Mark 1:14-20 (NRSV)
The Beginning of the
Galilean Ministry
14 Now
after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good
news of God, 15and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come
near; repent, and believe in the good news.’
Jesus Calls the First Disciples
16 As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his
brother Andrew casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen.17And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me
and I will make you fish for people.’ 18And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19As he went a little farther, he saw
James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the
nets. 20Immediately
he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired
men, and followed him.
Brother,
I have used
some other scholars in recent reflections as I have had the benefit of leisure
time over half-term, but now, as we enter the next phase of busyness as we return
to our School Chaplaincies after the half-term break, it is back to Barclay and
his wisdom – and blessing – as we reflect on the Gospel and his insights this
year.
In verses 14
and 15 we encounter three great themes of the Christian faith.
Firstly, there is good news: The essence of the message of Jesus is good news for
humankind. If we follow the word euvangeligon
throughout the New Testament we discover more of what it means:
(a) It is good news because it is truth (Galatians 2:5; Colossians 1:5).
As Barclay comments: “Until Jesus came, men could only grope after God. ‘O that
I knew where I might find him,’ cried Job (Job 23:3).” With the coming of Jesus
we can now see clearly what God is like – guess work has come to an end.
(b) It is good news of hope (Colossians 1:23). The ancient
world was full of pessimism; in their struggle for goodness, people felt
defeated – but the coming of Jesus brings hope to the hopeless heart.
(c) It is good news of peace (Ephesians 6:15). It is our lot
that we struggle with sin and goodness – but in Christ we can find peace as his
grace works out his purposes for our lives.
(d) It is good news of promise (Ephesians 3:6). Jesus reveals
that God is not full of threats but love and forgiveness and so is full of
promise.
(e) It is good news of immortality (2 Timothy 1:10). Life is
not a one way road to death and the end. In Jesus we are on a road to life and
not death.
(f) It is good news of salvation (Ephesians 1:13). This is not
just a liberation from penalty and escape from past sin; ‘… it is the power to
live life victoriously and to conquer sin …’
Secondly, there is the word repent: Barclay points out that this is
a more complex word than we sometimes think. The Greek word metanoia literally means to change our
mind. We sometimes confuse two things: sorrow for the consequences of sin and sorrow for sin. Too many of us would
continue to do things if we were confident that we could escape the
consequences. Barclay writes: “Repentance means that the person who was in love
with sin comes to hate sin because of its exceeding sinfulness.”
Thirdly, there is the word believe: I spent some time on this word
in my last reflection with particular reference to Armstrong’s researches.
Barclay suggests that ‘believe’ here means to ‘… take Jesus at his word, to
believe that God is the kind of God that Jesus told us about, to believe that
God so loves the world that he will make any sacrifice to bring us back to
himself, to belie that what sounds too good to be true is really true.’
Good
thoughts and ideas from WB yet again.
Barclay
writes:
A leader must begin somewhere. He must get himself a
little band of kindred souls to whom he can unburden his own heart and on whose
hearts he may write his message.
Who did
Jesus look for:
(i)
They were simple folk – not from the great halls of learning or religious authority so they
were neither learned nor wealthy. Jesus opted for ordinary people. Lincoln once
said: “God must love the common people – He made so many of them.” Jesus was of
the view that, even ordinary people, if they are willing to give themselves to
Him, could change the world – and they did. Barclay concludes: “A person should
never think so much of what they think other people think of them as of what
Jesus thinks of them.”
(ii)
Notice
what they were doing when Jesus called them – just their ordinary day’s
work. It was the same with some of the great prophets. Amos was a herdsman and
gatherer of sycamore fruit. The call of God can come to a person especially in
the midst of the ordinary.
When I was
called into the Methodist ministry, my mentor, Dr Arthur Attwell, said to me:
“What you are called to is faithfulness where you are in all that you are
doing. In this way, God can do great things with and through you.”
It is also
interesting to note that Jesus called them to ‘Follow me’. He did not say: “I
have a theological system which I would like you to investigate; I have certain
theories that I would like you to think over; I have an ethical system that I
would like to discuss with you. He said ‘Follow me’.” It is all about
relationships – it is about falling in love – it is not necessarily rational.
So Barclay concludes: “In the greatest number of cases a man follows Jesus
Christ, not because of anything that Jesus said, but because of everything that
Jesus is.”
This is why
it is who we are more than what we say that has the greatest impact on our
ministry. Lovely thoughts; but also a deep challenge.
Jesus
offered his first disciples and us – a task! He called them not to ease, but to
service. Someone once said that “every person needs something in which they can
invest their lives.” So Jesus called his disciples not to a comfortable
lifestyle, not to a passive inactivity; he gave them a task in which they would
have to spend themselves up, and in the end die for His sake and for the sake
of others.
All
Christians – not just those of us who are ordained - have a vocation - and that
is to live for others. I love Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s reference to Christ as ‘… a
man for others …’ – and we are called to be imitators of Christ. It is here
that we find fulfilment, as we spend ourselves up in our service of others.
There is a
sense that we need to leave our different ‘nets’ behind us as we daily take up
the mantle of service and follow in our Lord’s footsteps.
Wishing you every
blessing as you return to your ministry at School,
David
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