Discipleship is not often a word in today’s vernacular, especially outside a Christian setting.
A disciple is simply someone who follows Jesus, embracing him as Lord and Savior. In Mark’s gospel we find Jesus’ form of discipleship greatly contrasted the Pharisees.’
Jesus’ version of discipleship broke through the social barriers of his day. He compassionately interacted with groups the Pharisees overlooked.
This included hated ethnic groups (the Samaritans), women, the unclean, and sinners. This often didn’t sit well the with religious majority of the day, the Pharisees.
In Mark 2:14 Jesus calls Levi, a tax collector, to follow him. Tax collectors were hated by fellow Jews because of their tendency to abuse power through extortion. They were considered agents of Rome and traitors.
But Jesus, a famous rabbi, called this outcast to be his disciple. Later, the Pharisees found Jesus eating at Levi’s house with tax collectors and “sinners.”
The Pharisees always kept a healthy distance from sinners, so they asked his disciples why Jesus was eating with them (ironically, the Bible describes all people as sinners, including Pharisees).
Jesus heard their self-righteous question and said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17).
Jesus was destroying social barriers to discipleship by calling all sinners in need of healing.
Unlike other rabbis, Jesus called his disciples to be marked by servanthood. They were not to be great in the world’s eye.
In fact, Jesus would flip the common perception of greatness on its head. In many ways the greatest person in our world is the one who is at the top, the one who has the most servants.
The one who is greatest in Jesus’ kingdom is the one who is at the bottom, the servant of all (Mark 9:35).
Jesus’ disciples are to be like their master who “did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
Another important contrast involves what the disciples would be called to do. In
Mark 8:34 Jesus says, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
This would have been a shocking statement. Surely it would have sent people home packing­—the cost was too great. Sometimes it even seemed absurd.
To take up one’s cross was a call to death. It was not just any death, but a death by crucifixion.
Crucifixion was used by the Romans to discourage sedition, and it was a very effective method.
Jesus was not calling them to a literal crucifixion—he would do that for them. He was calling them to die to themselves and, if needed, give up everything to follow him. By God’s grace, we can become a true disciple of Christ.
David Watson is Youth Pastor at Maranatha Baptist Church