The Gospel of Mark on Discipleship

Mark starts, not with the genealogy of Jesus like Matthew did, and he did not start with the birth of Jesus, like Luke did, but instead he started with a disciple of the Lord, John the Baptist, a faithful servant who in chapter one was arrested, and in chapter 6 was put to death. Jesus then called his 12 disciples, and many are said they "immediately," left it all and followed Jesus. Mark does not paint these men as perfect. On the contrary he paints them as men with little faith that had a hard time understanding the ways and words of the Lord Jesus. Yet we get a glimmer of hope of how they went out and shared the gospel, and could even heal people and rebuke demons. Sometimes they obeyed, but as Jesus' death and resurrection approached, Jesus said that true discipleship involves, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it" (8:34-35). The disciples did not understand God's ways, and they kept asking "Whose the greatest?" or "Who will sit at the right and left of Jesus in His glory?" Jesus showed them examples of a poor widow who gave everything, and a woman who poured her most precious possession of sweet perfume on Jesus' head to prepare Him for burial. The plus is, Jesus never gave up on them, and as Joanna Dewey wrote in her book, "Women in the Gospel of Mark," "The very fact that Mark's story is being told suggests that Mark views failure as part of continuing discipleship."