“Follow Me”…“He Is Going before You to Galilee”
(Mk 1: 16; Mk 16:7) RSV
Discipleship is a relationship. Throughout history, human life has evolved, developed, and been sustained within relationships with other human beings and nature. Human beings are born out of relationships, live in relationship to others, and are remembered through those relationships. Discipleship belongs to those relationships that characterize the historical, political, and ethical nature of human beings. As such, like other socio-political and religious discipleship, Christian discipleship assumes both its universal and particular characteristics. As a relational practice, it touches upon both body and mind and involves both the material and spiritual realities of human relations.
Korean Christians in most conservative churches would easily define the question of discipleship from a predominantly dogmatic and exclusivist understanding of the Christian faith. This hinders us from knowing what it meant to follow Jesus in first-century Judea under Roman imperial domination. Many believers consider discipleship mainly a spiritual discipline promoting growth of faith in Jesus Christ. They have been religiously socialized to the teaching that Christian discipleship has less to do with worldly problems, especially political issues. Whether or not religious leaders should be involved in political matters in society has been an ongoing divisive issue among churches and believers. Further, at historically critical times, some political leaders have manipulated this issue to legitimate political oppression. The question of discipleship urges us to return to the foundational relationship between Jesus and his disciples, to reflect upon it in our social locations, and embody it in our daily life. In this sense, discipleship entails a conscious and critical reflection of the past in order to continue and renew our faithful practice in the present for the hope of a different future.
Any discourse or preaching on Christian discipleship presupposes an understanding about the relationship between Jesus and his disciples as historical figures, depending upon how the Gospel stories are read. However, the nature of the Gospels as historical narratives rather than historical facts does not provide us with sufficient historical detail regarding Jesus and his disciples. There is a skeptical position on the knowledge about the historical Jesus with its historical positivistic approach to biblical texts. Conversely, a dogmatic position views Jesus as a divine figure and makes the question of the historical Jesus as irrelevant. Neither position is helpful for a proper understanding of discipleship. A more relational and contextual approach to the historical Jesus enables us to interpret characteristics of the relationship between Jesus and his disciples.
Discerning the Signs of the Times
It is important to notice that from the very beginning the Gospel of Mark introduces Jesus’ appearance in history with the motif of “the way” (ὁδός), intending to help the hearer immediately connect Jesus’ life to the work of John, through the prophet Isaiah, and ultimately the way of the Lord: “Prepare the way of the Lord” (Mk 1:3). Jesus’ life and work are placed at a critical time within the continuity of the Israelite prophetic movements. Thus Jesus’ commitment to the renewal of God’s justice and peace starts from discerning the signs of the times, in Galilee, after John was arrested: “The time (ὁ καιρός) is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mk 1:15). This represents Jesus’ own personal and political commitment to prepare the way of God in the troubled land of Israel under the domination of Roman imperial lordship.
Follow Me
“Following Jesus” does not mean imitating Jesus as a heroic, supernatural individual, but entering into a relationship with the vision (the kingdom of God) that Jesus embodied. Jesus’ calling Peter, James, John, and other (male and female) disciples is far from our modern individualistic understanding of discipleship preoccupied with emotional and pious relationship of “Jesus and me.” “I will make you become fishers of men” (Mk 1:17) is an invitation to join the renewal movement that Jesus initiates, and following Jesus meant taking the courage to accept possibilities for change in personal and social relations, and to work to win hearts and minds. Here there is no distinction between the personal and the political. Following Jesus was making personal and political commitment to the “way” of Jesus that was exemplified by his revolutionary actions of healing, teaching, and suffering eventuating in his death on the cross. This is implied in Jesus’ saying: “If any one would come after me (ἀκολουθεῖν), let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mk 8:34–35; cf. passion predictions in Mk 9:9, 31, 10:33–34). Discipleship inevitably entails the important issues of historical agency, human emancipation, and social transformation. It is a question of discipleship for what, with whom, and for whom.
The Political Economy of Discipleship
Jesus’ practice was a response to the political economy of first century Judean society. At least two aspects deserve special attention. One is his relationship with the poor and the marginalized in the villages of Galilee and Judea. The other is his opposition to the Jewish ruling class who were collaborators with the Roman imperial domination. These two aspects are intertwined and integral to the Jesus movement narrated in the Gospel stories. The way/movement of Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem was infused with his presence with/among the poor (ὄχλος) and his service to their suffering and struggle, and it disturbed the order of things (religious, cultural, political, and economic) in the Galilean society supported by the Jerusalem temple-centered ruling class. In this context, it is not accidental that we hear some harsh sayings of Jesus regarding the rich and wealth. A rich man chose his wealth instead of following (ἀκολουθεῖν) Jesus, when asked to “go, sell what you have, and give to the poor (πτωχός)” (Mk 10:21). Jesus told the disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God” (Mk 10:24), saying further, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Mk 10:25). Here we find an unmistakable connection between discipleship and the economy of the kingdom of God.
The Way of the Cross
Would it be possible to talk about or preach about discipleship without seriously considering Jesus’ crucifixion? Despite a variety of theological interpretations as to the meaning of Jesus’ death, the Gospel stories have Jesus’ overturning the tables in the Jerusalem temple (Mk 11: 15–19) as the climatic moment leading to Jesus’ death on the cross. Jesus’ symbolic and subversive action was a resistance against the political economy of the Jerusalem temple which mainly operated for the economic interests of both the Jewish ruling class and the Roman imperial ruling class. The cruel and dehumanizing imperial execution of crucifixion itself testifies to the risks involved in Jesus’ ministry and in following Jesus. Repeated prediction of Jesus’ passion intensifies its gravity, and the theme of denial and betrayal among the disciples dramatizes all the risks and difficulties involved in being faithful to the way of Jesus. Discipleship calls for courage, endurance, and being faithful to the end (Mk 13:13, 23). It is, indeed, a matter of faith.
At the crossroad between Jesus’ presence/life and absence/death we encounter a remarkable episode about a woman who anointed Jesus for his impending death (Mk 14:3–9). This story along with other stories of women has become a gem for the understanding of equal discipleship among men and women in the early Jesus movement. When the disciples, seemingly more concerned with the practical value of the precious ointment, confronted the unnamed woman, Jesus told them “For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you will, you can do good to them; but you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burying” (Mk 14:7–8). One may suspect a kind of tension between gender and class within the Jesus movement or some may use this episode to argue for the issue of poverty as secondary. However, making a stark contrast between gender and class, between spiritual and material misses the point of the story. Rather, the action of the woman disciple anticipates that of other women disciples at the empty tomb, while the behavior of the male disciples ironically predicts a series of betrayal, denial, and abandonment surrounding the execution of Jesus. The story makes no contrast between gender and class, but does make a paradoxical twist between presence (“always”) and absence (“not always”). At such a critical moment between his presence on earth and absence, Jesus reminds the disciples of the indisputable service to and solidarity with the poor: “For you always have the poor (τοὺς πτωκούς) with you, and whenever you will, you can do good to them; but you will not always have me (ἐμέ)” (Mk 14:7; cf. Mt 25: 34–40). What a remarkable teaching!
We may or may not know how difficult it is to “endure to the end” (Mk 13:13) to do good work for the gospel, the Church, and society, especially when the cost of discipleship amounts to “carrying one’s own cross” under brutal political oppression and economic exploitation. Even the women disciples who ministered (διηκόνουν) and followed (ἠκολούθουν) Jesus up to his execution and the tomb (Mk 15:40–41) were too afraid to tell other disciples that “he is going before you to Galilee” (Mk 16:7). However, if we follow their faith in Jesus who “is going before you to Galilee” even after his crucifixion, we may be blessed to bring the good news of faith and hope to the people in many Galilees of our time.
