A Day in the Life of a Disciple
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hat does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? Merriam-Webster defines disciple as, “One who accepts and assists in spreading the doctrines of another.” This definition implies both intimate knowledge of the other’s teachings, as well as actioned commitment. Jesus invited twelve men to, “Follow Me!” and they did. These left everything they had been doing to live and travel with Jesus. Their days were focused on learning what He was teaching, and assisting Him in His ministry. On the surface, that sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? But sinful human nature being what it is, this was not easy! There’s one particular day recorded in all four gospels that I think really illustrates what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, and so that’s what I’m going to look at today.
Multitudes followed Jesus at times, but He didn’t exactly make it easy for them to continue. He told them things that were hard to understand and difficult to accept, like, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life”, watched as many walked away, and asked His close disciples, “Do you want to go away too?” Here are some of Jesus’ harder passages on following Him:
Luke 9:23–24 (NKJV)
23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.Luke 14:25–27 (NKJV)
25 Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
These words aren’t comfortable to the flesh by any means! Denying ourselves is hard, but it’s possible empowered by the Holy Spirit, because, as Paul writes: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). The imagery of taking up one’s cross comes from the practice of a condemned person made to carry their own cross to the execution site. We see in the gospels that Jesus had to do it, although because He was so weak from the beatings, Simon of Cyrene was made to finish the task. The criminal carrying his own cross would signal to himself and all who saw him that his life of sin was functionally over. That is how we are to see our self-willed sinful lives. Now, if we follow Jesus, we have to put the old flesh to death. I also want to clarify, in case there is any confusion: Jesus is not saying we should actually hate our family members. He means we should love Him so much, that in comparison to our love for God, our love for our family appears as hate—so that we are able to walk away from them in order to follow Him, if necessary. Back in November, I interviewed a man named Tariku, who was forced to make the decision, Jesus or his family, about one week into his life with Christ. It’s such a powerful story. If you haven’t seen it, I’ll put a link at the end of this blog.
One time after my pastor had preached on the cost of discipleship, my prayer to the Father was something like this: “You said daily, Lord. What could that look like for me today?” After asking this question, I began a journey through a day in the life of the disciples, as recorded in Mark chapter 6. I began to see this account in a new way.
Here we go:
Mark 6:30-31 (NKJV)
30 Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. 31 And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.
For context, this was after Jesus had sent the twelve out two by two, to preach that people should repent. And He had given them power over unclean spirits (Mark 6:7-13). Now they are back. The disciples are presumably in high spirits. They have so much to tell Jesus of all they had accomplished through His power. For a modern example, imagine you are part of a short-term missions team. You went, you saw God work in various ways, and you came home. Now you come into church the next day, and you see your pastor, who you know has been praying for you. You’re full of joy and stories that you can’t wait to share with him.
But Jesus is in high demand. So many people are coming in and out of the place where they are, the disciples don’t even have time to eat. Being as they’ve just returned from a missionary journey, they’re probably extra tired, too. Jesus invites them to go to a deserted place to rest. That sounds like a wonderful plan.
Mark 6:32-34 (NKJV)
32 So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves.
33 But the multitudes saw them departing, and many knew Him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to Him.
34 And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things.
I believe the twelve were disappointed. Rest in a deserted place sounded so good, but it didn’t work. Now they’re in the middle of nowhere with a huge crowd wanting to talk to Jesus. As He settled into teaching, perhaps they thought, “So much for rest and breakfast! This is going to be a long day.”
Mark 6:35–36 (NKJV)
35 When the day was now far spent, His disciples came to Him and said, “This is a deserted place, and already the hour is late. 36 Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread; for they have nothing to eat.”
Now the day is almost gone. But Jesus doesn’t seem to notice, so finally the disciples take it upon themselves to ask Jesus to send the people away. What is going on? The disciples are commanding Jesus? They are getting this disciple thing backwards! But I am sympathetic. I really am. Because I see myself a lot in this story.
The disciples may have conferred together about what to say to Jesus before pulling Him aside. One of them might have said, “He knows we’re hungry, but He’s focused on the crowd, so let’s talk about them.” We can appear sympathetic to others, when our own “needs” are really at the forefront of our minds.
Mark 6:37 (NKJV)
37 But He answered and said to them, “You give them something to eat.”
And they said to Him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat?”
It’s not hard to imagine these thoughts: “Well, that plan didn’t work! Jesus is asking us to feed them? He knows we don’t have that kind of money [8 months’ wages]!”
Mark 6:38 (NKJV)
38 But He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.”
And when they found out they said, “Five, and two fish.”
Jesus graciously ignores their snide response, and gives them one thing to do. They obeyed Him, and so begins the account of the famous miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000 by multiplying the five loaves and the two fish.
Mark 6:39-44 (NKJV)
39 Then He commanded them to make them all sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in ranks, in hundreds and in fifties. 41 And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and the two fish He divided among them all. 42 So they all ate and were filled. 43 And they took up twelve baskets full of fragments and of the fish. 44 Now those who had eaten the loaves were about five thousand men.
If you were part of the crowd, you were filled with wonder and happiness. But the disciples? We’ll get to it, but no. It’s hard to change attitudes in a moment. Plus, since they were responsible for crowd control and distribution, I imagine they were the last to eat. But once they did, at least their stomachs felt better.
Mark 6:45 (NKJV)
45 Immediately He made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while He sent the multitude away.
I bet the disciples were thinking, “Finally! Away from the crowd. Ahhhhhh.”
Mark 6:46–48 (NKJV)
46 And when He had sent them away, He departed to the mountain to pray. 47 Now when evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea; and He was alone on the land. 48 Then He saw them straining at rowing, for the wind was against them. Now about the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea, and would have passed them by.
Mark 6:49-52 (NKJV)
49 And when they saw Him walking on the sea, they supposed it was a ghost, and cried out; 50 for they all saw Him and were troubled. But immediately He talked with them and said to them, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.”
51 Then He went up into the boat to them, and the wind ceased. And they were greatly amazed in themselves beyond measure, and marveled. 52 For they had not understood about the loaves, because their heart was hardened.
It says they hadn’t understood about the loaves, because their heart was hardened. Jesus was communicating that He, the Word of God, is the Bread from heaven. When Jesus fasted and Satan tempted Him to turn stones to bread, He said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4, quoting Deuteronomy 8:3). I can understand the disciples’ hard heartedness. If I were with them that day, I cannot imagine having a better reaction. In fact, the reason I’m publishing this today is because I reminded myself of the disciples that day, a month ago (more on that later).
I imagine Him smiling as He called out to them, standing on the sea, the waves and wind still roaring. His graciousness with these hard-hearted, physically-exhausted men is truly awesome. The glory He reveals to these broken people—showing how He commands nature in every way—demonstrates God’s incredible heart for the people He created.
The book of Matthew includes a special part with Peter:
Matthew 14:25-33 (NKJV)
25 Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. 26 And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear.
27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.”
28 And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.”
29 So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. 30 But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!”
31 And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.
33 Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.”
Wow. Finally, the disciples have an appropriate response: they worship Jesus.
The gospel of John includes another detail.
John 6:16-21 (NKJV)
16 Now when evening came, His disciples went down to the sea, 17 got into the boat, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was already dark, and Jesus had not come to them. 18 Then the sea arose because a great wind was blowing. 19 So when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near the boat; and they were afraid. 20 But He said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” 21 Then they willingly received Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land where they were going.
Here is a third miracle: they immediately arrive to the place they were headed for as soon as Jesus enters the boat. He tested them to exhaustion, rowing in rough waves through three watches of the night, and then gave them immediate relief.
Mark 6:53–55 (NKJV)
53 When they had crossed over, they came to the land of Gennesaret and anchored there. 54 And when they came out of the boat, immediately the people recognized Him, 55 ran through that whole surrounding region, and began to carry about on beds those who were sick to wherever they heard He was.
When they arrive on shore, people see them and surround Jesus. By this point, the disciples have been awake for probably 24 hours straight. They have seen thousands of people. They have eaten one meal, but are no doubt hungry again. Their muscles are tired from straining at the oars most of the night. But there is no record of an attitude. I think they finally understood the lesson– at least for that day.
Jesus had a human body, just like we do. He experienced hunger. He knew what it was like to be tired. But as a good shepherd, He set aside His own comforts to care for the souls and bodies of the people around Him. He was willing to be interrupted. Jesus teaches His disciples to reflect Him likewise. We can study their examples, but nothing is so effective towards learning as real-life testing. Some days, like Jesus’ twelve disciples on the day of the feeding of the five thousand, we don’t do very well.
A draft of this blog has actually been on my computer since 2013, before I even had my own blog! My bad attitude recently reminded me of the disciples’ long day, and this blog. I was supposed to volunteer on a Sunday morning at church, and a wet/cold front blew in Friday night into Saturday, bringing low temperatures, high winds, and rain/ice/snow. Accumulation amounts weren’t significant, but the ice content meant that shoveling was a lot of work. “If I wasn’t scheduled for the nursery, I would just stay home tomorrow, watch church online, and wait for this to melt,” I said. Spending the evening shoveling icy snow in the cold and wind isn’t what I wanted to do. “I wonder if I am the only one who has ice.” I tried to pray halfheartedly, but the truth is, I didn’t want to stop complaining. Obviously, the LORD had ordained this evening activity for me, and that, too, was irritating. My heart was hard. I was probably a little like the disciples in the boat, straining at the oars. Even the next morning, practically right until the time nursery began, I still struggled with my attitude. When a handful of volunteers gathered to pray for that morning, I learned that the lesson the children aged 3 to fifth grade would be learning was about the Israelites complaining in the desert and being struck with a plague. “I am such a hypocrite,” I thought. Obviously, I have a long way to go in learning to deny myself, as this was no true hardship. And just because the children learned that day (if they didn’t already know) that complaining is a sin, it doesn’t mean they will never complain again. Knowing God’s instruction and learning to obey are two different things. A disciple of Christ not only knows what Jesus teaches, but also practice it. Being made into the image of Christ is a lifelong process.
Experientially, Jesus’ disciples were asked to deny their desires for immediate food and rest, to let their plans be interrupted, and to put the needs of others before themselves. If you identified with the disciples in this account, or with my story, I encourage you not to be discouraged. Remember His words to the embattled, terrified disciples after they saw Him walking on the sea: “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” Jesus knows our weakness, He intercedes for us, and He gives us more grace when we repent. Let us press on in the strength of the Holy Spirit, that we may be His faithful disciples.
I promised I’d post a link to Tariku’s interview (https://youtu.be/XdUN2J5dOic) at the conclusion of this blog. Tariku Fufa Gemechu, with Cru, is the Africa director for Global Church Movement. Not only his personal testimony of discipleship very powerful, God has given him present-day insight and leadership gifts to serve the Church. Tariku recently published a book on leadership: Holistic Ethical Leadership: Leading Holistically and Ethically Self, Individuals, Groups, Organizations, and Societies.
