Jesus, by eating with these outcasts, is also helping them. The disciples spend a lot of time trying to help the people who need help: “People who are well do not need a doctor, but only those who are sick. I have not come to call respectable people, but outcasts.” This is an example of discipleship being about helping the needy. Jesus goes around spending a lot of time healing and helping the sick. The disciples too are the power to perform miracles: “They drove out many demons, and rubbed olive oil on many sick people and healed them.” Jesus tells the disciples to go out and preach, but any village that rejected them – they were to “shake the dust from their feet” and move on. This shows us that Jesus’ message was restricted by the constraints of time. The disciples did not have extra time to try and convert those people who were not readily willing to believe.
As well as spreading the Good News and giving rise to Christianity, discipleship is also about realising human nature. There are many accounts in Mark’s Gospel of the disciples making mistakes and showing that they are far from being perfect. This is also shown by at least eight passages in Mark’s Gospel. For example, when “Jesus calms a storm” the disciples are afraid and do not show faith in Jesus’ powers. They believe that ‘even the wind and the waves obey him’, but still are unable to see that he is the Messiah. This is the same when “Jesus Walks on the Water”. The disciples were afraid and thought Jesus was a ghost, showing, again, a lack of belief. Even Mark himself, who some believe to have been writing his Gospel for (or even was) Peter – Jesus’ favourite disciples - says that the disciples Could not “grasp” the meaning of the Feeding of the Five Thousand. Also in “Who is the Greatest” two of the most favoured disciples (James and John) reveal they have completely misunderstood the meaning of discipleship in their requesting of the best seats in heaven. The disciples are constantly getting things wrong. This is shown again when “Jesus speaks about his Suffering and death”. Peter shows disbelief in Jesus’ words and again misunderstands his message. All this shows us that the meaning of discipleship is not about being perfect and getting everything right first time. It is about being willing to improve and work towards the Kingdom of God. Even Jesus shows doubt and fear when he “Prays in Gethsemane”. He questions God’s power on the cross. (“My Lord, My Lord why have you forsaken me?”) This is similar to what the disciples do with him. This means discipleship is not about being perfect, but after moments of imperfection, continuing along the correct path, like Jesus does at the end of his prayers in Gethsemane: “Yet not what I want, but what you want.” Here Jesus shows renewed faith in God and continues as before. This is how the disciples should act. Jesus tells them “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Here Jesus understands that it is not possible for a human disciple to be perfect. However, Jesus shows this to be acceptable as long as they are willing to learn, in that he never abandons a disciple.
I also believe that discipleship in the first century meant sacrifice. Jesus in the “Parable of the Rich Man” shows this. This says that discipleship is about sacrificing everything including all your money. Jesus explains this again to James and John after their question “Who is the Greatest?” Again, this shows discipleship not as being great, but as being “the slave of all”. If one of you wants to be great, he must be the servant of the rest.” “The Widow’s Offering” is the same, in this way, to the parable of the Rich Man. It indicates to us the sacrifice involved in getting into the Kingdom of God. Discipleship, here, is about giving all you have to help others. Jesus himself makes the ultimate sacrifice on the cross; giving his life for mankind, this tells us that, for first century disciples, discipleship was about giving all that is asked of you and more.
Discipleship has many parts to it; facing adversity, sacrifice, spreading the Good News and breaking away from traditions are some of the parts relevant to the first century disciples. However, Mark shows the disciples to be far from perfect in these areas. In my opinion discipleship, for the first disciples, was about following as closely to Jesus as they could and doing as he asked them to the best of their ability.
1b) Explain the meaning of discipleship for Christians today.
Discipleship today takes on a very different meaning to what it did 2000 years ago. Science has explained a lot of what in the first century was passed of as being god’s anger or an evil spirit. People in today’s world cannot simply leave their families to go out and preach. Firstly because it is considered irresponsible and secondly people today are not receptive to that kind of teachings. It just would not work. Discipleship today is more about helping people in a Christian way, by following some of Jesus’ teachings: help the sick, maybe charity work. This is the new meaning of discipleship.
Many things have changed entirely since the first century. For example, society in the first century was completely different than today’s. We look on religion with a totally opposing view. It is no longer a reason as to why things are going wrong in our lives or to explain natural disasters. We now know why thing like earthquakes happen and it is not because god is angry with us and an earthquake is his punishment. Science has explained these things for us. Also, blasphemy doesn’t exist as a crime, and the death penalty has been abolished in this country. So the Bible takes on a whole new meaning in the 20th century. Each passage can be applied differently to a modern situation. For example, we can no longer be executed for being a Christian, but regular, in todays, world churchgoers are in a minority and in many cases are ridiculed for it. Even in popular TV programmes, religious characters a portrayed in a negative light. Take Ned Flanders, from the Simpsons, as an example: he is shown to be a boring, predictable character and is often laughed at. This is the view many people now have on religion. Here the ‘Lamp Under the Bowl’ becomes about being open about your beliefs and not hiding them in the face of ridicule. Mrs Thornely, a teacher at my school said, “Christianity is about recognising Jesus as our leader, Lord and the Son of God”. Also the ‘Mustard Seed’ has quite the opposite meaning to a modern day Christians. It is not the seed that need to by grown by the tree that need to by resurrected. Christianity it at its largest in the way of numbers, but the majority of these are non-practicing Christians. The true believers are in a minority now.
Another thing that has changed is our principle beliefs about life. Firstly, we have wholly different views about religion and god. For example, Mrs Stones, the head mistress a Chetwynde School, believes that modern discipleship is about “raising children in the proper manner”. (Thus she founded a school). Secondly, the fact that we do not believe that evil spirits exist let alone cause diseases. Through science, we now know how diseases are caused and how storms are forms. We now no longer have the need to believe that god is angry at use if a close relative dies; we know the real reason instead. This changes the meaning of ‘The Epileptic Boy’ completely: Jesus tells the disciples that evil spirits can only be driven out by prayer, however, we know the boy had epilepsy. So does this mean that prayer can cure disease? However, it is also said in the Bible, that miracle working in a gift from god and needs to be taken seriously. Unfortunately, not many people today are considered miracle workers. This would mean then that we must concentrate on finding cures through other methods. It could then be said that a scientist (working of the cures of diseases) is a disciple. To me the passage of the epileptic boy explains that the majority of people are unable to cure disease and so we should work on helping those in need (maybe people with diseases or the homeless etc.) This would be an example of a modern day disciple,
The best human example of this in the 20th century was Mother Theresa. She was a comfortably well off teacher in a convent, who took the meaning of the Rich Man literally: gave up everything she owned and became an apostolic nun. She dedicated the rest of her life to helping people in need in Calcutta. The most famous of her work is with lepers. Mother Theresa is considered to be a modern day disciple. If this is what we would constitute a modern day disciple, then that surely should mean the following: Firstly that going out into the world and actually helping them is better than contemplating the bible for your whole life. Secondly, social and racial boundaries do not matter. As Mother Theresa shows us, it is outcasts (like lepers) that need the most help and we should not discriminate against them by not offering aid. Jesus worked with people of all backgrounds. For example, he never refused to help or cure anyone. A disciple should definitely follow this teaching and therefore it would seem it is important for a modern day disciple not to be racist, sexist or have any form of prejudice. Jesus did say, in the ‘Syro-Phynician Woman’s Daughter’ that he is here to give the Good News only to the Jews and not the Gentiles. However, that was in the first century and things must be changed to suit the times. Today we have more time. Disciples today are no longer working on a short time schedule. There is now no need to ‘shake the dust of your feet and move on’ where you are not accepted. Now there is more time to be spent converting people and time to spend with doubtful Christians. This is the job of a modern disciple.
It is also said that in order to become a disciple, you must, of course, be a practicing Christian. This includes attending church regularly and partaking in many of the holy sacraments. If you are a Protestant this only means baptism and Holy Communion. However, for Catholics marriage, confession, confirmation, extreme unction and ordination are also believed to be sacraments. There is obviously a question of how far to take this here. For example, is it necessary for a Catholic to become a monk or a nun in order to become a disciple and if so is it then impossible to be a disciple if you are a member of the Protestant or Methodist Churches. I believe that this assumption is unfair and the divisions between different factions of the Christian Church are merely differences in interpretation of the Bible and do not involve a person’s ability to do good. A modern day disciple, in my opinion does not have to be a monk or a nun in order to be given the title ‘disciple’. However, that kind of person is likely not to care about a title, as they believe they are doing the work of a god and this is all they truly care about. This is seen in Mother Theresa (a modern day disciple).
2) ‘It is not possible to be a true disciple of Jesus in the modern world.’ Do you agree or disagree? Give your reasons, showing that you have considered varying points of view.
This statement depends entirely on a person’s interpretation of the Gospels and, of course, the very word ‘disciple’. The word means ‘someone learning from a teacher/master’ and even from its Latin roots, the meaning is pupil. This surely suggests that in order to be a disciple there must be a teacher? Jesus is no longer here and god has not sent another ‘teacher’. Can we only consider ourselves disciples when there is someone for us to learn from? Then there is the question of what is a true disciple? Are we to take the dictionary definition or is it a very personal thing that we use ourselves about others?
Some would say the meaning of the word is too deep for it to be changed by use and that we should only regard the first eleven as disciples. We live in a completely different society to that of Jesus and his disciples. Our life expectancy, our life ambitions have changed dramatically. We would no longer want simply to leave our lives behind and follow a stranger into a desert. Not only that, but if someone was to take up this original role set down in the first century, people would most likely outcast him, call him irresponsible and definitely would not listen to his ‘teachings’. A dirty, unwashed beggar/wild man is not going to be listened to. This, then, would defy the meaning of discipleship. If no one is listening, what is the purpose of teaching? Also, we no longer believe in many things that the Bible tells us. Science has proved many of these things to be wrong and has found other solutions for what was believed in the first century to be a demon. This came in the 18th century, during the enlightenment. People started to become atheist and logic has taken over from faith. The teachings that Jesus made are not relevant to modern life. We do not accept many things that, in the first century, where wholly believed in. All this suggests that it is impossible to be a disciple in the modern world. There is another viewpoint that would agree with this statement and that is one of extreme literalist or fundamentalist. For example, we now know that miracles do not happen, and have not happened for a very long time. However, from a literalist or fundamentalist viewpoint, miracles did happen and were performed by Jesus. Also, if you believe the Commission is intrinsic, then you must agree with the above statement. This is because Jesus said to the disciples that they were to got out and perform miracles (i.e. drive out demons etc.) and, as we cannot do that, we cannot be considered as disciples.
However, there would be many people that would argue in favour of this statement. We do not have to be exactly the same as the first century disciples in order to be a disciple. There are still many things that we can do to help the world as a Christian. For example, helping the poor and homeless. We have to guess what god would like us to do and it is likely that god would have been pleased with people who do aid and charity work. Here, we can take Mother Theresa’s example. She has devoted her life to religion, but also not only prayer and contemplation but also actively helping those who need help. The disciples themselves were very active towards helping people, as was Jesus. This is one of the ways that it is possible to be like the first century disciples.
Another way in which we can do as the first eleven did is through the Bible and Jesus’ teachings. Although they are not directly relevant to today’s world, can be made so by placing different interpretations upon them. We can still follow Jesus’ words today, if we only were to make them appropriate for modern society. For example, we not longer need to ‘shake the dust of out feet’ and leave. We can take time to preach, even where it is not wanted – we are no longer trying to spread the seed as far as possible, we are trying to revive the tree. This can be done with most of the New Testament’s teachings. If we do this then, surely, God would be pleased with us and it would be possible to be a disciple in this modern world.
Also, many people who say that to be a disciple would simply be a follower of Jesus and therefore the true Christians today are all disciples. The phrase ‘God fearing Christians’ no longer applies to many people today. However, those regular churchgoers, people who actually believe: they should be called disciples. In the 20th century, people have stopped believing. The Christian religion is statistically the largest religion on the planet, but not many of those people will ever go to church. It is the task of today’s disciples to try and make people believe again. To instil their confidence in the Christian faith into those people that are only Christian because their parents were.
I believe that it may well be possible to be a disciple in the modern world. People must now make religion applicable first to themselves, as your own beliefs must be satisfied, and then to the society you live in, because otherwise nothing can be achieved (as the fist eleven lived far too long ago). However, for me, I could not ever consider myself or want to consider myself a disciple. The amount of faith that would require, now that science has overcome many of the first century problems and beliefs, is far greater than I have or most of today’s society has. I think discipleship can be achieved, but it is not how modern people wish to spend their lives.
