(Mark 1.14-20) – 24 January 2021
Neil Millar
A couple of weeks ago, you may recall, I offered an introduction to Mark as the primary gospel we’d be reading this year. And today, we take our first dive into the text, a first more detailed look at the shape of Jesus’ ministry. The passage falls pretty neatly into two halves. In the first part we get a neat little summary of Jesus’ preaching – the gospel in a nutshell; and then we get the perfect response. I’m going to say something about each of these parts and then I’d like to draw out some principles that we can contemplate in our own time and setting.
- Proclaiming
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news’.
These two verses, placed right at the start give us a very pithy summary of Jesus’ message – ‘the good news of God’. I mentioned last time, ‘good news’ (Gk. euangellion) was the term used to designate an important public announcement – news of an occurrence that would make a difference to people’s lives. This good news is summed up in two concise statements, which clearly speak to Jewish expectations about history. Statement one: ‘the time is fulfilled’ or ripe or accomplished, and statement two: the ‘kingdom of God has come near’, has broken in to this age. The Jews believed that history was unfolding according to God’s plan, and that God’s deliverer (the Messiah) would one day appear. And this, Jesus announces, is coming to pass. Now is the time. To this pithy declaration, he adds an equally pithy exhortation: ‘repent and believe the good news’.
Now, when we hear the word ‘repent’, we tend to think of it in terms of cleaning up your moral act. But the Greek word, metanoia, is more literally a call to change (meta) your mind (nous) – to change or transform your way thinking, your approach or direction. And the word ‘believe’ refers to more than just accepting the truth of something; it conveys a sense of engagement and faith. To believe is not just to hold a view, it is to give, to entrust yourself to something. This news of God’s nearness calls for receptivity and commitment – a wholehearted response. Which is where Mark goes next, with this story of the calling of the first disciples.
2. Responding
The region is Galilee, in the north of Palestine. It’s a geographical reference, but in this story it’s also a metaphor. At that time, Galilee was filled with ordinary, everyday people scratching out ordinary, everyday lives. Galilee is Belconnen…Tuggers… Queanbeyan… Gungahlin; a common place filled with commonfolk. That’s where Jesus went proclaiming this good news. And, as he passes along the side of Lake Ginninderra, I mean Galilee (!), he sees brothers Simon and Andrew, two of the local fishermen, toiling away. ‘Follow me’, he says, ‘and I will make you fish for people’. ‘And immediately’, Mark writes, ‘they left their nets and followed him’. On a little further, Jesus sees another set of fishing brothers, James and John, sitting in their boat mending nets. Again, he calls, and again they just up and follow, leaving their father Zebedee with the hired hands.
Now, I said a couple of weeks ago that Mark doesn’t present the disciples in a great light in this gospel. Mostly, their fears and foibles are in full view. But here, in this story, they model perfect responsiveness. Jesus calls and they follow – no ifs, buts or questions. Without a moment’s hesitation, they drop what they’re doing and join him. Their action, this instantaneous willingness, is striking, but it’s also perplexing. How could they do this? With seemingly no prior connection, thought or preparation? It seems daring and courageous, but also rash and naïve. They leave their livelihood midway through a shift, leave family and workers, leave everything, to follow this guy? How could it be that straightforward, that easy?
And, even if it was, how are we to relate to this story? What does it mean for us, and our discipleship? Jesus was bodily present to these guys, they saw him coming, they heard his voice, and they could literally follow him down that road. But it’s not like for us, there’s no physical presence. So what does it mean for us to respond to the call, to be followers of Jesus?
Well, in some ways that’s what this whole gospel will help us to understand, it can’t all be said today. Nevertheless, it seems to me there are some principles we can draw from this story.
- Discipleship resides in, is birthed in the initiative and authority of Christ.
At no point, do these disciples take a lead in this process. It is Jesus who comes beside the lake where they’re working, and it’s Jesus who calls them. And nor is there any sign of them summoning the will or strength to respond. It’s Christ’s authority that compels them; to the point where it looks like they could do nothing else. ‘Because Jesus is the Christ, he has authority to call and to demand obedience to his word’, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in The Cost of Discipleship. ‘Not a word of praise is given to the disciple for his decision for Christ, we’re not expected to contemplate the disciple, but only him who calls, and his absolute authority.’ It all resides in Christ, they don’t instigate, earn or achieve it. They receive it, are drawn into it. ‘You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit’, he says in John 15 (v.16). It’s my call. And that, applies as much to us, it seems, as the first disciples. The call and, the capacity to respond to the call, comes from beyond us – from Christ – his initiative, his authority.
- Discipleship is about radical responsiveness.
Radical in that it gets to the root, to the source of our identity and vocation. Peter and Andrew leave their nets to go with Jesus (the symbol of their livelihood), and James and John leave their father (the symbol of biological family). This is not to dismiss or discredit these social responsibilities. In other places, scripture exhorts people to work responsibly, and to honour parents. These obligations aren’t being dismissed in this story. What it is stressing, in stark and dramatic terms, is that God’s call is fundamental – our pre-eminent responsibility. Rarely, in actual fact, do these differing responsibilities come into direct conflict, but where they do, when they do, the call of God has primacy.
In their case, following Jesus did require stepping away from existing work and family obligations. Even so, and this is a kind of consolation, they found themselves entering into these things in the kingdom of God – into a larger work (fishing for people) and into the larger family of God. ‘We have left everything and followed you’, Peter says to Jesus later in this gospel. To which he replied: ‘Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life’ (Mk 10).
- Discipleship is an adventure in responsiveness.
You’ll note that there is no blueprint given to these first disciples, no pre-programmed list of tasks and critical performance indicators from Jesus. There’s no specific content, except perhaps the remark about fishing for people. The only instruction is ‘follow me’. Discipleship is all about heeding the call of Jesus. Which makes listening crucial. And even more so now, for we cannot see Jesus (in the flesh) as they could.
Last week, Sarah reflected on the story of Samuel’s call, and the importance of learning to hear God’s voice. Actually, the Greek word for disciple, mathētes, means learner. We’re learning to follow and that means learning to hear. We can’t follow, if we can’t hear. Listening is fundamental to discipleship, it’s something we learn by practicing. Which is why reading and reflecting on Scripture is so important. And why prayer matters, particularly listening prayer, contemplative prayer or meditation, where we cease from speaking and asking, seek to lay aside distraction and practise waiting on God in silent receptivity. Discipleship is an adventure in responsiveness to the living word, Jesus, who is always coming and calling us. The root of adventure is advent.
And this leads to the last observation for today, which is that:
- Discipleship happens in the context of communion and community.
We’re called with others, and into relationship with Christ – we’re not just sent off on some heroic, solo quest. We’re beckoned to join a community whose life together is shaped and sustained by this listening, learning, responsivity to God and to God’s kingdom emerging in the midst of things. This is the church – a community of disciples, following Jesus, committed to his way.
Jesus might not be physically present, and most of us won’t be asked, literally, to leave behind our homes, our families, our work in the world. But like those first disciples, we too are bidden to follow Jesus – to let his call be the shaping dynamic in our lives, to live as listeners, not seeking first our own agenda but responsive to his, willing to give ourselves away – to lose our life and paradoxically, truly, to gain it. The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God has come near. Let us repent, and believe the good news.