Marks Gospel tells Christians about discipleship.

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Religious Studies Coursework

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        Marks Gospel tells Christians about discipleship.  It tells them how to live as a disciple and how to behave towards Jesus.  In ‘the call of the first disciples’ it tells us about Jesus calling to Simon and Andrew “follow me! And I will make you fishers of men.”  They immediately dropped their nets and followed him.  Jesus continued further along the shore to James and John, they did the same thing as did Levi, the tax-man.  This story shows us that everybody can be a disciple as they were all common people.  It tells us that Jesus has authority to call men so they respond immediately and that some disciples have to leave everything and follow regardless of the cost.  This is shown in ‘the cost of discipleship.’  Jesus told a crowd that if anyone wanted to go with him, they must ‘forget oneself, carry the cross, and follow him.’ Forgetting oneself means that one should put oneself last, have no care for life and have no rights except for belonging to God.  Carrying the cross means that one should be prepared to die for Christ.  To follow him to follow Jesus along the same path, this includes suffering, rejection and death.

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        For some Christians the story about giving up possessions is the hardest to follow.  It tells us about a rich man wanting eternal life.  Jesus tells him to go and sell all that he has and give the money to the poor.  This story is hard for some people as they might have a lot of possessions.  Jesus says ‘it is much harder for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.’  This is true as they have more to give than poorer people.

        The story of ‘who is the greatest’ tells us about two disciples arguing about who ...

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