Mark's gospel: a portrait of discipleship.

My first essay for my theology and ministry course. 

What does Mark's gospel tell us about the disciples? What does that tell us about discipleship?

Often, readers of the bible garner their picture of the disciples from accounts across all four gospels, giving an even-handed view of their positive and negative attributes. I will show that in viewing Mark in isolation, that sole viewpoint (based largely on that of a single disciple, Peter) could give rise to a negative impression of them, but a deeper examination of the picture both explicit in the narrative itself and implicit in the situation in which the gospel was read, shows a parallel positive view. Focusing on Mark alone shows the reality and cost of following Jesus Christ though the lives, successes and failures of his disciples, and ultimately, the inevitable redemption when we dedicate our lives to him. Mark’s message on what it means to follow Jesus is that it is very costly and yet very rewarding, a path of failure, grace and success. All this, of course, is a pre-Pentecostal portrait of discipleship, written and read by a post-Pentecostal audience, which has profound implications for the message of Mark.

         Mark is a clearly Peter-centric gospel. On a first reading of Mark, one could very easily walk away with a rather negative view of the disciples, and especially Peter, as I will show. The first disciple Jesus called was Simon Peter, and he plays an understandably prominent role in Mark’s gospel. Richard Bauckham, amongst other modern New Testament scholars, subscribes to the view that Mark was with Peter in Rome and based his gospel “extensively on Peter’s eyewitness testimony.” (Bauckham, 2008, 14). Mark’s probable close relationship with Peter has given him opportunity to see the events of Jesus’ ministry through Peter’s eyes. In Mark, with Peter playing a prominent part in so many stories, he is a character with whom it is very easy to identify. When we talk of the portrait of the disciples we get from Mark, it is in many ways the portrait of Peter.

         Peter’s reputation is especially tarnished in Mark 14 to 16. At the last supper, Jesus tells his disciples that they will “all fall away, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee” (Mk 14. 28). This is more than just a warning of their betrayal, it is a picture of redeeming love and future forgiveness, but just as Jesus is telling them that everything will be fine after their betrayal, Peter jumps in and all but calls Jesus a liar. His proud boast that he will never betray Jesus and subsequent shame at Jesus’ prophecy coming true just hours later is the crowning moment in Mark’s picture of the disciples’ failure. It must have had an alarming impact when it was first read, for the audience would surely have known that this was the same Peter who went on to be Bishop of Rome, the rock on which Jesus built his church.

         It wasn’t just this final betrayal that casts the disciples in a grubby light. They are often not portrayed as the most insightful men. In fact this has the added bonus for us, inasmuch as they sometimes function like the ‘idiot’ character in modern TV and movies to whom the detective explains the plot, allowing the rest of us mortals an insight. Consider the explanation of the parable of the sower (Mk 4.  1-9) that Jesus explains to his hard-of-thinking disciples (Mk 4. 13-20); without Jesus’ patient explanation to his followers, we may never have known the thrust of the parable.

         There are many other incidences of the disciples letting Jesus down or getting it wrong. They are depicted as fearful, not just of circumstances such as Jesus’ arrest, when the all flee (Mk 14. 50) but also of Jesus himself when his holy power and authority is revealed. Peter is called Satan himself when he rebukes Jesus for speaking of his coming execution, and told he has his mind ‘on the things of man’ and not on ‘the things of God’ (Mk 8. 31-34). They seem stunned when Jesus calms the Storm (Mk 4. 35-41) and understandably completely terrified by the sudden presence of Elijah and Moses and Jesus’ radiant magnificence at the Transfiguration (Mk 9. 2-13). Their lack of faith is evident when they are unable to drive out a demon from a suffering boy (Mk 9. 14-29), perhaps an entirely understandable situation, but a similar lack of faith is harder to empathise with when they cannot fathom how Jesus will feed 4000 people with some loaves and fishes, despite having already seen him feed 5000 in the same manner (Mk 8. 1-9).  Then again, there is the self-serving and rather childish request of James and John to sit at Jesus’ side in Heaven, as if they could guarantee special favour by sneakily getting their request in first (Mk 10. 35-37).

         The last few chapters of Mark can only be described as the disciples’ nadir, demonstrating a litany of grievous failures. There’s Peter’s aforementioned denial, Judas’ selling of Jesus to the Pharisees (Mk 14. 10-11), their collective failure to stay awake, the violent action of one of them who strikes out with a sword when Jesus is arrested (identified as Peter in John’s gospel: Jn18. 10) and finally the abandonment by all twelve disciples (Mk 14. 50), “And they all left him and fled.” They receive no further mention; Mark does not even place them at the crucifixion; in his final hours, Jesus is attended only by “Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Jesus, and Salome” (Mk 15. 40).

         All that being said, Mark does give us a much more rounded view of the disciples than simply this litany of their failures, with explicit stories of their successes as well as an implicit message through the context. Right at the start of the gospel, Jesus calls them away from their nets, to follow him and become fishers of men (Mk 1. 16-20), which they do. They follow him, despite all his dire warnings about what that will mean. They might come across as a little dim-witted at times, but surely some of the picture Jesus paints sinks in. He regularly speaks of his own death, and even tells them that the cup he drinks, they will drink, and that the baptism with which he is baptised, they will be baptised (Mk 10. 39). He often points out that their greatness will be measured in the depths of their suffering and lengths of their service to others, that they must ‘deny themselves and pick up their cross’ if they are to follow him, that they are to ‘lose their lives’ (Mk8. 34-37) and yet they stick with him. We know that they were aware of the cost of following him, Peter speaks of them leaving everything to follow him (Mk 10. 28), but it seems more like an acknowledgement than a complaint. They seem content to be itinerant students, cut off from the world and even from their families to be with Jesus and each other.

         They also embrace Jesus’ counter-cultural positions, even at risk to themselves. They are happy to consort with ‘sinners’ alongside him, even welcoming Levi the tax collector to their midst (Mk 2. 13-17); they move regularly among the gentiles and they follow his flexible approach to the Sabbath laws (Mk 2. 23-28).

         Not only are they tenacious, they are successful: Jesus sends them out on what seems to be the least well-equipped mission ever, but they go out, preaching the gospel, healing many and casting out demons (Mk 6. 7-13). They might not be the most insightful of men, but it is Peter who first recognises Jesus as Messiah shortly before the Transfiguration (Mk 8. 27-30).

         To conclude, Mark conveys a rich message about what it means to follow Jesus, clearly signalling pros and cons. There will be suffering, service and costly love. We are left in no doubt that our lives will not follow an easy path if we follow Jesus, for we will tread the path he trod, but for all the pain that may come our way, we should not be dismayed. The disciples, despite the difficulties and failures, are close to Jesus. They are cut off from the world, but gain access to a wonderful new family in the Kingdom of God, not to mention eternal life (Mk 10. 29-31). They are together constantly in a close-knit fraternity, a picture of what life in Christ can be; one lived alongside ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’ (Mk3. 31-35).

         Mark also makes clear that there will be failure; that even true disciples of Jesus will let him down with lack of insight, lack of faith, lack of courage and lack of humility. That we may, temporarily, even turn away from him for our own sakes, but in coming back to him we will find redemption and forgiveness. Jesus tells them that he will ‘go before them to Galilee’ before their betrayal (Mk 14. 28), and he has this same message for them after his resurrection (Mk 16. 7). Unlike the other three gospels, Mark gives us no account of the disciples’ reunion with Jesus after the resurrection, there is none of John’s tender depiction of Jesus’ rehabilitation of his relationship with Peter, just this simple statement: I told you I would meet you, and I will. Nonetheless, it can surely be assumed that the post-resurrection reputation of these men as powerful leaders of the early church was secure and widespread, and it is that reputation with which Mark contrasts their failures.

Finally, the fundamental message of discipleship implicit in Mark’s gospel is of the futility of trying to live Christian life without the power of the Holy Spirit. These men, the bedrock of the early church, went on to create and lead an organisation that persevered and flourished in the face of every imaginable adversity. These self-same men, heroes of the faith, proved to be fearful, selfish, proud, ignorant, faithless and untrustworthy time and again. If they couldn’t do it without the Holy Spirit, walking literally side-by-side with Jesus, what hope to we have? Conversely, to quote Mark himself out of context, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” (Mk 10. 27)