Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE MISSION OF JESUS §13.8
coming kingdom, remains unclear. As also whether we should recognize the distinction
between 'disciples' and 'followers' as significant. Certainly Jesus seems
to have been especially concerned to include those whom most others, or the
main opinion-formers in particular, regarded and treated as outside the realm of
covenant grace. Not just the poor, in line with the deeply rooted priorities of Torah
and prophet, but also, surprisingly, 'sinners', who ought to be disapproved of
by the faithful, until we remember that the 'righteous' were so stringent in their
reading of the law that many practitioners of 'common Judaism' were in effect
excluded in the perspective of the righteous. In all this the vision of a renewed Israel
was little different from that of Jesus' prophetic predecessors. But Jesus did
look for its fulfilment in the near future, and he did seek to anticipate it in the circle
of discipleship which he drew around him.
The ambiguity suggests that we should speak of circles (plural) of discipleship,
rather than of a single coherent circle. 249 The innermost circle seems to
have been the twelve, with Peter and the brothers James and John at its heart, 250
and Peter as the chief spokesman. 251 But round the twelve we have seen a wider
circle of followers, including women who followed (Mary of Magdala and others)
and women who stayed at home (Mary of Bethany); the two Marys were evidently
among Jesus' dearest companions. Should we characterize a further circle
in terms of those who followed Jesus secretly, such as the owner of the upper
room and Joseph of Arimathea? But then we have to mention also those who
heard Jesus gladly (Mark 3.35) and sought to live out his teaching (Matt. 7.24-
25), those whom he healed (Mark 10.52), those who turned and became as children
(Matt. 18.3), the poor who trusted (Luke 6.20), the sinners who repented
(Luke 18.13-14; 19.1-10), the Gentiles who displayed a faith which Jesus hardly
met elsewhere (Matt. 8.10), and indeed, according to Luke, sympathetic Pharisees
(Luke 7.36; 11.37; 14.1). What is striking about these circles of discipleship
is the way they overlap and intertwine, forbidding us to make any hard and fast
distinction between disciples and followers, or to designate different grades of
249. Cf. Ladd, Jesus and the Kingdom 248-54; Lohfink, Jesus and Community 31-35;
Sanders, Historical Figure 123-27; Meier, Marginal Jew 3.627-30.
250. It makes better sense of the evidence to deduce that the prominence of the three in
the earliest days of the new movement (Acts 1.13; 3-4; 12.2) is a reflection of an earlier pre-
Easter prominence (Mark 1.29; 3.16-17; 5.37; 9.2; 13.3; 14.33) rather than the reverse. James
the brother of John hardly features in the post-Easter story, and his early execution (Acts 12.2)
leaves it unlikely that he made a deep enough impression in the traditioning process for that impression
to be extended back into the tradition itself. Somewhat surprisingly, Meier concludes
that 'the group of three may be a creation of Mark's redactional activity' (Marginal Jew 3.211-
12).
251. Mark 8.29, 32 pars.; 9.5 pars.; 10.28 pars.; 11.21; 14.29 pars.; Matt. 15.15; 17.24-
27; 18.21; Luke 8.45; 12.41; John 6.68; 13.6-9, 36-37; 21.3.
540