There are many times throughout the gospel of Mark when Jesus’ disciples show signs of misunderstanding Jesus. As White mentions, in the gospel of Mark, none of Jesus’ disciples ever refer to Him as “Son of God”, they only seem to refer to Him as the “Messiah”. An example of this is when Peter makes his declaration when Jesus and His disciples are on their way to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. Jesus asks His disciples who people say He is and they answer with, “..John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets” (Mk 8:28). However when Jesus asks them who they think He is, Paul responds with, “You are the Messiah” (Mk 8:29). This shows how the disciples identified Jesus as the “Messiah”. I think that Mark is depicting this because it shows how it is hard for man to fully understand the greatness of God and His power. There is another story in Mark where a man who is very rich approaches Jesus and asks Him what he must do to inherit life. Jesus responds by telling the man that he must sell everything that he owns. This comes very surprising to the man and Jesus’ disciples as well. Jesus then says that it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. I believe that what Jesus is trying to get across in this story is that following after Jesus is hard and one has to make sacrifices and give up worldly things to fully embrace God and His kingdom. I think that this is what Mark wants people to understand about Jesus and about disciples.

There are a couple of miracle stories in Mark that further display what people thought about Jesus and how He came across to people. One of these stories is about a blind man names Bartimaeus. Jesus and his disciples were walking when a blind man named Bartimaeus called out to Jesus to have mercy on him. Jesus called him over and said to him, “..Go; your faith has made you well” (Mk 10:52). The blind man was then healed. I think that through this story, it shows how simply all one needs to be saved is to have genuine faith in God. Jesus healed the blind man because He saw how the blind man believed in Him and that Jesus could really heal him.

After Jesus’ crucifixion it is stated that, “..when the centurion who stood facing Him, saw that in this way He breathed His last, he said, ‘Truly this man was God’s son!'” (Mk 15:39).  It seems that in the gospel of Mark, there are many stories and miracles that display the characteristics of Jesus in magnificent ways. It seems that Mark tells these stories about Jesus to show in greater detail His strength and His power. Mark seems to want people to better understand Jesus and how to be a disciple of Christ. These stories seem to portray examples of how God wants His followers to be and how He wants His followers to view Jesus in a deeper understanding.