Discipleship In The Gospel Of Mark

When I read Mark during church we would read the long ending, at the time I didn’t know the difference between the endings. I was confused to why there were three different parts to it and they were broken up as if they were supposed to be a new verse. When I asked the leader of the class she couldn’t give me an explanation. With the research I have done I feel that I have come to a conclusion as to which ending is the most correct and why there are multiple endings.

In the Gospel of Mark, Mark discloses the life of Jesus and his embodiment of God’s Kingdom. Throughout his Gospel, Mark focuses on accurately revealing Jesus’ identity to his readers, and explaining why Jesus was destined to die on the Cross. Mark uses his role as an arranger by employing a diverse array of literary tactics to highlight the lessons of his narrative. One of the most effective of these devices is intercalation—the process of sandwiching one story between the beginning and ending of a separate story. For most people, this tactic would at first appear as impractical or senseless; however, through this process Mark is able to convey a deeper meaning in the lessons he is hoping to share through the life of Jesus, and what it infers about the nature of God’s Kingdom. One of the most notable examples of intercalation in the Gospel of Mark is seen in Mark 5:21-43: the story of the raising of Jairus’ twelve-year-old daughter and the woman who suffered from hemorrhages. Through the intercalation of these two passages, Mark is able to express that the boundaries of God’s Kingdom expand beyond social status and wealth, and that faith alone is all that is needed to be a part of His divine realm.

The gospel of Mark is a short recollection of Jesus life, it has many details but is missing pieces or additions to his life. The Gospel of mark was said to have lost pieces, and also the first account of Jesus life. Although it is not as detailed in some areas as it is in others, it tells many accounts of Jesus life on earth and what kind of a person he was, the life he lived, his struggles and his ending.

The roles of disciples play a very important part in developing the message of the gospels due to their close relation to Jesus throughout the stories. To start to understand the importance of the disciples first you have to understand the main purpose of the Gospels. The Gospels are written in order to describe Jesus’s life on earth before Heaven. They give people insight to who Jesus was and create a stronger basis of belief in Jesus and God. In order to bring the Gospels to life they use the students of Jesus or Disciples to project his teachings and stories. The disciples take on many different roles in the varying gospels. They are students, friends, witnesses, observers, and worshipers of Jesus. Disciples come in many different forms of people as well. During the stories of the Gospels, Jesus is essentially walking along picking up new followers and experiencing new things with them. Throughout the experiences, Jesus teaches the disciples and they grow and learn and as a result the reader grows and learns as well. That is why the disciples play such a pivotal role in the comprehension of Jesus and him as a person. It becomes evident when analyzing the different Gospels that Jesus’ relationship with the Disciples is slightly changed in the varying texts. A noticeable difference in the development of the disciple 's relationship to Jesus is present specifically in the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of Thomas.

The three central themes in the Gospel of Mark are: The Good News; Following the way; Kingdom of God.

The Gospel of Mark and Luke Although Mark was not one of the 12, is believed he was Peter’s disciple. Mark’s goal in the gospel was to demonstrate that Jesus was the “representative of the Father on earth.” To demonstrate this he made Four emphasis in the gospel: Christology- all throughout the gospel Mark include the reassurance that Jesus is the Son of God through situations.

Scholars believe that it is unlikely that one of the Twelve wrote Matthew Gospel because of the description. "The manner in which Matthew presents his record of Jesus ancestors is typical of his use of the Hebrew bible and his purpose is not only to establish Jesus messianic credentials by right of descent from Abraham and David, but also to present Jesus birth as the climax of Israelite history" (Harris, 2014, pp. 166). Most of these scriptures in Matthew Gospel is an extension to the Gospel of Mark. "Matthew retains the apocalyptic themes found in Mark, but he significantly modifies them" (Harris, 2014, pp. 194). Due to the description, we can conclude a time and place for Matthew Gospel. Around 80 ce at least a decade after the destruction

The Nature of Discipleship According to Mark's Gospel Discipleship is usually thought of as following Jesus, being a preacher and a teacher. Somebody who believes in something, or who believes in someone, and leaves everything behind them to try to make others believe the same is my personal belief of a disciple. In actual fact, the Old Testament word 'Talmid' is a 'learner', and more obviously in the New Testament, a 'Diskipolos' is a 'follower'. The other important area of discipleship is serving others. When a disciple is healing a person, they are serving them, as he serving Jesus and God.

In Mark's gospel, we find an account of Jesus who seems to cross all the lines and boundaries of the culture of His day.7 The Pharisee view of the body and Jesus’s was different. Jesus did not guard his human orifices or their emissions in ways that was appropriate to purity-minded people. Neither Jesus or His disciples washed their hands before consuming food, and they demonstrated no concern for what passed through their mouths. In doing so Jesus declared all foods clean to eat (Mark 7:19).

The concept of ‘seeing’ the ways of Jesus and that He is the Messiah, is to truly understand the message being portrayed throughout the Gospel, and not the surface meaning that is being represented literally. This concept was very significant to Jesus and his followers as to interpret the meaning without being said, most parables being related to the Kingdom of God and Jesus’ miracle stories. Times were harsh and difficult to spread and teach the words of Jesus, as Mark’s community would face persecution. The disciples of Jesus could ‘see’ more than other believers could perceive, from being apart of Jesus’ life with close relationships, as they were taught the fundamentals from Jesus himself to understand his teachings in much more depth and fluency than others. There were many similarities among Jesus’ twelve disciples and Mark’s community, as both groups share the strong faith in Jesus and God’s power by spreading the good news to others as well as experiencing hardships caused by arrogant hierarchy and society. According to Mark, Jesus was known for his parables and

    When I started reading this passage, I always thought that the text was clear and so were the boundaries of the text.  As I’m reading this, I just see how the before and after parables set-up “The Calling Of The First Disciples.”  When I reread this parable I feel like something deeper just sticks out at me.  I love how Jesus is trying to reveal himself in a simple parable as, “Take a leap of faith and take your boat deeper with me for deeper blessings.”  The surrounding parables are both on healing, I feel like that, it just shows how people who don’t “know” Jesus still will call him Master (vs 5) and will follow him into the deep.  In this passage, miracles, teachings and discipleships outline

This is significant because Jesus tells Peter that he will betray him 3 times before a rooster crows. Peter denies it of course, and Jesus says that all of the disciples will betray him, and they all deny it. This is significant because the disciples do in fact betray Jesus because they don’t know who he is. They were blind. They did not know who Jesus really was and yet, Jesus died for their sins, their sins of betraying the very person that saved

Understanding the lens in which the Gospel writers chose to share their testimony, regarding their experience with Jesus Christ is critical to understanding the message they were trying to communicate. Each Gospel presented Christ in different lights and offer a dynamic view of His life and teachings. The Gospel of Mark presents a hasty story of Jesus as the suffering Servant. It is in the story that we find the Christology. It is told as follows: “Jesus as the Messiah, The Son of God, sent to suffer, die, rise from the dead, and return as the Son of Man to gather the elect”.

Mark presents Jesus as a compassionate savior who through his acts of service and acts of suffering summons unbelievers to become disciples and so that believers would understand what it means to be committed followers of Jesus. In Mark's account of the Passion of Jesus Christ, Jesus dies alone.Jesus only speaks once from the cross stating "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" and dies. Mark acknowledges that after Jesus' crucifixtion that people believed in Jesus being the true Messiah, "Truly this man was the Son of God!" (15:39).

Each of the four Gospels contains points in ecclesiology. In the Great Commission, Jesus’ last instruction to the Apostles is to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching people (Matthew 28:19-20). For Jesus’ mission to continue and for his Church to grow, discipleship is necessary. Discipleship is a prominent theme in all four Gospels, for purposes of this essay, only the Gospels of John and Luke-Acts will be analyzed. The similarities regarding discipleship in these Gospels include images of the net and fishing, and the sheep/shepherd/sheepfold. The differences include the preparing of the Twelve to carry on Jesus' ministry in Luke, and service to the community and passing of authority in John's Gospel.