Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§14.3 The Character of Discipleship
d. Prayer
For completeness we should recall two other features of the Jesus tradition. One
is the degree to which Jesus provided a model to his disciples as a man of prayer.
It is certainly true that Luke has extended the motif: 82 the obvious reason why he
should record so often in his Gospel that Jesus prayed is that he wanted to present
Jesus' own prayer practice as a pattern for his Christian readership. 83 But the pattern
is already rooted in the memory that Jesus taught his disciples a prayer
which evidently echoed his own style of addressing God as 'Abba' (Matt. 6.9/
Luke 11.2). 84 We may presume that the other instructions and encouragements
he gave to his disciples in their praying (§14.2) similarly mirrored his own practice.
To be a disciple of Jesus was to pray as Jesus prayed.
e. Suffering
Finally, we should note again how often the tradition recalls Jesus warning his
disciples to be prepared for suffering. The motif has been sufficiently documented
above (§12.4d), and little more need be said here. Persecution was part of
the blessedness of sharing in the tradition of the prophets (Matt. 5.11-12/Luke
6.22-23). Most powerful is the cluster of sayings which Mark has appended to
the confession of Peter and the first Passion prediction (Mark 8.27-33) — Mark
8.34-37. 85
34 He called the crowd with his disciples and said to them, 'If anyone wants to
become my follower, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow
me. 35 For he who wants to save his life will lose it, and he who loses his life
for my sake and for the sake of the gospel will save it. 36 For what will it
profit someone to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? 37 Indeed, what
can a person give in return for his life?'
To follow Jesus necessarily involves following him to and through the humiliation
and suffering of the cross; 86 disciples must be prepared to lose that which is
82. Luke 3.21; 5.16; 6.12; 9.18, 28-29; 11.1.
83. See, e.g., Fitzrayer, Luke 244-47.
84. See further Bockmuehl, This Jesus ch. 6; and below, § 16.2b.
85. Matt. 16.24-26 and Luke 9.23-25 appear to be abbreviated versions of Mark and
need not be cited here. See also above, chapter 12 n. 193.
86. The saying surely includes post-Easter reflection on Jesus' crucifixion (e.g., Pesch,
Markusevangelium 2.61), but crucifixion as the extremest form of Roman contempt and humiliation
would be familiar enough to Jesus and his audiences (chapter 12 n. 193 above), so a say-
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