted all of them to go out on a mission to spread the gospel of the Lord to others who did not yet know about it. Jesus also gave them the power to drive out demons from sick people; they were given the gift of healing. These twelve men were the most significant people in Jesus’ life and he regarded them with much authority.
In Mark, Chapter 8 we learn about The Cost of Discipleship. This is when Jesus explains to a crowd that there is a cost to be paid for anyone who wants to be a true disciple of Jesus.
Mark Chapter 8 vs. 34-38
‘Then Jesus called the crowd and his disciples to him. “If anyone wants to come with me,” he told them, “he must forget self, carry his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his own life will lose it; but whoever losses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. Do people gain anything if they win the whole world but lose their life? Of course not! There is nothing they can give to regain their life. If a person is ashamed of me and of my teachings in this godless and wicked day, then the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
The cost of discipleship is also known as the conditions of discipleship, because Jesus is explaining to them what tasks they must for fill to be true disciples. The main point Jesus tries to get across is to forget self, which is a very crucial part of being a Christian. It is also expected of those who follow the religion and it means to put others before yourself, which means you are putting God before yourself too. To be unselfish is an excellent quality in a person, yet it is very hard to be completely unselfish, especially in today’s world and I am sure the disciples would have struggled at the time also. Christians today must try to be as unselfish as possible because it makes them considerate towards others and they are benefiting from it themselves, as they are becoming less dependant on wealth as a security. We see Christians today putting others first by working at missionaries and raising money for charities. Marriage and having children can also be looked upon as being unselfish because they are prepared to make sacrifices to make their partnership work or by holding back ambitions in life to please others. Jesus also tells his disciples to carry their cross and follow him, which was interpreted into knowing that they must suffer in the same way that Jesus did. The disciples had to follow the example, which Jesus set for them; this meant them even being prepared to die for him, as Jesus did himself for others. Some people think the statement means that everyone in life will have a cross to bear, whether it is illness or another way of suffering. There is a period in the Christian religion where people practise self-denial, which is called Lent. It is a time when people come together and remember how Jesus suffered for forty days and forty nights, and they try to relive this by giving up a bad habit or something they enjoy. All these little sacrifices which people make do add up to something, the security of God, which is part of the Rewards Of Discipleship.
Jesus speaks about the rewards of discipleship in Mark Chapter 10: vs.28-31. It begins with the disciples questioning whether anyone could be saved and Peter acting once again as the spokesman, exclaimed to Jesus ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you.’ Jesus strongly agreed with Peter, knowing they had nothing to worry about, he then told them all what rewards they would all receive. He guaranteed them all the security of God and told them that whatever they gave up to follow him they would receive a hundred times more of it. Most importantly they would all be given the knowledge of eternal life.
However Jesus disciples were not perfect all of the time, they had the faults of ordinary men. In Mark we learn about some of their failings, and how they learnt from them with the help and guidance of Jesus. The ways in which Jesus reacts to their mistakes gives Christians today hope, knowing that if they make any mistakes in their lives they will be forgiven too and hopefully learn from them in the same way that the disciples did. One of the first times that the disciples lose their faith in Jesus momentarily is in Mark Chapter 4: vs.35-41 – Jesus Calms a Storm:
In this short parable, the disciples were with Jesus in a boat on the lake, when the wind became strong and waves started to spill over into the boat. The disciples woke Jesus, who was sleeping in the back of the boat and said to him, ‘Teacher, don’t you care that we are about to die?’ Jesus then calms the storm by commanding the waves to be still, and surely the wind died down. He then asks his disciples. ‘Why were you frightened? Have you still no faith?’
We see here that Jesus is disappointed, as the disciples do not have faith in him. However, Jesus seems to respond gently and is willing for them to learn from their mistake, which again is an incentive to Christians today. Further on in the gospel we see another difficulty come across by the disciples. In Mark Chapter 9, Jesus says to them, ‘Whoever wants to be first must place himself last of all and be the servant of all’ (vs.35). He gives them this advice after knowing that they were arguing between themselves about who was the greatest disciple. Peter was committed to Jesus and his beliefs were strong, he did make mistakes but always learnt from them and asked for forgiveness from Jesus. He did deny Jesus three times after Jesus predicting that he would and when realising what he had done he broke down and cried. However I would still regard Peter, as being one of the most faithful disciples due to his strength in courage and his will to have such dedicated beliefs. An example of his is when Peter answers to Jesus’ question of ‘Who do you think I am?’ fearlessly and says ‘You are the Messiah’ (meaning Christ). The name Peter, meaning rock, was the perfect name for such a man.
To conclude I think discipleship in both the first disciples and Christians today can only be summed up in the teachings of Jesus. The first disciples followed and used Jesus as their absolute role model and some later in life went on to become martyrs for supporting their faith, which means they actually gave up their lives for their religious beliefs. Christians today should look at the first disciples as role models if they want to live their lives in a true Christian manner. This means they should try their uttermost best to keep spreading the good news of Jesus Christ to others; priesthood is a prime example of this. By leading their lives similarly to the first disciples in today’s modern world as best they can is discipleship on their part.
“It is not possible to be a true disciple of Jesus in the modern world.” Do you agree or disagree? Give reasons for your answer, showing that you have considered more than one point of view.
I think this statement has many possible arguments for and against. Firstly, what is a true disciple of Jesus? In my view a true disciple is somebody who is willing to try their best in life to live it, as Jesus would want us to, by using the very first disciples as role models. The disciples spent most of their lives alongside Jesus and this is why we should look to them for guidance and for the understanding of Jesus’ teachings. We can do this quite simply by reading the gospels, gaining information and courage from the disciple’s experiences with Jesus. They were not perfect and neither are we but the best thing we can do is to try. In my view we were all put on this earth for many reasons, the main one being to live our lives as Jesus would want us to, in a way that is unselfish and considerate towards everyone as best as they can.
However, we are now living in a totally different world to that of the time when Jesus was alive. Our world has taken drastic developments over the many, many years that Jesus has not been on the earth. We now live in a very civilised and modern world compared with Jesus’ era. People in this day and age have more possessions, responsibilities to maintain and most significantly in my view, a lot less time and interest in religion. This is not a good outlook on life, but it is very hard to suppress for some people because they are caught up in the viscous cycle of money and material wealth. For some, money is happiness and they tend to become incredibly selfish, which is the exact opposite of how Jesus taught his disciples to be. The first disciples were educated to forget self, always putting others before themselves. Once again, because they lived so long ago, their way of life has seemed to fizzle out over the years and religion has almost become a chore for some, especially in youngsters. I think this situation is saddening and they should try to be more involved in their religions. Jesus’ teachings methods no longer apply for most Christians and have been relaxed to suit the world that we live in. Due to all these factors, most may think that it is not possible to be a true disciple of Jesus at the present time.
However, I beg to differ from these thoughts mainly because there are so many modern day disciples, yet people do not know about them. A prime example which most do actually know of is Mother Theresa of Calcutta. She because they lived such a long time ago, it would be extremely difficult for people nowadays to follow exactly what they did in today’s world. The first disciples were able to leave their jobs, families and belongings to devote their lives to Jesus, yet for people today it wouldn’t be at all practical. Today, religion doesn’t take enough priority as it did in Jesus’ time because most people tend to be more interested in money and material wealth. To me, this isn’t the way you should approach life, it is a very selfish way of behaving, and Jesus taught his disciples to be unselfish and to always put others first – to forget self.