Epiphany 3B

Trust in God at all times, O people
Pour out your heart before God
God is a refuge for us. Selah.
Psalm 62:8

Mark 1:14-20

¹⁴ Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the good news the of (the gospel, of the kingdom / reign of) God ¹⁵ and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news [gospel]."

¹⁶ As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. ¹⁷ And Jesus said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people."

¹⁸ And immediately they left their nets and followed him. ¹⁹ As Jesus went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. ²⁰ Immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

• Overview of Mark's Gospel


Up to Now in Mark

• Mark announces the beginning of the Good News or gospel. People long have wondered is this first sentence the start of it all? Is the first chapter the beginning of the Good News? Or is the entire book of Mark the beginning, with the rest of us picking up and continuing the gospel? Could the beginning be all of those?
• Quotes Isaiah's prediction of John the Baptist in Isaiah 40:3 that's one of our primary Advent scriptures
• John proclaims (kerygma) repentance (metanoia, a literal change of mind) and offers baptism
• John foretells the arrival of his cousin Jesus'
• John baptizes Jesus
• Jesus' forty days of post-baptismal temptations

All that in only 13 verses!


Jesus Calls his First Disciples

• Last week we heard John's account of Jesus calling his first followers.

Preceding the call, we hear news of John's arrest—John was handed over or delivered up – followed by Jesus' first words in this gospel as he announces the fullness of time. This isn't linear time or chronos of calendars and clocks; it's kairos when all circumstances, all the moving parts have come together for God's reign right now and right here. It's in your face! It's in the person of Nazareth resident Jesus! Jesus has come back to his hometown from the Jordan; he's walking alongside the lake the gospels call the Sea of Galilee.

With Mark's startling changes of scene and his legendary brevity, we don't know if artisan-handyman-tekton Jesus and the fishers previously had been acquainted. This was not a major metropolitan statistical area, so they likely knew each other by sight. Verse 20 tells us Jesus saw them, immediately (Mark's characteristic connector) called them, and they followed him.


Following Jesus

It's little surprise that late Pastor Eugene Peterson brings us an exceptional verse 17: "Jesus said to them, 'Come with me. I'll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I'll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass.'"

And immediately they left their nets and followed him. … James and John … left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him. 1:18, 20

Mark reports they went with Jesus without looking back. In Mark and in Luke, the journey to Jerusalem and to the cross is especially incessant and relentless, but this first chapter says nothing about Jerusalem, arrest, trial, conviction or cross. However, as we move on in the chapter, Jesus exorcises and heals. How would those signs and wonders connect with Good Friday and Easter? How would they relate to subverting empire, with challenging – and changing – all the religious, economic, political, and social ways it always had been?

Although Mark opens his gospel by announcing, "The beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God," and close to the end, a Roman centurion declares Jesus "Son of God" [Mark 15:39], were there many or any clues along the way to suggest or affirm Jesus as God with them, God among us? Jesus called them and they followed.

We need to remember all the gospel accounts – even Mark, the earliest one – were written from scattered sources quite a while after Jesus' death and resurrection.

Jesus called them and they followed.

We think we know the rest of the story that includes death and resurrection. Jesus called them and they followed. If you were like the seaside fishers in this story with no clue about Jesus' future, what would you have done?