A Comparison between Matthew and Mark
While both books of Mark and Matthew portray Peter as one of the most important followers of Jesus, Mark seems to emphasize Jesus' spiritual career unlike the broad, more in-depth pursuit of Jesus' life that Matthew embellishes on. As both Jesus' student and friend, Peter is the one disciple most commonly referred to in the stories. Yet the two passages seem to draw different pictures of Jesus' distinguished disciple. In Matthew, Peter seems to play a larger role in Jesus' teachings and seems more significant to Jesus throughout the book. In Mark, he is still important, but to a lesser extent in the eyes of the author. Mark leaves Peter out of a few of the stories altogether and only touches on Peter's importance to Jesus towards the very end. Each difference in the stories connected to Peter gives a slightly altered account of his personality and role.
Peter is introduced as one of Jesus' first followers in both Matthew 4.18 and Mark 1.16. Both passages seem to recount Jesus' speech word-for-word. He merely said to Simon (a.k.a. Peter) and his brother, "'Follow me and I will make you fish for the people'"(Matthew 4.19, Mark 1.17). Their reaction is described in a simple phrase, "And immediately they left their nets and followed him"(4.20, 1.18). This story presents Peter and his brother as incredibly devoted to their leader from the first few moments. Whether their lives as fishermen were prosperous or not, to simply abandon everything for one stranger is risky and takes faith. The story's important message about Jesus' strength as a leader and his follower's devotion entices both authors to include it among their lessons.
Yet, ...