NOTE: This blog is a chapter of a forthcoming book, The Gospel of Mark: A Fast-Paced How-to Discipleship Model. Projected publication, late spring/early summer.
Mark 6
Introduction
This chapter provides a compact model of discipleship. Remember that wise men inserted chapter demarcations along the way to facilitate our study of the Word. Hence, other chapters in the gospels could support this title. Nonetheless, this is a descriptive title for this chapter and this lesson. In this chapter, we have the following components. Jesus’ example generates provocative questions, the opposition taking offense, an internship assignment, internship reporting, the role of compassion for the audience, and the leader taking the disciples to the next level of understanding.
While I do not remember my mentor, Dr. Jay Adams, citing this passage for his discipleship model for the counselor training program at CCEF, he certainly could have, as that program embodied the components that Mark records here.
Success Provokes Investigation (1-2)
When people see the impact of the applied gospel, they are provoked to ask, “Where did this man get these things, and what is this wisdom given to Him, and such miracles as these performed at His hand?” (6:1-3a). In the early 1970s, when I trained and subsequently worked at CCEF, pastor-disciples traveled multiple hours to the Monday training program because they had heard about or observed the results of Adams and associates’ nouthetic (biblical) counseling ministry. As those of whom Mark wrote were provoked to these questions about Jesus, so will people today be provoked to raise such questions when our evangelism and counseling produce results that astound them.
Opposition Takes Offense and Limits the Work (3-6)
The foregoing observation has been confirmed over the centuries. The opposition, taking offense, has also been confirmed and continues today. Jesus’ response is still valid. The biblical counselor cannot do his miracles in the professional counseling world because of unbelief. While there is an ongoing proliferation of folks delivered from addiction, marriages recovered from affairs, bitter enemies reconciled, etc., the church and its ministries find less and less acceptance coupled with increasing opposition in this world.
Jesus’ response is also astonishment. While not surprised by their unbelief, as we should not be, He is, nonetheless, astonished. This is a reminder of Richard Dawkins and his letter to his ten-year-old daughter, found in his book The Devi’s Chaplain.1 If you read his letter, turn to Romans 1:18ff and Psalm 19 to understand your astonishment at his unbelief.
Later in this chapter, Jesus instructs his disciples on how to handle this opposition. In a nutshell, He will say, “Let them be and go on to the next opportunity.”
The Instructions for the Internship (8-13)
Keep in mind that these instructions are specific to this situation. What we should take from them are principles of operation. The New Testament yields an array of principles for the ongoing church. However, the experiential learning dynamic of an internship model is relevant throughout biblical history. Two examples will suffice: Joshua under Moses and Elisha under Elijah. These two examples even fit the two-by-two character of this internship, reinforcing this concept as wise for today as it was for Jesus and the Old Testament.
The Interlude (14-28)
Why does Mark include this interlude? A credible answer is that it gives a broad perspective of the populace’s response to Jesus and His influence among them. He is also providing a foreshadowing of what disciples can expect throughout history.
The Internship Report (30)
Mark gives us no details. However, his reference affirms and validates a valuable component of an internship that all succeeding disciple-makers should consider a necessary aspect of the learning process.
The Call to Rest and the Difficulty of Finding Rest (31-52)
In this action, Jesus teaches them and us (especially those in full-time ministry) two crucial lessons. First, rest after an intense ministry time should be part of the plan. Second, carving that time out is, in and of itself, difficult because of the multitude of hurting people around us. Jesus again models for the disciples. Attend to the needs of the hurting by depending upon Him. He teaches them this by giving them an impossible task and then by providing for the task with “leftovers.”
He then instructs them to get in a boat and “leave town” to rest while he withdraws to pray. Indeed, this is my supposition, but it is likely He and the Father discuss the disciples and determine that they need an opportunity of hardship as an occasion to learn an important lesson. Hence, the storm blows in upon them on the sea. Why this supposition? It is because of the comment the Holy Spirit leads Mark to include in verse fifty-two, “for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened (marginal reading says, “their mind was closed, made dull and insensitive.”)
The lesson for the reader here is this. When observing God’s wonderful works in changing lives, stop to consider what lesson, being the observer, the Lord is teaching you (me).
Sometimes, the coming apart to rest is only short-lived. For these disciples, it was the time between the calming of the storm and the landing on the opposite side of the shore (54).
The Beat Goes On (55-56)
As noted above, they and we are constantly in demand from those who are hurting. When, as part of His body, by His grace and empowerment, we help people in His name, we will be inundated by the press of others seeking help. As it were, they are touching Him by touching us. What a tremendous responsibility! What a grand opportunity! What a depth of blessing!
The Conclusion
What are the components of this discipleship internship model as presented by Mark?
- A life and ministry that draws attention to the power of God.
- Expect opposition to the work of God
- Instruct and deploy disciples on internships
- Accountability for internship experience
- Need for and difficulty in achieving rest from the ministry
- When ministering the power of God that affects changed lives, you will always be in demand
These components comprise the essential lessons that disciple-makers should take into consideration.
Implementation
Follow in the footsteps of Jesus. Recruit, train, disperse on internships, review the experience, and seize opportunities to take trainees, even counselees, to the next level.
- For a quick journey to this letter, see: https://openparachute.wordpress.com/2008/09/26/dawkins-prayer-for-his-daughter/ ↩︎