The Cost of Discipleship

To be Christ’s disciple requires carrying his cross and following in his footsteps, even when doing so results in impoverishment or death - Mark 6:7-30.

Jesus sent the Twelve Disciples to proclaim his Good News throughout the region. In the Gospel of Mark, this incident is followed by the execution of John the Baptist, whose death prepares the reader for the rejection that inevitably results when anyone decides to follow the Nazarene, no matter the cost.

To walk in the footsteps of Jesus, we must first count the cost to have any hope of seeing the journey through to the end.

[Footprints - Photo by Toa Heftiba (U.K.) on Unsplash]

The disciples were to announce the arrival of “the Kingdom,” cast out demons, and pray for the sick, and Jesus gave them his authority to do so. Just as he was the representative of the Father, so the Twelve Disciples would be his envoys to Israel:

• “And he called to him the Twelve and began to send them by two and two. And he gave them authority over the unclean spirits. And he charged them that they should take nothing for their journey, except a staff only; no bread, no wallet, no money in their purse, but to go shod with sandals. And he said they should not take two coats. And he said to them, Wherever you enter a house, there remain until you depart from there. And whatever place will not receive you, and they hear you not, as you depart, shake off the dust that is under your feet for a testimony to them. And they went out and preached that men should repent. And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick, and healed them” - (Mark 6:7-13).

Sending the disciples in pairs was in accord with the Mosaic Law that required a man’s testimony to be confirmed by two or more witnesses. The Twelve Disciples did more than simply teach religious principles. They became witnesses to how the Jewish people responded to their Messiah. The nation’s fate would be determined by how it received or rejected Jesus Christ - (Deuteronomy 19:15).

Jesus “began to send them forth.” The Greek verb translated as “began” indicates that he sent them to preach on more than one occasion.  The Greek term ‘apostellō’ or “send forth” is related to the noun ‘apostolos’ from which the noun “apostle” is derived.

Christ commanded the Twelve Disciples to take staffs, belts, sandals, and tunics. These items correspond to the instructions given to Israel on the night of Passover in Egypt, and this is deliberate. With the arrival of the Messiah, a new “Exodus” began as Jesus guided God’s people out of bondage to Satan and Sin. Likewise, the number ‘12’ corresponds to the Twelve Tribes of Israel:

• “In this manner, you will eat it. Your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you will eat it in haste. It is Yahweh's Passover” - (Exodus 12:11).

Christ’s representatives would 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 this mission to proclaim the Kingdom throughout the villages of Galilee. Time was of the essence.

If the village rejected their message, the Disciples were to “shake off the dust under their feet for a witness.” It was the common practice of devout Jews when traveling through Gentile lands to shake the dust off their feet when they arrived again in Judea so no “unclean” pagan soil polluted the land of Israel.

By shaking the dust off their feet, the Twelve Disciples would send an especially offensive message to any 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 based on geography or ethnicity. How anyone responded to Jesus determined his or her inclusion in or exclusion from the covenant people of God and His 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. John’s unjust death provided an example of the cost of becoming Christ’s disciple - (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 vassal of Rome. “Tetrarch” means the “ruler of a fourth.” Following the death of Herod the Great, his domain 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.

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 any divorce proceedings - (Leviticus 18:16, 20:21).

Herodias was still married to the half-brother of Antipas, making her an adulteress. In his turn, Herod Antipas had 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.

The execution of John foreshadows Christ’s death. Like John, Jesus would be executed by the representative of Rome. Like Herod, Pontius Pilate would hesitate to kill Jesus since he knew him to be a righteous man, yet he did so anyway. 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, Herod Antipas.

The disciples of John came for his body and buried him, just as Joseph of Arimathea would later request the body of Jesus from Pilate for proper burial.

• (Mark 6:30) – “And the apostles gathered themselves together to Jesus. And they told him all things, whatever they had done, and whatever they had taught.”

By embedding the death of John in his narrative, Mark links the gospel mission of the disciples with the opposition to Jesus by the religious and political authorities in Jerusalem.

This story illustrates the hard truth that to become a disciple of the Nazarene, we must first become willing to follow the same path that he did, even if doing so leads to suffering and death.

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SEE ALSO:

• Persecution and Suffering - (When disciples react to hostility with hostility, whether by government, society, or individuals, Satan triumphs)

• The Imminent Storm - (The New Testament warns of a future apostasy caused by deceivers and the Son of Destruction, the Lawless Man, before the Day of the Lord arrives)

• Accounted Worthy - (The Spirit of Antichrist operates in the world by sending deceivers into the church)

• The Conspiracy - (The prophesied plot of the Earth’s kings to unseat God’s Son is applied by the New Testament to the conspiracy to destroy Jesus – Psalm 2:1-6)