Richard Davenport
January 21, 2024 – Third Sunday after Epiphany
Mark 1:14-20
Mark’s Gospel, which is what we’ll be mainly working with as we follow the life of Christ this year, has some important differences from Matthew and Luke’s Gospel. It’s not that the story is different or anything like that. It’s the same story. It’s the same Jesus and everything he does he does for the same reasons. Mark chooses to emphasize some different aspects of who Jesus is.
Mark’s Gospel leaves out the early days of Jesus’ life entirely. It’s not as though Mark doesn’t believe the angels, the shepherds, the journey to Bethlehem and all of that stuff happened, Mark just wants to jump right into the action. In Mark’s Gospel, we find Jesus getting right to work. Here he is, beginning his ministry. We’re given a short introduction with John the Baptist, who does what he’s supposed to in preparing the world for Jesus, but after that Jesus takes the reigns and begins doing what he was sent to do.
Right away, Jesus is preaching about the kingdom of God. He’s got a lot of work to do to realign people’s understanding of what God’s kingdom means and how it works. The priests and Pharisees had been confusing people for a long time now, so he has to get started right away at undoing some of the damage they’ve caused if anyone is going to understand what he’s all about.
As Jesus is going out and about, preaching about the kingdom, he happens across some fishermen. Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew are out fishing. They aren’t just doing this as a hobby. The text tells us they are fishermen. These are professionals. Their father was most likely a fisherman. Given how things work, the family had probably been here for generations. Peter and Andrew have probably been fishing the waters of the Sea of Galilee all their lives.
So far, so good. Nothing really out of the ordinary here. Anyone walking along the Sea of Galilee will probably find such things commonplace. If the fish are plentiful here, then someone will be trying to make a living off of it.
Jesus calls to the two and says, “Follow me.” There’s a lot going on here. Just this two word command is enough to change their whole life. While they were always disciples in one sense of the word, since they were faithful believers, now the role and vocation of disciple is going to be their fulltime job. That means leaving the fishing nets behind. Maybe one day they’ll pick them back up again, but for now, they will follow Jesus on his journey.
As I said, a lot going on there. If Jesus suddenly showed up and gave you a two word command like that which would completely and totally change your life, would you do it just like that? We can only speculate what might have been going through the minds of Peter and Andrew, and then James and John. None of the Gospels fill us in. Did they worry? Did they doubt? Did they think it was some kind of scam? We don’t know. All we see is the action. Mark is always decisive in his action. They didn’t finish out the day fishing. They didn’t clean everything up and put it away. They didn’t have a lengthy negotiation with Jesus regarding the salary of the position, benefits, 401k, and all of that. No, “Immediately they left their nets and followed him.”
That’s….a tough one. Can I say I would just jump up and go like that? I’d like to think so, but sometimes God calls and what comes to mind isn’t an immediate desire to serve, it’s just a bunch of excuses. I’d certainly like to think that if Jesus showed up and specifically called to me that I’d do it, but the excuses are always there. Jesus encounters this himself later in his ministry. He calls people to follow him and it just becomes a long list of excuses. Everyone has more important things to do. You even have people like Moses talking to God in the burning bush, this crazy miraculous sight and when God gives him a job, it’s just more excuses.
That’s already pretty uncomfortable. God asks me to do things, sometimes even minor things, and I just find excuses, often they aren’t even convincing reasons. They’re just excuses to make me feel better about not doing whatever it is I’m supposed to be doing.
Unfortunately that’s not the only uncomfortable thing going on in this passage. Jesus doesn’t just direct Peter and Andrew to follow him. He also tells them he will make them fishers of men. A neat idea, to be sure. Many pastors and theologians throughout the ages have reflected on the nuances of his idea.
I think about how it might have sounded to Peter and Andrew. Like I said, these are guys who have been doing this all of their lives. They know what it means to fish. Jesus comes in and acts like he knows all about this. It’s a little like cooking your mom’s famous meatloaf from the recipe that’s been in your family for generations for a friend. She tries it and then tells you, “Hey, let me show you how to make your mom’s famous pancakes.” Wait a minute. Those aren’t really the same things at all. She’s not even your mom and you don’t know anything about cooking. None of that makes sense. Or someone sees your work as a professional carpenter and then tells you, “Hey, that rocking chair you made is really nice. I can show you how to build the plumbing for your new house.” Umm…that’s great? But you don’t really build plumbing and even if that were the best word for it, you wouldn’t make pipes out of wood. More importantly, you’re an accountant. Why would I listen to your advice on such a big project like that?” I know I can sometimes get a little defensive when people intrude into my areas of expertise, thinking they know it all when they have neither the background nor the credentials to talk like they do.
Jesus comes into their lives and acts like he knows fishing well enough to apply what they know to a completely different area. It’s not as though he was some kind of motivational speaker or something like, someone who knew how to reel people in, as it were. He’s a carpenter. He’s not even a big celebrity, not yet anyway. He’s been preaching some, but there’s no indication he’s built up the big crowds that he’ll draw a little bit later in his ministry. He's just a guy who acts like he has it all figured out.
The disciples get a lot of things wrong throughout Jesus’ ministry. Peter, being the most vocal, is also the one getting himself into the most trouble. But here they are, heeding the call without a moment’s hesitation. A carpenter calls to some fishermen and tells them to leave everything they know behind and embark on an entirely new direction and vocation, and they listen.
How much did they really know about Jesus then? Hard to say. Clearly from what we hear them saying throughout his ministry they never had a full picture of what Jesus was all about or what he was capable of until after his resurrection, which just makes this whole scene even more unbelievable. But you and I do. We know who Jesus is, God become man, the promised messiah come to earth, the savior who dies to conquer death and rises again to live eternally. We know all of this. So what’s our excuse?
A lot of times our perception of Jesus is as the savior. He dies and he rises again and saves from our sins. It is certainly right for us to call him savior and to remember what he has done for us, but his life encompasses more than just Holy Week. There is more to him than that. He is God and man, servant and king, savior and Creator. He knows your professions and your hobbies better than you do. He knows you better than you know yourself. He knows what your limitations are.
But your limitations are not his limitations. He can and will do great things through you because he has already done great things for you. He didn’t call Peter and Andrew, James and John as pagans, but as faithful followers of God, believers who had already been blessed with faith. He doesn’t take them away from their jobs to belittle them or insult them, but to help them do the job they were given before they were fishermen, one that was more important, that of being a disciple. They weren’t going to forget how to be fishermen. He was going to give them something more. They were going to get to see the Creator at work restoring his creation. They were going to get to see the savior at work saving people from their sins. They were going to get to see the King of Kings serving his people and their most basic needs. They were going to get to see the most humble servant lifted up to receive all glory and honor.
Jesus comes here today because he has called you to follow him. Maybe you were eager and willing. Maybe you weren’t. Maybe you heard him right away. Maybe it took years. None of that matters now, because you are here. You’re here following him now. You have already been blessed by the Spirit who has planted faith in your heart. But that doesn’t mean we just go about our lives as if nothing has changed, because everything has changed. God has called you not just to hear, but to follow. He has many things to show you.
We’ve already gone through the Christmas season. We’ve been following Jesus’ life for a little while now. We’ve followed him to Bethlehem and heard how he was born into this world to save his world and all of us in it. We’ve followed him through the visit of the magi, as God calls not just Jews but also Gentiles to follow him and he has revealed himself to Gentiles as well. Soon we will be in the season of Lent and we will follow him to the cross where he dies for the sins of the world and tramples down death through his own death, bringing life and immortality to light. He is going to show you his power over creation, power to bring restoration and life. He is going to show you his humble service to you, as he feeds you his own flesh and blood that you might have his life in you. He is going to show you his kingly authority, authority to bring life in the midst of death. He is going to show you his forgiveness and mercy. He is going to show you all of this because he is all of those things and he doesn’t want to you to miss any of it, because he does it all for you.