Tag: sermon

1.21.24        Mark 1:14-20

            These two sets of brothers, fishermen, Simon and Andrew, James and John, have the honor of being the first disciples called to follow Jesus.  It is amazing that they did.  I have always wondered– was there something about the way Jesus looked at them, or the way his voice sounded?  The gospel writer, in a pattern he continues throughout the gospel, indicates that these fishermen responded by immediately following him.  No hesitation. Did they stop to think that they could be making a dangerous decision?  In a small community like Capernaum, on the northern edge of the Sea of Galilee, they knew very well that a guy named John had already been arrested for his proclamation of the baptism of repentance, for his insistence on truth telling.  The word for arrested literally means “handed over”—John had been handed over by the King’s henchmen to the jailors because of his accusations regarding King Herod’s impropriety in marrying someone else’s wife.  He was a threat to the Roman powers that be.  John’s ministry proved dangerous—he was ultimately murdered at the order of the King. I wonder how the people who had been baptized by him felt after his arrest.  Nervous?  Looking behind them as they walked down the road?  Were they going to be next if they continued to follow John’s insistence on living in a new way?

The same word is used later to describe the arrest of Jesus—he was handed over to the authorities, endured a mock trial and was crucified.  He was a threat to the Jewish powers that be.  In today’s text, Jesus is picking up where John left off, with the same dangerous ministry.  He echoes John’s words calling people to repent, to do a U turn, to begin a new way of living. And these brothers want to put themselves in danger as well?  Jesus announces that he has the good news of God—it is time, he says. It is time for a change, a time when the reign of God has come close.  He expects a response of repentance and belief or trust in that good news. And immediately they head off in a new direction toward an unknown future, leaving behind their work, their families, their community.