We’re all familiar with the old adage that “Time flies when you’re having fun.” Vacation days certainly seem to pass much more quickly than working days. When we’re engrossed in an enjoyable project, the hours disappear.

 

While time passes, at whatever pace, activities and accomplishments are piling up. Have you ever tried to calculate how many times you’ve cooked dinner, mowed the lawn, or did something to support your church? Even small things can bring a sense of accomplishment when we consider how faithfully we have tended to them. 

 

This week we’re celebrating the publication of our 500th weekly Bible study. The lessons debuted in July 2011, when we were still Baptists Today. Editor John Pierce believed we could offer something valuable to our readers through easily accessible, academically informed, and lectionary-based Bible studies. 

 

Still – five hundred? Isn’t that enough? Of course not: neither writing nor reading that many lessons can do more than scratch the surface of what God has to say to us through the scriptures. No matter how long we’ve been at it, there’s always more to explore.

 

With that said, let’s dive into our quincentenary study, Mark’s version of how Jesus called his first disciples. 

 

 

 

Last week’s text, from the gospel of John, suggests that Jesus first called Andrew and Peter in Judea, while John the baptizer was still active, and then called Philip and Nathanael. As usual, John’s account differs from the other gospels.

 

Mark was almost certainly the first of the gospels to be written: it provided the basic outline and source material for both Matthew and Luke, both of whom did some rearranging and incorporated additional traditions. The Fourth Gospel was written later, and from a more theologically reflective perspective.

 

Mark asserts that Jesus did not begin his active ministry until after John was arrested, avoiding competition or confusion between them by waiting until the baptizer was out of the public eye before drawing attention to his own message. 

 

When he did, Mark says, “Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God” (v. 14). “Galilee” was used as both a geographic and governmental term to describe an area mainly north and west of the Sea of Galilee. Both Jews and Gentiles lived there, as well as anti-Roman zealots. 

 

The area was ripe for change and distant from the entrenched religious authorities in Jerusalem. Perhaps that is why Jesus chose to begin his ministry there. Mark says his first message began this way: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near . . ..” [DD]

 

Throughout the centuries that the Hebrews had longed for a messiah, the notion of God’s in-breaking kingdom had been envisioned as an earthly rule at a future time. Prophets like Isaiah and Micah proclaimed hope that one day all nations would come to Jerusalem to worship God, and there would be peace on earth (Isa. 2:2-4, Mic. 4:1-4). 

 

Popular thought was less lofty. Messianic hopes often centered on the arrival of a Spirit-inspired political or military leader who would reestablish an Israelite kingdom.

 

In the teaching of Jesus, the messianic age was no longer future, but present: the time had been fulfilled in his own coming. Rather than setting up a restored monarchy or new world order, Jesus introduced a radically different notion. The kingdom would not be about peace-loving carnivores or political institutions, but the spiritual realm in which God is king. The kingdom of God is the rule of God, the realm in which God operates, the “-dom” (think “domain” or “dominion”) in “kingdom.” 

 

Jesus could say “the kingdom of God is at hand” because he was at hand. The rule of God was at work in his life and ministry, and those who wanted to experience life in the kingdom had only to hear his words and respond to his call.

 

The time had come to proclaim the good news of God’s eternal rule, because in Jesus the kingdom had become manifest. [DD]

 

 

 

The advent of the kingdom in Jesus called for a response, and that was the call for all to “Repent and believe in the good news.”

 

Jesus called upon every person to repent and believe the gospel. Not just the elect, nor just the greatest or most public of sinners. Jesus called on everyone to repent, because all of us have fallen short.

 

The Greek word for repent (metanoia) means “to change the mind.” It reflects the Hebrew word (shub), which means literally “to turn around.” To repent is to change our mind about whether our way is better than God’s way. To repent is to do a U-turn from the easy road that leads to self-destruction and choose the lesser traveled path that leads to the kingdom of life, the realm in which God is king.

 

In Mark’s presentation of the gospel, this is Jesus’ first command: “Repent, and believe the good news.” When we choose to believe the remarkable good news of the kingdom, we give up our illusion that this world and its customs are all that matter. We trust that there is a God who loved us enough to create us with free will that allows us to make the right choice as well as wrong ones.

 

We can believe there is a God who loved us enough to take on human flesh and experience human suffering and die a human death to call us toward a kingdom that is greater than this world, and to open the door that leads to it. 

 

We should not pretend that it is always easy to believe. Sometimes, the older we get, the harder we find it. Children may find it easy to believe when life is simple and they trust whatever adults tell them, but the older we grow, the more mountains and valleys we cross, the more challenging faith can become. [DD]

 

Jesus sometimes pointed to children as an example of the kind of faith that opens heaven’s doors (Mark 10:13-16). Adults may no longer have the simplicity of faith that children know, but we can have the same sincerity. We can hope with all our heart, and when we entrust that hope to Jesus, the good news of the kingdom really is at hand.

 

 

 

As Jesus began his active ministry, he did more than preach inspiring sermons to anonymous crowds: he also spoke to individuals, built relationships, and challenged a small group of people to follow him as disciples. The gospels are agreed that Andrew and Simon Peter were among the first disciples called. [DD]

 

As Mark relates the story, Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee when he saw Simon and Andrew, apparently within shouting distance of shore, casting their nets. With no prior recorded conversation, Jesus challenged them to leave their nets, follow him, and start fishing for people (vv. 16-17). [DD]

 

The two men, Mark says, did so “immediately.” [DD] What do we make of this? Mark tells the story as if the brothers had never seen Jesus before, and one simple command led them to leave their boats behind and follow him. 

 

This is where the other gospels are helpful: Matthew says that Jesus had already made his home in Capernaum and began to preach before he called the first disciples (Matt. 4:14, 17). Luke suggests that Jesus spent time in the boat with Simon Peter and had guided him to make a miraculous catch of fish before the crusty fisherman went to his knees (Luke 5:1-11). John suggests that Jesus first met Andrew and Peter in Judea, where they had come to hear John the baptizer (John 1:35-42). 

 

The variant versions remind us that there may have been multiple opportunities for the prospective disciples to meet Jesus and hear him teach before the day he called them to leave the nets and follow him. Mark gives us a snapshot of the day when Jesus said “Follow me,” but it is highly unlikely that this was their first encounter.

 

The same would almost certainly be true of James and John, another pair of brothers who appear to have been working on the shore a short distance away, going about the tiresome but necessary business of mending their nets. At Jesus’ call, they left their father Zebedee and the hired hands with the boat and also followed Jesus, Mark says (vv. 18-20). 

 

As we wonder how well the first disciples knew Jesus, and what motivated them to leave their livelihoods behind and follow him, we can’t help but ask ourselves what motivates us to follow Jesus, and to what degree we do so. 

 

Why should any person give his or her first allegiance to God when the patterns and comforts of ordinary life are so familiar?  What would attract us to a lifestyle of living and loving as Jesus taught us to do? 

 

Would it take a convicting sermon, a sense of desperation that we have no place left to turn, or a spiritual experience that we can’t understand? In many cases, new followers are motivated by the happy example of a friend whose life seems so grounded and joyful that they want to be like him or her.

 

Jesus’ call to discipleship continues. Can we count ourselves as followers? Does our example encourage others to join us on the kingdom path? 

 

For the 500th time, are we living as Jesus called us to live?