Following Jesus: Discipleship in the Gospel of Mark

Steve Langford

Description

This book explores what it means to be a follower of Jesus - a disciple. It outlines the journey from how the world trained us to think and live to the transformation that happens when we allow the ways of God that Jesus taught to shape how we think and life.
The book explores what it means to follow Jesus - to be a disciple. It presents a study of the gospel of Mark, identifying the gospel's unique message about the discipleship journey. It follows the journey of Jesus's first disciples, tracing how they moved from being blind to being able to see, but not clearly, to seeing clearly. It unpacks Jesus's teachings to explain what being a follow of Jesus entails. It describes the discipleship journey of moving from how the world trained us to think and live to allowing the ways of God that Jesus taught to shape our thinking and living. It lifts up the radical transformation of life that is the result of being a follower of Jesus.

Sujets

• Discipleship
• Philosophie et théologie
• Following Jesus
• Bible study
• Disciple (Christianity)
• Gospel of Mark
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: Trafford Publishing
• Date de parution: 25 juillet 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781698712383
• Langue: English

Extrait

Following Jesus: DISCIPLESHIP IN THE GOSPEL OF MARK
 
 
 
 
 
Steve Langford
 
© Copyright 2022 Steve Langford. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.
ISBN: 978-1-6987-1240-6 (sc) ISBN: 978-1-6987-1239-0 (hc) ISBN: 978-1-6987-1238-3 (e)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022913771
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only. Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.
Trafford rev.  07/25/2022
www.trafford.com North America & international toll-free: 844-688-6899 (USA & Canada) fax: [phone]
Contents
Introduction
 
Chapter 1       The Second Touch
Introduction — Mark 1:1–3:35
Chapter 2       The Son of God
Chapter 3       Capernaum — The Crowds
Chapter 4       Opposition
Chapter 5       The Twelve
Interlude: The Parables — Mark 4:1–34
Chapter 6       Parables about the Kingdom
Blind — Mark 4:35–8:21
Chapter 7       Withdrawals
Chapter 8       Deeds of Power
Chapter 9       Sent Out
Chapter 10     They Did Not Understand
Chapter 11     Gentile Territory
Interlude: Healing The Blind Man — Mark 8:22–36
Chapter 12     Can You See Anything?
Seeing But Not Clearly — Mark 8:27–10:45
Chapter 13     Then He Began to Teach Them
Chapter 14     Who Is the Greatest?
Chapter 15     How Power Is Used in the Kingdom
Interlude: Healing Blind Bartimaeus — Mark 10:46–52
Chapter 16     Bartimaeus
Jerusalem — Mark 11:1–12:44
Chapter 17     Acted-Out Sermons
Chapter 18     By What Authority? — Teachings in the Temple
Interlude: The Temple Discourse — Mark 13:1–37
Chapter 19     The Temple Discourse
Jesus’s Passion And Resurrection — Mark 14:1–16:8
Chapter 20     Anointed for Burial
Chapter 21     The Passover Reinterpreted
Chapter 22     Gethsemane — Prayer, Betrayal, Arrest
Chapter 23     The Trial before the Sanhedrin and Peter’s Denial
Chapter 24     The Roman Trial before Pilate
Chapter 25     The Death of Jesus
Chapter 26     Jesus’s Burial and Resurrection
Chapter 27     Following Jesus: Reflections on Being a Disciple
Chapter 28     A Discipleship Model
 
Appendix A   Background to the Gospel of Mark
Appendix B   Interpretive Outline of the Gospel
Appendix C   Discipleship and the Ego-Centric Self
Appendix D   Apocalyptic Literature
End Notes
Introduction
W e know about Jesus’s life and ministry because of the four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. While each gospel deals with Jesus’s life and ministry, each is unique. Each has a unique message for their particular audience. Thus, how they present the life and ministry of Jesus is shaped by the message the gospel was designed to proclaim. The structure of the gospel reflects its particular message and is frequently a hint about it. 1 This fact is particularly true of the gospel of Mark.
This book presents the unique message of the gospel of Mark. It is not intended to be a verse-by-verse commentary. Rather, using broad strokes, it presents the central message of the gospel.
On the surface, Mark’s gospel presents the life and ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus. However, within the story of the life and ministry of Jesus, Mark’s gospel tells another story—the story of the disciples. The structure of the gospel suggests this story, the story of the disciples, was the gospel writer’s main concern. (See Chapter 1.) In telling the story of the disciples, the biblical author gives us a glimpse of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. He helps us see and understand the journey involved in being a disciple of Jesus.
In reading Mark’s gospel, we certainly want to hear the author’s message about Jesus—his life and ministry, his death and resurrection. We want to gain a deeper understanding of Jesus so that we can know him and his teachings, but we don’t want to miss the author’s other message. We want to learn from him what it means to be a follower of Jesus—a disciple. We want to learn what is involved in the discipleship journey.
Chapter 1
The Second Touch
Mark 8:22–26
“Can you see anything?”
Mark 8:23 2
O n the surface, it looks like just another one of Jesus’s many healing miracles. This story, however, is unique in several ways.
The obvious thing that stands out about this healing is that it required a second touch. Some people brought a blind man to Jesus, begging him to heal the man. Jesus anointed the man’s eyes with saliva and then asked, “Can you see anything?” (Mark 8:23). The man was able to see, but he could not see clearly. “I can see people, but they look like trees, walking” (Mark 8:24). A second touch was required before he was able to see clearly. This miracle is the only miracle recorded in any gospel that required a second touch. 3
A second unique feature is the story is found only in the gospel of Mark. All four gospels have a story of Jesus healing a man who was blind. 4 Mark is the only gospel that records this particular healing that required a second touch. That fact suggests the story plays an important role in the gospel.
Another fact about this story is its location in the gospel. It is placed in the middle of the gospel, dividing the gospel in half. The placement is not random. Rather, it is intentional and significant.
Finally, the required second touch divides the story into three stages. First, the man was blind. After Jesus anointed his eyes with saliva, the man could see, but not clearly. After the second touch, he saw everything clearly. The significance of the miracle story lies in these three stages: blind, seeing but not clearly, seeing clearly.
The blind man represents the disciples. His story is their story. The three stages of the healing miracle correspond to their experience as told in the gospel. Initially, they did not recognize Jesus as the Messiah—i.e., they were blind. In the middle of the gospel, they confessed that Jesus was the Messiah (Mark 8:27–30). At that point, they were able to see, but they struggled to understand what he taught about his impending suffering. They could see but not clearly. Only after his death and resurrection did they see clearly.
In addition, the three stages of the healing miracle reflect the outline of the gospel. 5 The gospel divides into four major sections. It begins with an introductory section that ends with Jesus’s selection of the twelve. The next three sections correspond to the three stages of the miracle story and the three stages of the disciples’ experience: blind, seeing but not clearly, the second touch that enabled them to see clearly. The author used this healing story with its three stages as a literary tool to communicate the structure of the book and the focus of the book—the discipleship journey.
Introduction — Mark 1:1–3:35
The first section of the gospel (Mark 1:1–3:35) serves as an introduction. It records the call of the first disciples (Mark 1:16–20; 2:13–14) and the two factors that led Jesus to choose the twelve to be apostles (Mark 3:13–19). It describes the people’s amazement at Jesus’s teaching and healing ministry, resulting in large crowds thronging around him (Mark 1:21–2:12). The press of the crowds is the first factor that led Jesus to focus on teaching and training his disciples. The press of the crowds is a recurring theme throughout the gospel. The second factor that contributed to Jesus’s focus on his disciples was the opposition he encountered from the religious leaders (Mark 2:13–3:6). Like the crowds, that opposition is a recurring theme throughout the gospel. With the crowds seeking him for his healing powers rather than his teachings about the kingdom and the religious leaders seeking to kill him (Mark 3:6), Jesus chose to invest in a small group of twelve (Mark 3:13–19). From that point on in the gospel, the twelve were the primary focus—of Jesus and of the gospel.
A collection of parables (Mark 4:1–34) serves as an interlude between the introduction and the second section of the gospel. The parable of the sower—or better, the parable of the soils—reflects the various responses Jesus had encountered as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom (Mark 1:14–15).
Blind — Mark 4:35–8:21
The second section of the gospel (Mark 4:35–8:21) introduces the disciples’ blindness. It describes a series of withdrawals in which Jesus sought to escape the press of the crowds and the opposition of the religious leaders so he could invest in the twelve. In this section, the disciples did not recognize Jesus as the Messiah. Their blindness is reflected in the first story of this section in which Jesus calmed the storm on the sea (Mark 4:35–41). “They were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’” (Mark 4:41). In the first half of the gospel, only those possessed by unclean spirits recognized who Jesus was—at Capernaum (Mark 1:23–34), in Galilee (Mark 3:11), and in