Cost of Discipleship
Jesus sent the twelve disciples to proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom of God throughout the region. In the Gospel of Mark, this incident is followed by the execution of John the Baptist. His death prepares the reader for the rejection that inevitably results whenever anyone decides to become a disciple and follow Jesus of Nazareth no matter where it leads. To walk in his footsteps, one must first count the cost to have any hope of seeing the journey through to the end.
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| [Counting Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash] |
Jesus sent the disciples to proclaim the arrival of the “Kingdom,” cast out demons, and pray for the sick. He gave them his authority to do so. Just as he was the representative of the Father, so the twelve disciples were his envoys sent to Israel - (Mark 6:7-13).
Jesus summoned the twelve and “began to
send them out two by two.” This was in accord with the Mosaic Law that required
that a man’s testimony be corroborated by two or more witnesses. These twelve
men did more than simply teach religious principles. In effect, they were witnesses
to how the Jewish people responded to their Messiah - (Deuteronomy 19:15).
The passage states that Jesus “BEGAN to
send them forth.” The Greek verb rendered “began” indicates that he sent
them to preach on more than one occasion. The term apostellō or
“send forth” is related to the noun apostolos from
which the noun “apostle” is derived.
He commanded the twelve to carry staffs,
belts, sandals, and tunics with them, items which corresponded to the
instructions given to Israel on the night of Passover in Egypt - “In this
manner, you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and
your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste. It is Yahweh's Passover” -
(Exodus 12:11).
However, they were to announce something of far
more importance than the original exodus from Egypt. Like the ancient
Israelites, the twelve disciples would not be encumbered with anything that
might impede their journey. Just as there was urgency in Israel’s flight from
Egypt, so there was urgency in the disciples’ mission to proclaim the Kingdom throughout
the villages of Galilee.
If a village rejected their message, they
were to “shake off the dust under your feet for a witness.” It was the common
practice for devout and patriotic Jews when traveling through Gentile lands to
shake the dust off their feet when they arrived home so no “unclean” pagan soil
would pollute the land of Israel.
By doing this, the disciples would send an especially offensive message to the offending village, declaring graphically that its Jewish residents were no better than ritually unclean Gentiles.
With the arrival of the Messiah, there could
be no presumption of salvation or blessing based on geography, nationality, or
ethnicity. From then on, how one responded to Jesus determined inclusion
in or exclusion from the covenant people of God and His promised Kingdom.
HEROD AND JOHN
The Gospel of Mark inserts the story
of John’s execution between the sending of the twelve disciples and their
return. His unjust death provided an example of the cost of becoming a disciple
of Jesus - (Mark 6:14-29).
Herod Antipas was one of the sons of Herod
the Great and the tetrarch of Galilee and Peræa. He ruled as the faithful
vassal of Rome. “Tetrarch” means the “ruler of a fourth.” Following his
death, the domain of Herod the Great was divided between four of his sons. As the
ruler appointed by Rome, Herod Antipas had the authority to execute a prisoner
convicted of committing a capital crime in his realm.
Herodias divorced the half-brother of Herod
Antipas so she could marry him, a violation of the Mosaic regulations regarding
incest. Though a wife could divorce her husband under Roman law, the Mosaic Law
did not allow for a wife to initiate divorce proceedings - (Leviticus 18:16,
20:21).
In John’s eyes, Herodias was still married
to the half-brother of Antipas, making her an adulteress. In his turn, Herod
Antipas divorced his previous wife so he could marry Herodias. In the passage, the
daughter of Herodias is unnamed. But the Jewish historian Josephus identifies
her as ‘Salome,’ the daughter of Herodias and her first husband.
In Mark, John’s execution foreshadows
the death of Jesus. Like John, he would be executed by the representative of Rome.
Like Herod, Pontius Pilate would hesitate to kill him since he knew him to be a
righteous man, yet he would do so anyway. Furthermore, like the Temple
authorities who demanded Christ’s death and manipulated the crowds to call for
it, Herodias got her way by manipulating her husband. The disciples of John came
for his body and buried him, just as Joseph of Arimathea would request the body
of Jesus from Pilate, prepared it carefully, and then buried it.
- (Mark 6:30) – “And the apostles gathered themselves together to Jesus. And they told him all things, whatsoever they had done, and whatsoever they had taught.”
By embedding the death of John in his narrative,
Mark links the gospel mission of the disciples with the opposition from the religious
and political authorities in Jerusalem, both Roman and Jewish.
The story highlights the hard truth that to
become a disciple of the Nazarene one must be willing to follow the same path
that he did even if doing so leads to the disciple’s inevitable and unjust death.
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