Mark 1:14-20
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Gospel reading for Sunday, January 21, comes from Mark chapter one, verses 14 through 20. Now, after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel. Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, follow me and I will make you become fishers of men. And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who were in their boats, mending the nets. And immediately he called them, and they left their father's Ebody in the boat with the hired servants, and followed him. Here ends the reading. So this begins with a notice about what Jesus is doing. So it says, After John was arrested, that means that there's a gap of time between the baptism and the, and Jesus's time in the wilderness. And what is going on here, there's a gap somewhere. So Jesus comes into Galilee then, and he proclaims the kingdom of God, he's got this, this proclamation. The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel. So Jesus is doing this thing in an ongoing basis, he's got a proclamation that he does. And so there's there's sort of like, a pause almost in between what's going on here. And what happens next. It assumes almost that Jesus is out doing some of the preaching. And then while he's doing that, he ends up going alongside the Sea of Galilee. And he sees Simon Andrew and says, Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men. And immediately they left their nets and followed him. The same thing happens with James and John. Immediately, they follow Him, there are a couple of things I think we need to note. First, it is amazing that Jesus comes up to these two men in the middle of their work. And he says, Follow me. And they do it. That's it, right? He walks up, follow me. And immediately they left their nets and followed Him. What a crazy thing. The power of Jesus to call people to follow him in this instance, is outstanding. Now, we do have to say that it is likely that Simon Andrew and James and John, all had heard Jesus preach, had been connected with Christ during this time, this gap, where he is preaching in Galilee, and the beginning of his calling to them. And so it's not like they didn't know who Jesus was like he's a stranger. In fact, the Gospel of John tells us that Andrew and Simon were disciples of John the Baptist. And John goes, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And then he does it again, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and Simon and Andrew, follow Jesus, and come to Him. And so there's this, they do know who he is, before this, this call is made, and yet, they don't say, Sure, Jesus, let us first fill in the blank. Immediately they're left their nuts and followed him. How wonderful life changes when Jesus calls. I think another thing we need to note about this, is that the saying follow me and I will make you become fishers of men. Now, I think many of us when we read this passage, we immediately jumped to And so Jesus makes us all into fishers of men. But I think it's important to note who he is calling. This is Simon or Peter, Andrew, James and John. They are apostles. The call of Jesus is different for them than for all Christians. They are called to be witnesses, one of the 12 witnesses that goes out into the world to proclaim the resurrection and begin the new family of Abraham in the 12 tribes of Israel, their calling is different from your calling. They were called to become fishers of men in a way that normal, regular Christians are not. Now, that does not mean that Christians aren't supposed to witness or even that Christians are supposed to let their pastors do all the work. But still, this is not a passage that lays a burden on every Christian to look into their metaphorical net and see how many Christians they've caught, to lay that burden on themselves and be like how I truly become a fisher of men. That is not what this passage is about. Mark is showing how Jesus came to call the very first apostles, Simon, Andrew, James, and John, and how they left their nets and followed. At best, what this can teach us is what it's like that when Jesus calls, we begin a new life. They began a new calling as apostles, like a seminary following Jesus around we when we are baptized when we come to faith, we also became a begin a new life, but it's certainly a different calling than the calling of one of the 12 apostles. That's all we have to say today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai