When Jesus walked along the shore of Lake Galilee he saw Simon and his brother Andrew, fishing and said to them, ‘Come with me and I will teach you to catch men’ so the brothers followed Jesus straight away. Then he saw James and John, Jesus called them and they too left straight away. Jesus then went up a hill; called all of the names he wanted and chose 12. But Jesus chose people such as Levi, a tax collector, who was hated, because of his profession. Jesus didn’t choose perfect people because he wanted to teach people to forgive just as he did. He chose outcasts to society and in the end he did get betrayed by one of them but he still forgave, just as he wants others to.
Jesus wanted the disciples to go out and drive out evil spirits and demons. The disciple’s duties were to preach, to drive out demons, to anoint the sick and to heal them. He gave them the authority, and told them to take nothing on their journey except a stick. He gave them the gift of healing people and they rubbed olive oil on sick people. Jesus appeared to the eleven, he scolded them because they were too stubborn to believe those who had seen him alive, he said to them, ‘ Go throughout the whole world and preach the gospel to all mankind. Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. Believers will be given the power to perform miracles.’ Jesus was sent to Earth to spread the word of God and educate people about him. This would have made God pleased, God was pleased when Jesus had taught his disciples to spread the word, and because of Jesus and his disciples this is why Christianity is the biggest religion in the world today.
Sometimes Jesus had to correct disciples’ misunderstanding of God’s way; they needed a new vision of the Messiah. When Jesus said, Forget self, he meant that his disciples shouldn’t be self centered or selfish and they should always put others before themselves. When Jesus said Carry his cross, meant that his followers should accept problems that face them and not to expect somebody to help them all the time, they should fend for themselves. Peter promised Jesus that he would never disown him even if the rest of his disciples did. Unfortunately when Peter is sat in the courtyard, he disowns Jesus three times; when Peter realised what he had done he broke down and cried. Failure is a part of discipleship; to be a disciple virtually involves experiencing failure. Being a disciple doesn’t mean we have to be perfect. Jesus experienced failure and misunderstanding from his disciples, but he helped them over-come their failure. This tells us that just because the disciples failed sometimes, didn’t mean they could no longer be a disciple.
Some people think that happiness can only be found in a life after this life, in heaven, but others think you can never be fully happy now in this life. To be a disciple you would expect to find personal fulfilment, which is when you are content with your life now and the prospect or possibility of happiness in future life. Jesus told his disciples that they will have their reward one day, they will be given everything they could possibly want, but in the rewards of eternal life.