Ideas about the nature of discipleship in Mark's Gospel.

GCSE Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)

AO1

There are many ideas about the nature of discipleship in Marks Gospel as we see in the following references .The first reference I will be looking at is 1:14 the call of the first four disciples this is when Jesus went to Galilee and spread the good news of God, he then saw two fisherman and said, “ come with me, and I will teach you to catch people”. They left their nets and followed Jesus.

Soon after he saw another two brothers James and John and when Jesus called them they left their boat and followed Jesus

This shows a positive attitude towards Christianity because people were willing to give up their lives their jobs, their families (when James and John left their farther Zebedee) and follow Jesus; they made great sacrifices to follow their beliefs. This shows a good nature of discipleship because fisherman were a lower class from a different path of life and they were accepted and chosen to be the main disciples of Jesus to spread and act the word of God. The nature of discipleship is shown strongly in 2:6-12 Healing Miracles such as the paralysed man Jesus told a paralysed man that his sins were forgiven, teachers of the law criticized him because they thought only God could forgive sins so Jesus told the man, “ I tell you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home!” (2:11). the man got up and hurried away.
In order for this miracle to happen there had to faith and belief that Jesus has God’s power and he is the son of God, in which the disciples had and followed in his footsteps to help other people no matter what they were like for instance the paralysed man was looked at as an outcast but that did not stop Jesus from healing him. It is important the Christians recognise how to follow the nature of discipleship in 8:34-35 Jesus speaks about his death. Jesus tells a crowd and his disciples to be unselfish and whoever sacrifices his life will be saved. This shows that Jesus and the disciples believe in thinking in others and putting other people before yourself. In this case he is talking about what he is going to do for his people. Their miracles also enabled to help people 9:29 Jesus heals a boy with an evil spirit Jesus tells the disciples of the power of praying and that only prayer can heal such a miracle, “Only prayer can drive this kind out, nothing else can.”The disciples and Jesus believed in praying, in prayer Jesus the Son of God can help this boy as he has Gods power. This give you an idea about the way in which they there faith and believe is put into practise.

We see in 10:43- 45 the request of James and John Jesus spoke about how if one wants to be the first or, “great” they must, “be the servant for the rest” or, “must be a slave for all” even the son of God (Jesus) did not come here to be served but to serve for other people.

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This message tells people to be ready to serve for others and put people before you and be unselfish. This follows on to the message in 10:15 Jesus blesses little children Jesus assures us that, “who ever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it”. This is to be taken in the way in which children have child like qualities such as Honesty- they tend not to lie, Enthusiasm in everything they do and Trust in God they believe in him and stick to their beliefs and tend not to forget to pray. This is how Christians should behave in order to receive the Kingdom of God, this is the message Jesus and the disciples gave out.

Ten simple things were asked in 10:17-26 the rich man we see

A man ran up to Jesus and asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to receive eternal life?” Jesus questioned him why he called him good and said that only God is good.

He then told the man he had to follow the 10 commandments, the man said he had done since he was a boy, then all he had to, was give up everything he had and give it to the poor and follow Jesus.

The man turned away in sorrow.

It is a lot harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of god because he has to give up all is assets that he admires but Jesus and the disciples spread the message that Jesus should some first before everything and anything in your life. So which one is most important in 12:28-31 The great commandment Jesus was questioned which commandments are the most important, his response was the first was to commit yourself to God, “ The Lord our God is the only god” and love him with all your love, mind, soul and strength. The 2nd is to, “Love your neighbour as you love yourself”- treat others how you would like to be treated.
This reference sums up the nature of discipleship, to spread ad follow the message of Love of God through the love of the neighbour.