Suffering And Discipleship: Reading Mark 14:32 – 15:41 From A Charismatic Perspective

ABSTRACT

Many Charismatic leaders, Dag Heward Mills, Enoch Aminu, Duncan-Williams amongst others, preach that suffering in all forms — sickness, death, poverty — is not the will of God in the life of believers. However, suffering is a reality that should be honestly addressed. Moreover, the New Testament stresses that the Christian journey and suffering are not mutually exclusive: Jesus Christ himself indicated cross bearing as an unavoidable experience in the life of disciples. Against this background, the re-search analyses the relationship between suffering and discipleship in the passion nar-rative of the Gospel according to Mark (Mk 14:32 – 15:41) and its relevance to con-temporary Ghanaian Charismatic Churches.

The researcher used Ossom-Batsa’s Communicative approach as theoretical frame-work. The author proposes three stages in this approach, namely: the exegesis of the text, the call to action, and the engagement of the text and the culture. To study the text the narrative criticism proposed by Marguerat and Bourquin was employed. Empirical data from two selected Charismatic churches, Lighthouse Chapel International (LCI) and Action Chapel International (ACI) were used as ‘reality’ for engaging the biblical text.

The study discovered that from the biblical point of view, not only is suffering part of the human situation, but it also helps in the building up of the disciple. The preaching of Charismatic churches focused on success and prosperity — even if sometimes it motivates people to work hard to relieve themselves out of poverty, and other kinds of unfortunate situations — budges from the theology of the cross, and it is contrary to the principles of God. The fact is that recognition of God in His Glory and Majesty can only come after first appreciating Him in His meekness and humiliation.