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Today’s Teaching

Themes in Mark: Discipleship

Felicia Caid Smith

Day: 0 | Plan: Foundation

Start Here: Mark 10:45

Key Verse: Mark 10:45 (ESV) "For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Jesus had many followers, but He specifically called 12 disciples who received private instruction from Him and special power to preach, heal, and cast out demons. These 12 left everything behind to follow Jesus ... but they were not always "model disciples." Throughout Mark's Gospel, we'll see the 12 failed to understand Jesus' parables, were slow to learn, missed the significance of Jesus' miracles and teachings, lacked faith during hardships, and did not understand Jesus' role as Messiah.

Judas betrayed Jesus (Mark 14:45-46). Jesus' three closest disciples fell asleep when He asked them to pray (Mark 14:37-38). All the disciples abandoned Jesus when He was arrested (Mark 14:50). Peter denied knowing Jesus three times (Mark 14:72). Nonetheless, Jesus graciously chose, called, taught, forgave, empowered, and commissioned these imperfect people. He instructed them to take up their crosses and follow Him, to put themselves last and embrace lives of self-sacrifice for His Kingdom. After all, the King Himself "came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45).

Mark's narrative does also include some positive examples of faith and discipleship: In Mark 5, we'll meet a woman who reached out to Jesus for healing and a man named Jairus who trusted that Jesus had power to resurrect the dead. A mother in Mark 7 had faith in Jesus' authority over demons; a father in Mark 9 chose to trust Jesus despite his own doubts; and a blind man in Mark 10 persisted in faith, received healing, and followed Jesus.

Still, there is only one perfect model for discipleship: the suffering, serving, and self-sacrificial Jesus Himself. And He calls us to follow His path.

As we study the book of Mark, we'll see that sometimes Jesus spoke to Jews and other times to gentiles, or non-Jews. Sometimes He addressed religious leaders and other times His disciples. To discover how Jesus' teachings apply to us now, we should first seek to understand what they meant to His original hearers then. Bible scholars J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hayes write: "If we come up with a point that Jesus' audience would not grasp, we have probably missed the point."

We don't have to become overnight experts on ancient Roman and Hebrew culture, so don't worry! But as we read the Gospel of Mark, we can do our best to put ourselves in the place of its first hearers, listening carefully and letting Jesus' words strike us the way they would have struck His original audience. Then we can better draw out timeless biblical principles that were relevant to first-century disciples and remain relevant to us today.

Both then and now, being a disciple of Jesus means pushing aside personal ambitions, setting aside our desires for the sake of God's higher purpose. It means being willing to suffer for our Savior. It means walking in the way of the Master, actively aligning our lives with His.

And in those moments when doubt creeps in, it means praying like one man did in Mark 9:24: "Help my unbelief!" On the other side of this powerless, imperfect prayer was a miracle from a powerful, perfect God. May our hearts be reminded that He can transform our circumstances far beyond our comprehension and that He will somehow work it all out for good (Ephesians 3:20; Romans 8:28).

Prayer: Heavenly Father, You are so loving. But I struggle to love people the way Jesus loves, and I wrestle with my pride and selfishness. Give me a heart that puts others first and myself last. Help me to set my own interests aside so I can serve others and follow Jesus better. In Jesus' name, amen.

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