In this morning’s reading from the Gospel of Mark (1:14-20) we hear the words of Jesus as he begins to proclaim the good news of God, “The time is fullfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”1 Okay, let me get this straight now, all I need to do is to announce to everyone around me that God’s Kingdom is near, that all they really need to do is to repent and believe in the good news, and then my work here is done. I don’t have to do anything else, right? Everything will be taken care of, right? I can leave now, right?
Actually, it’s not that simple. There is more, a lot more to this story. In fact, there is still more to today’s message, and there is even more to the ministry and the lessons of Jesus. Jesus understood that his was only one single voice. Granted, his was a very powerful voice. As an example, in this morning’s Gospel reading we hear about the time that Jesus was walking past two fishermen, Simon and Andrew, two brothers in business together. Jesus called to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” 2
Did you notice that they did not even hesitate for a moment? They dropped everything in that moment and followed him. They did not bother to store their equipment, nor did they bother to give it to relatives or sell to others. Now this sort of reaction you might think strange, but imagine that it happens twice. Mark tells us that Jesus only went a little farther, and then he call James and his brother John to leave their father behind with the nets and the boat.
Now I’ll be honest here with you, it would have taken a lot for anyone to have ever been able to call me away from working at my father’s side. I like to think that it’s because I’m such a loyal person, but that might not be the whole story here. Why would these four men leave and follow Jesus just because he called to them? Simon and Andrew might have been tired of fishing; maybe they were looking for a change. As for James and John, we weren’t told anything about the relationship they might have had with their father. Maybe they too were looking for a change.
I’d like to also share with you a few additional points of interest. First, most individuals who have read the entire Gospel of Mark in one or two sittings have commented that the author has a very “fast paced” story-line, especially when compared to either Matthew or Luke. There seems to be many times when Jesus suddenly leaves one location and appears at another. There are “extra details” to be found in other accounts that have been left out of Mark’s Gospel, and when we can compare a story with another Gospel we will discover that indeed there are a “few details” that Mark has often left out of his story or else the other authors have made up extra details.
Maybe the reality here is that Jesus had been in Galilee for several weeks. Maybe these four men had heard Jesus preaching and teaching. Maybe they had a chance to see that he was even more than just a man of words; maybe they saw Jesus in action affecting the lives of those gathered around him. I can assure you that watching Jesus in action has affected the thoughts and actions of many of us alive today. Some of us have been so strongly affected that we have been driven to answer our call. Many of us have been called to become involved in the ministry of the local church as lay members. And some of us resisted as long as we could, and then finally answered the call to be ministers.
Secondly, over the months to come we will hear many stories of the 12 Disciples; their callings, their answering, their following, and their missions. But we should also remember that there were many … many more individuals whose lives where effected by Jesus and his teachings. That’s still true even today. Each of us, each of us here today, each one of us who has heard these words … has a choice. We can share the calling of those who would answer Jesus, we can reach out to every one of our sisters and brother … to each and every child of God … or we can ignore this calling. God has given each one of us greater freedom than the rest of creation. We … we have the freedom of choice. We can choose to turn our backs on Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit, and even our brothers and sisters … or we can choose to follow the teaching of Jesus.
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