Mark
1:14-20
14
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news
of God, 15 and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has
come near; repent, and believe in the good news." 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 fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I
will make you fish for people." 18 And immediately they left their nets
and followed him. 19 As he 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.
Have you ever had to just drop everything you
were doing because you got a phone call or a text message? Perhaps it was your
brother calling to tell you that your mother has been rushed to the hospital by
ambulance, and she asked for you by name. Maybe you were at work and the school
called to tell you that your son has had an accident in class, and you need to
come pick him up right away. Or maybe your phone vibrated in your pocket, and
there on the screen were simply the words “Help. I need you.” You left
everything where it was—tools on the ground, books and papers all over your
desk, milk on the counter—because you know some things are more important than
the things right in front of you, and because there’s something in the back of
your mind that tells you that it’ll be alright soon and everything will get
back to normal in time. You’ll eventually return to the jobsite, to your
office, to clean the mess you left behind in such a hurry. You may drop what
you’re doing, but you’ll pick it back up again eventually.
There
are those in our world, however, who are forced to drop everything, to leave it
all behind, but not because of a phone call or a text. They are forced from
their homes at gunpoint. Some are driven from their countries by the threat of
war and persecution. Still others are forced to leave it all behind as
devastating floods wash away their homes, as droughts dry up what is left of
hope, and natural disasters erase their previous existence from the landscape.
Over these past months we
have heard news of Ukrainian refugees who are leaving their homes during
destructive military actions and political unrest.[1] In
the African country of Malawi, flood waters have displaced over 200,000 people,[2]
and just two weeks ago we marked the fifth anniversary of the earthquake that
struck Haiti killing thousands, leaving thousands more displaced, and still
that country has yet to fully recover.[3] There
are too many stories to count of those in our world who have dropped
everything, left it all behind, to never see it again, to carry on into an
uncertain future. Unfortunately, the stories of these refugees, of these
misplaced brothers and sisters, are stories of desperation, stories that speak
of those who have no other choice, those whom the ways of war and weather have
forced to move. Their stories are not stories of choosing to relocate; theirs
are not stories of the free decision to trek into the unknown in search of
something new, something exciting.
At first glance, the
story before us this morning may seem like such a narrative. Two sets of two
brothers, bored with the monotonous rhythms of the fishing life out on Lake
Galilee, decide to seek adventure with the wandering rabbi from Nazareth, so
they leave their nets, their boats, and their father to set out on some “coming
of age” adventure, from which they’ll return wiser and more adjusted to the
realities of adulthood. Yes, perhaps this story seems like the telling of a
quartet of men ready to leave behind the family business in order to strike out
on their own…but it’s so much more than that.
I’m sure many of you here
this morning have heard this story before in VBS, Sunday school, or maybe even
from this very pulpit. You’ve likely heard it recounted as an exemplary tale of
how we all ought to respond to the call of Jesus, how we all ought to be
willing to stop what we’re doing, listen to Jesus, and follow him. While that’s
a great lesson, I don’t necessarily think it’s the point of this story, at least
not the whole point.
I suppose one could chalk
this scene up to a necessary bit of exposition, a way to explain how Jesus got
his first few followers. It seems pretty short and to-the-point: “Jesus
passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a
net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me
and I will make you fish for people.’” Straightaway, we’re told that “immediately
they left their nets and followed him.” Nearly the same thing happens
when Jesus is within earshot of John and James, the sons of Zebedee; in fact,
it takes fewer words to express the interaction between Jesus and Zebedee’s
boys: “Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the
boat with the hired men, and followed him.” No discussion among the
brothers is mentioned. There’s no conversation about the consequences of
following this man from Nazareth. The author of this gospel (as the author so
often does) simply states the facts in order to move the narrative along: Jesus
called four fishermen to follow him and they left their stuff and followed him.
Now, hang on a
minute…before we get too swept up in where this story is going, let’s take a
minute to really think about what just happened. While those of us reading this
story some twenty centuries later may know where this is all going, Andrew,
Peter, James, and John had no way of knowing what they were signing up for, but
they definitely knew what they were leaving behind. You see, while Mark’s
gospel may be short on intricate details and plot points, the details it does
give us are ones worth our attention. In verse
16, the gospel tells us that Jesus passed by Simon and Andrew casting their
nets into the sea “for they were fishermen.” Perhaps that seems pretty obvious,
but the intention here is to point out that these men are not simply out on the
water on their day off—these are professionals, men whose job it was to haul
the catch from the water, to the boat, to the market. In fact, all four of
these men are professional fishermen, and they are all presumably part of their
respective families’ businesses. They are providers for their families, their
communities, but when Jesus comes along proclaiming, “The time is fulfilled, and the
kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news,” they
take him at his word, answer his call, and leave everything there on the shore
to follow him.
For so long, the
immediate response of these four has been held up as the example for how to
respond when Christ calls—and it should be! But I’m afraid we’ve missed
something; I’m afraid we’ve watered down the response of these four men to an
example of immediate response and
nothing more. That is to say, it seems to me we’ve held this story up as proof
that conversion (or to use a better word, discipleship) is something that
happens immediately and internally. We’ve based that all on the immediate
response of these fishermen to Christ’s call, while we’ve all but ignored the
call of Christ itself, and in doing so, have missed the real point of these
men’s obedience.
In verse 15 we hear of Jesus proclaiming the good news in Galilee
saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near;
repent, and believe in the good news." His message builds upon the
message of John the Baptist’s message of repentance. Then, when Jesus comes
upon the fishermen, his message is simple: "Follow me and I will make you fish for
people." It is at this request, this call, that these men leave
their nets, their father, the hired men…hear that again, they leave their nets, their
families, and their employees. In a very real sense, they leave their
security in an instant to follow Jesus. This isn’t simply “asking Jesus into
their hearts.” This isn’t a just cognitive acceptance of the divinity of Jesus.
This isn’t four men simply agreeing that their collective theological
assumptions about salvation are correct. This is four men actively, physically,
leaving behind what they know to be secure, comfortable, and their societal
obligations in order to follow Jesus. And here’s the thing…they can’t possibly
know where that will take them! Sure, we know all about the sermon on the mount,
the feeding of the five thousand, the healing the blind, the bringing Lazarus
back from the dead, the cross, the tomb, the resurrection…but these four men
have no way of knowing what’s in store for them. Yet they actively choose to
follow Jesus as he calls them.
That’s the other thing: When
Jesus calls them, he doesn’t call them to simply tag along and watch. No, he
says, “I will make you fish for people.” The call of Christ is not
simply a call to private, individual salvation—it is a call to a public, active
vocation![4]
When Jesus calls us, it is not simply so that we can rest assured that our
souls may rejoice in the comfort of knowing we’ll go to heaven when we die.
When Jesus call us, it is a call to actively leave behind more of who we are so
that we may take hold of more of Christ, that we may actively set out into the
world—not simply to decry its sinfulness and point out its shortcomings, but—to
change it for the better! It is a call to actively draw others into the net of
God’s all-sufficient love. It is a call that comes in a moment, but requires a
lifetime of commitment, obedience, and trust.[5] It
is a calling that beckons us to follow Jesus to places we haven’t been, into
situations we have yet to experience, to those we have yet to meet. It is a
call that come ringing with hope, joy, and love, but it is also a call that
comes with the risks of bold action, the risks of following one who loves the
unlovable, cares for the forgotten, the one who, though he is God, poured
himself out into the world and got his hands dirty washing feet and playing
with children.
We know there are risks in following such a
savior, for the very first words of the text before us this morning color the
rest of the passage with its subtle shade: “Now after John was arrested…”
John the Baptizer knew the risks of following this Jesus. He knew the risks of
proclaiming repentance to those who believed they were already in the right. He
knew the risks of calling to action those whose inaction and apathy had made
them comfortable. He came to learn that following Jesus isn’t always the easy
choice. These fishermen would come to learn that lesson as well, as have so
many others through the centuries who have taken up the call of Christ, those
who have put their faith to action by living their lives in very real ways for
the gospel, those who left their nets. They learned those lessons, but most of
all they learned that living a life in obedience to the call of Christ is the
ultimate source of joy, for it is a call to actively be loved by God, to love
God, and to draw others into that love.
Jesus is calling each of
us today. He’s calling us to be “fishers of people,” to leave our nets on the
shore, to leave behind what we know to be safe and comfortable in order to
follow him. That means leaving behind our fears of what we don’t understand.
That means getting up from the sidelines and getting in the game. That means
actually actively getting involved, rather than sitting back and pointing out
what you see as shortcomings. The call of Christ is to be more than an
observer, more than a critic, more than a passive participant in the ways of
this world—it is a call to do something!
May you be fishers of
people. May you be one who leaves your nets on the shore. May you be one who
takes the risks of following Jesus into the unknown. May you get up, off the
sidelines, and into the game. May you trade in your critiques for actions, your
observation for engagement, your stillness for movement, your indifference for
love. May you hear the voice of Jesus calling you to come and follow, and may
you live each moment from this one forward in obedience to that call. Amen.
[1]You
can read more from the UN Refugee Agency about Ukraine here: http://www.unhcr.org/54c22c589.html
[2]You
can read more about the flooding in Malawi here (accessed 1/23/15): http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/gallery/2015/jan/21/malawi-floods-cause-devastation-in-pictures
[3]Having
seen the recovery effort in Haiti firsthand, I can say the earthquake there was
devastating. You can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Haiti_earthquake
[4]Lee
Barret, “Third Sunday after Epiphany, Mark 1:14-20: Theological Perspective,” Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 1. Westminster
John Knox Press: Louisville, KY (2008), p. 288.
[5]Elton
W. Brown, “Third Sunday after Epiphany, Mark 1:14-20: Pastoral Perspective,” Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 1. Westminster
John Knox Press: Louisville, KY (2008), p. 286.
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