The Role of Disciples, Essay Example

Before Jesus left the earth and ascended to heaven, he instructed his disciples to go into the nation, tribes, and ethnicities preaching the word of God and converting people to discipleship through baptism and teaching them the commandments of God. Jesus, the son of God, descended to earth in a human body to serve the earth, and not to be served (Bill 16).

The responsibility left to the disciples is commonly referred to as the Great Commission. As he goes, aware that the eleven disciples were bound to lose focus after he was gone, he gives them the mandate to go into all the cities, teaching as well as baptizing people and making them the disciples. While on earth, Jesus strived to win the earth by drawing the ‘lost man’ back to God and teaching people to return to God (Darren 24).

Mark is the second book in the New Testament and is classified under the gospel books. While writing the book, at Chapter one, Marks reveals the positive nature of disciples and confirms that it a call worth accepting. Subsequently, a few people start to heed the call to follow Jesus to be part of the great commission (Mark 1:1-6). Unsure of what awaited them, the message sets the journey for discipleship rolling, setting the stage for the mission and initiating serious discussion in the towns.

In the first few Chapters in the book of Mark, even the 11 disciples do not understand him. In fact, at Chapter four of the book, when Jesus calmed the storm, the disciple wondered what Jesus was. Many of them asked, ‘who is this that even the winds and the storms listen to’ (Mark 4:3-10). In this journey, Jesus is seen to be training the disciples the mission that lied ahead after his departure to heaven (Darren 22).

At Chapter three of the book, John is seen to be in the wilderness preparing the way for the coming Messiah. While this text appears simple, it forms part of the great commission that the disciples would later be asked to do (Bill 37). As Jesus’ departed back to the father, he assured the disciples that he would be back to take the children of his father home. In fact, he said he was going home to prepare more rooms for them (Mark 3:5-10). The preparation of the way by John ought to have made the disciple learn that they were tasked with the responsibility of preparing the way- through teaching and baptizing all those who believed- for the second coming of the Messiah (Richard 29).

At the sixth Chapter of the book, Mark narrates the feeding of the five hundred people using bread and fish. Essentially (Mark 6:3-6), Jesus taught his disciples approaches to numerous tribes and ethnicities. Further, he taught them about crowd management. In this special meeting, Jesus appeared simple and intermingled freely. According to Richard, returning to God was the theme of that meeting (Richard 7).

At verse seven of the same Chapter, John preached to a multitude of people keenly listening to him. He warned over attempts to run away from the reality and urged them to return to God. At verse 21, John baptizes Jesus at River Jordon (Mark 7:18-21). The baptism of Jesus by John raised a lot of concerns amongst the people who were there. First, it served to show that Jesus had come like a man and recognized the existence of sin. Secondly, it served to illustrate the humility with which Jesus carried out himself. Lastly, it exhibited that the only way to get back to God was through baptism. Further, the baptism showed that it was not for particular people, but for all the people of the world (Darren 25).

His temptation closely followed the baptism of Jesus after forty days and nights in the wilderness. From this temptation, two things come out undoubtedly: that the great mission was going to be full of challenges and needed, and that there was the need for consistent prayers during such time so that the disciples do not fall in traps.

Chapter five of the book of Mark records the calling of four fishers into discipleship. Jesus, in his divine wisdom and power, walked into a lakeshore and ordered Simon to set forth his boat into the lake. In the previous night, the fishermen had not caught any fish, making them hesitant. At the command of Jesus, however, they obeyed and set the boat sailing.  When they returned from the lake, the catch was huge. In his conclusion, Jesus told Simon, Peter, and James to follow him and be part of the ‘fishers of men’ and not ‘fishers of fish.’ (Mark 5:1-10)

Becoming fishers of men, in simple terms, meant that the three fishermen were going to take part in the great commission, teaching and baptizing people in the name of Jesus. This responsibility, as is evident, required that individuals left their interests and engaged in recollecting the lost nation back to God (Darren 31). At the end of the chapter, Jesus ate in the house of a tax collector, often viewed as a sinner, to show that there was more need to bring the sinners back to God than as it was for the righteous.

In the subsequent Chapters Jesus, often in the company of his disciples, went around the nation teaching, preaching and interacting with people. In most cases, he drove away demons and healed the sick. He freely mixed with people and taught them to obey the God’s commandments.

At Chapter nine, Jesus collected all the twelve disciples and gave them power and authority over demons. He also awarded them the power to cure diseases and heal the sick. With the power and the authority, they were sent into nations to preach the Kingdom of God and to bless all those who welcomed them. He instructed them not to carry anything with them. One of the lessons brought out when Jesus left the disciple on their own was to determine whether they were already prepared for the task ahead after Jesus was gone (Mark 9:1-10).

Subsequent verses tell stories of Jesus’ preaching and teaching the people. They also show the different miracles that Jesus performed that made people realize that he was not just an ordinary man.

Generally, in the Mark of Mark, readers are taken through a series of occurrences and activities the Jesus performed while on earth. His disciples, while watching and providing support roles, are taken through a learning process that would later equip them for the mission. When Jesus used parables in his teaching, for instance, the disciples were eager to know why he had chosen to use the parable and not just simple language (Richard 32). In his response to Chapter eight, he informs them that for them (the disciple), being closer to Jesus’, whose teaching had been spiritually showed to them. For the other people, however, the parables were meant to stir the reaction and ignite debates on the need to follow Jesus (Bill 24).

Comparing the recordings in the book of Mark and Mathew reveals a few differences in the text passages of some verses. In particular, the narrative of the resurrection of Jesus is told in a slightly different term. In fact, it is believed that the writers of the three synoptic books might have had similar sources of reference when they were writing the books. Surprisingly, there are two versions of how Mark end his records of the resurrection of Jesus, one ending at verse 9 while the other continues to verse 20 (Richard 34).

Bible studies show that the story of the resurrection of Jesus according to Mark and Mathew are only similar to the extent that the tomb where Jesus had been buried was found empty and that some people had seen Jesus after his resurrection. That according to Mark had come to make the prophecy come true (Darren 22).

The differences in the accounts of Mathew, Mark, and Luke are centered on the number of women who were present at the tomb. Additionally, emphasizes on the actual appearances of the women at the tomb, the appearances of the angels, the clothes of the grave, the reasons for the women’s visit and the location (Darren 23).

In Marks accounts, for instance, the women at the tomb do not tell the information on seeing anyone while in Mathew’s accounts; Jesus appears to the women before they tell the news to other people. Further, according to the accounts of Mathew, Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene and ‘other women’ while in the accounts of Mark, Jesus appears to one woman, Mary Magdalene (Darren 24).

These same discrepancies are witnessed in the accounts of Luke. The number of angels that appeared, for example, does vary from the various accounts. In the records of Mathew and Mark, there is only one angel while in the accounts of Luke; two angels appeared (Darren 26).

There are also different reasons given for the women’s visit to the tomb. The gospel according to Mathew records that the women had gone to ‘look at the tomb’ while the records of Mark and Luke, the women had gone to ‘anoint the body of Jesus’ using spices (Bill 51)

Jesus’ clothing appearances are also different according to the various accounts of the synoptic. In the accounts of Mathew and Mark, Jesus appeared in ‘large shroud made of linen’ while in the accounts of Luke, He appeared wrapped in ‘strips of Linen.’ Further, in the gospel of Mathew and Mark, Jesus appeared in Galilee after his resurrection while in the accounts of look, Jesus appeared in the vicinity of Jerusalem (Darren 37).

The differences in the various accounts are not abnormal. It is wrong to conclude that the differences were intended for any purposes. Eyewitness accounts have always been varied as people tend to see only the things that they care to see or have close links too. Moreover, similar accounts would have meant collusion (Richard 40). All the three accounts and even the accounts from the book of John have very many remarkable similarities. In this view, it is only important that the subject of the account which is Jesus was dead, buried and resurrected. Other elements were given importance according to the interests of different writers. On the number of women, for instance, a writer would have chosen to note only the woman they were able to identify, and not the other. These omissions, to the extent that they are not intentional, do not affect the implications of any other parts of the Bible

Works Cited

Bill, Hull. The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ. 2006.

Darren, N. Hurkey. The Four Responsibilities of a Disciple. Emet HaTorah. 2013.

Richard, J. Foster. Celebration of Discipline, Special Anniversary Edition: The Path to Spiritual Growth. 2016.