Peters character changes dramatically during the last hours of Jesus’ life, in 14:29-31. Peter is loyal to Jesus saying he is prepared to die for Jesus. Then Peter denies he even knows Jesus when asked, Jesus had predicted that this would happen but Peter refused to believe Jesus when he first told him.
In the Commission (16:14-18), Peter now understands the word of God and has had the gifts received from the Holy Spirit, and Peter is now ready mentally and physically to spread Good News of Jesus Christ the Son of God.
I will now go on to talk about how James and Johns life changed when they became Disciples, James and John were sons of Zebedee. In Mark 1:20, James and John are fishing with their father, Zebedee. Jesus called James and John and their response was immediate and they left their father. By leaving their father they are leaving their inheritance behind, so their lives will have changed greatly by leaving their father, because James and John were illiterate (unable to read and write).
Mark 3:14, their responsibilities have changed and they are preaching and driving out many demons.
Mark 3:14, Jesus gives James and John a new name like he did for Simon Peter, James and John were newly named boanerges, which mean Men of Thunder or Sons of Thunder. This name would properly coincide with there personalities, because James and John were brave and fearless. Thunder is uncontrollable and it is dangerous and it is the act of God. It is worth mentioning that Peter, James and John are the only disciple who gets different names. I think Jesus does this because he thinks that Peter, James and John are the main people to spread the word of God.
In Mark 10:35-45, James and John show that they have a very poor understanding of Gods message. James and John ask Jesus for something. “When you sit on your throne in your glorious Kingdom, we want you to let us sit with you, one at your right and one at your left.” So James and John are really asking Jesus if they can be a part of the Judgement, on/in the last day.
Jesus is praying, in the garden of Gethsemane (14:32-45), Jesus asks his Disciples to keep look out when Jesus prayed. “Father, my father! All things are possible from you. Take this cup of suffering away from me.” Jesus is scared here and this shows that he is human. When Jesus had returned he found his Disciples were asleep, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation, the Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. This shows that they are tired and they need some sleep because in the time of Jesus you went to sleep when the sun went down and when the sun raised that is the time you got up. Then when the guards come they run away.
When Jesus appears to the eleven (16:14-18), he tells them to go throughout the world and spread the word of God and those who believe will be saved. So this is really telling them that Jesus’ teaching is over and the Disciples are now ready to continue Jesus’ Work. So the Disciples have come from no-bodies to carrying on the important job of spreading the word of God around the world.
Jesus picked his disciples very carefully I think because he could of just went and picked twelve members of the Sanhedrin, but he did not because Jesus wanted his own people, people with important qualities such as, he wanted brave and unpredictable people so that they don’t do things the normal way. The Disciples were uneducated when Jesus met them so Jesus would have to teach them which he did.
Question 2
For this question I have been asked to talk about how the Disciples learned about Discipleship from Jesus’ teaching.
I will start this question a quote from Mark 4:35, “whoever does what God wants him to do is my brother, my sister, my mother.” So this is explaining to Jesus’ Disciples that we need to follow God, even if it is not fashionable, like for example money is very fashionable.
In Mark 8:34, Jesus goes into talking about death to his Disciples, “if anyone wants to come with me, he must forget self, carry his cross, and follow me.” Jesus is telling them here that the Disciples must be prepared to die for their religion, and your reward for dying for your religion is that you will have eternal life in heaven.
In the same chapter Mark talks about more about how you have to be prepared to die for your religion, “ If a person is ashamed of me and of my teaching in this Godless and wicked way, then the son of man be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his father in Holy angels.” This is also talking about how if you die for your religion you will be rewarded with eternal life.
“Whoever wants to be first must place himself last of all and be a servant of all.” This is telling the Disciples that toy must not! Be selfish and work in partnership with others so that the Devil cannot be allowed to be a part of your life.
Another cost of being a disciple, is that you will be, “arrested taken to court and beaten.” So if you are preaching and teaching you could be beaten in synagogues. “Jesus tried to teach his disciples that Gods work did not depend on their own human strength, Burke page 132.
In Mark 13:13, “Everyone will hate you because of me but whoever holds out to the end will be saved.” Jesus is reassuring his disciples here when they are unsure why people hate them; this is a great cost of discipleship.
The widows offering, this story is about people putting money into the moneybox. This poor widow spared two little copper coins that were worth a penny. Jesus said, “I tell you that this poor widow put more in the offering box than others. A widow was either someone who could not work or had no one looking after them, because it was Jewish law if your husband dies to had to marry there brother. Further on in this story, Jesus says, “For the others put in what they had to spare of their riches; but she, poor as she is, put in all she had to live on…” So this is another story telling us that Disciples have to give up their lives to Jesus, and this is kind of what this woman has done, because she gave what she had to live on.
“Look we have left everything and followed you.” This is a quote from Mark 10:28, this is a good concluding paragraph because Peter who said this is emphasising the fact that all! The Disciples have made a huge sacrifice to Jesus and God, which is at a great cost for the disciples.
I will now go on to talk about the rewards of discipleship.
This is a parable that emphasises that there are many different responses to the message of God.
“But some seeds fell in good soil, and the plants grew, and produced corn; some had thirty grains, others a hundred.” This also tells us that the word (Message) of God is unpredictable. People in verse 8 respond positive and followed the word of God.
In Mark 10:29-30, Jesus says, “I tell you that anyone who leaves you or brothers or sisters or mother or father for me and for the Gospel, will receive…A hundred times more houses, brothers…in the age to come.” This is telling us that the rewards of discipleship will out weigh the sacrifices. The rewards are 100 times, than sacrifice plus eternal life.
I will now go on to talk about how the importance of faith, helped the disciples to learn about discipleship. Faith is the belief that Jesus is alive, we have not seen him before but we have faith that he lives.
There had been a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years; this is an echo of the twelve tribes of Israel. She was unable to go and pray in the temple because she was bleeding and she would make the temple unclean. Jesus walked pass her and she thought to herself, “if I just touch his clothes, I will get well.” So this is a pure faith statement from the woman who was bleeding. Jesus realised what had happened and said to the woman, “my daughter your faith has made you well, go in peace.” Having faith like this Woman did was a part of discipleship.
This passage has two parts to it the second part is when a messenger asked. “Your daughter has dies, why bother the teacher any longer.” So this messenger is afraid that Jesus can’t heal the girl.
I will now go on and talk about how the importance of prayer helped the disciples.
Pray and a good relationship with God is essential for a disciple Jesus lets sets the example when he prays in Gethsemane.
In Mark 6:46, “after saying goodbye to the people he went away to a hill to pray.” Jesus is showing that prayer is everything.
“Sit here while I pray.” Mark 14:32, Jesus us telling us that everything must be put on hold for prayer.
Mark 9:29, prayer is essential for healing, only prayer could drive the demon from the boy.
Question 3
The rich young man, Mark 10:17-31, is the passage I will be mostly focusing on.
I will explain how this passages how Jesus tries to get the message across. “You know the commandments: Do not commit murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not accuse falsely, do not cheat, respect your father and mother.
This message from this is to obey the Old Testament law giving to us by Moses. We could practise this by obeying all of the Commandments from Exodus 20:1-17 is essential for a disciple; you need to live a good life.
In the rich young man, Jesus tells the rich man to go and sell his house and give all of his wealth to the poor. The Rich Man walks away, with gloom all over his face. So this is telling us to put God not money first in your life.
You could put this into practise by selling all of your wealth this is normal practise for nuns and priests.
Giving money to the poor, this could be done as putting money into the collection box like the old poor widow did, this is an way of putting this message into practise. “Follow me,” this could be going to church and listening and preaching the Gospel, becoming a member of a Religious order. Following Jesus could be done very simple because doing anything Jesus taught us could be seen as following him so therefore we should take note of what he taught us.
Further on in this passage, “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. This message, which is a giving across in, this quotation is that Discipleship is about spiritual, not material wealth. We live in a very consumer dominated society and this makes giving our wealth up very hard. We can practise spiritual wealth by attending mass/church, and trying to put God first.
“We have left everything and followed you.” The message of this quote is discipleship is a complete commitment and a sacrifice to the will of God, you can put this into practise today by committing to God, this is called to a marriage or single life. This is telling us to use talents to the best of their ability.
“I tell you that anyone who leaves home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children for me and for the Gospel will receive much more in this present age. So this could be telling us that if you follow God you will receive eternal life. The message for this quote could also be if you follow Jesus you receive much more than what you expected.
Question 4
Discipleship today would be very hard because, today responsibilities are a great part of life and leaving everything to follow Jesus that Peter did would be seen as not taking responsibilities seriously. Peter left everything to follow Jesus in Mark 10:28.
Discipleship meant that you had to give up all your wealth and give it to the poor, this is just about impossible and this is shown because not a lot of people do this today.
We live in a very rich society, and the richer you are the harder it is to give up your wealth, we were told about giving up wealth in Mark 10:21.
Disciples at the time of Mark were expected to carry their own cross, this is also known as dying for your faith. This is far too much to expect from Christians today. People in China ere dying and are prepared to die for their religion and to die for God. However some Christians are prepared to die for God, Maximillian (1945) dies instead of a Jewish man in Germany and Oscar Romero (1980) was assassinated during mass because he spread the word of God. These two people tell us that it is not impossible to act like the disciples. I will now talk about the argument that discipleship is not that hard.
Vocation is otherwise known as a calling, Christians can be called to be monks and Priests, vocation can be seen as a part of discipleship and it is not very hard to forgive people. In Mark 3:13-49, the disciples were called to preach repetitive faith and forgiveness, we all care for each other this is a part of life, so if we care for people we will find it easy to forgive people.
Attending mass could also be seen as discipleship, going to church is giving up some time for God, like the disciples left everything for Jesus and God.
By supporting aid groups such as Cafod could be seen as a easy form of discipleship because all of us can give some amount of money. In Mark 6:6-13, The Mission Of The Twelve, the disciples were told to care and heal people with evil spirits. Christians could also raise awareness of their work through schools or church groups.
Having studied all the available evidence, in my opinion is that some forms of discipleship such as leaving/giving up everything for God and Jesus in modern day is too much to expect, I also think carrying your own cross and dying for your faith is too much in modern day.
Although saying this, supporting aid groups such as Cafod and Christian Aid are well within the limitations of a modern day disciple, also I think forgiving people could be also well within the limitations of a modern day disciple.
Footnotes
Question 1:
- Mark 1:17
- Danes page 34
- Mark 1:30-31
- Mark 3:14
- Mark 5:37
- Mark 6:6-12
- Mark 8:27-29
- Mark 8:32-33
- Mark 9:2-13
- Mark 14:29-31
- Mark 16:14-18
- Mark 3:14
- Mark 3:14
- Mark 10:35-45
- Mark 14:32-45
- Mark 16:14-18
Question 2:
- Mark 4:35
- Mark 8:34
- Burke page 132
- Mark 13:13
- Mark 10:28
- Mark 10:29-30
- Mark 5:34
- Mark 6:46
- Mark 9:29
Question 3:
- Mark 10:19
- Mark 10:21
- Mark 10:25
- Mark 10:28
- Mark 10:29-30
Question 4:
No Quotes Used
Bibliography
1. Burke, St. Anne Dimensions of Christianity
1988 publishers Kevin Mayhew Limited
2. Price, Norman St. Mark’s Gospel - a commentary
1983 Publishers: a Wheaton and co LTD.
3. Danes, Simon and Christopher Mark a gospel for today
1989 Publishers Lion Publishing
4. Cooper, Robin Marks Gospel an interpretation for today
-
Bishop Ambrose Griffiths Pastoral Letter 25th October 1998
- Teacher Notes
- Marks Gospel