Another story which shows he disciples lack of faith in Jesus is “Jairius’ daughter” and “the women with the hemeraige”. In this story Jesus feels the power leave him when the women is cured, here the women showed tremendous faith and Jesus and was therefore cured.“ If I touch his clothes I will get well” Mark 5:28.
Being a disciple isn’t all about preaching, having more power as we learn in “The request of James and John” they learn a valuable lesson that they too are servants of God and should not seek power. “ If one of you wants to be great he must be the servant of the rest, and if one of you wants to be great he must be the save of you all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served: he came to serve and give his life to redeem many people.”
In the transfiguration: “this is my own dear son, listen to him” we can learn from this the importance of listening to the good news that was spread by Jesus and the disciples.
Discipleship involves sacrifice and suffering but will be rewarded in the kingdom of god. “Get away from me Satan,” he said, “your thoughts don’t come from God but from nature!” Peter offered Jesus the same as Satan, as he was still human” The main point that Jesus tries to put across to the first Christians is that love is very important factor and essentioal for their religion. Disciples must love God, love their neighbours and love themselves. Love is the most important thing in life itself.
“The Lord our God is the only Lord, Love the Lord your God with all your heart , with all your mind and with all your strength” and “love your neighbour as you love yourself” Mark 12: 29-31. If these commandments are followed “you are not far from the kingdom of God”.
In the story of “the rich man” the disciples found it hard to understand why the rich man could not enter heaven “it is much harder for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle” Jesus explained that since they had made sacrifices they would be rewarded in the kingdom of God “Receive a hundred times more that you give and you will receive eternal life”, but as the rich man had made no sacrifices there would be no rewards.
The disciples are reminded in “Jesus blesses the children” to be child like and not childish in the way they preach, be open, honest, truthful, generous and eager to learn more.
Through Marks gospel we can learn a lot about discipleship. We learn that discipleship entails many qualities, to be child like and not childish. To sacrifice, and we learn that faith is an important element of discipleship. All these qualities make a true disciple.
