Last Sunday we heard St John’s account of the
calling of the first disciples. Today St Mark,
speaking from a different tradition, views the
same subject from a different angle.
The gospel of St John records Jesus baptising
in Galilee while John the Baptist was baptising
in Samaria, whereas St Mark has Jesus start
his ministry after the arrest of the Baptist.
As we noticed before, Mark wishes to keep our
attention on Jesus all the time. The original
Greek for ‘arrested’, means ‘handed over’, a
word Mark will use twenty times, usually to
describe the fate in store for Jesus in his
passion. Thus from the very start Mark hints
that Jesus will also follow the Baptist in suffering.
The very first sentence of Mark’s gospel says
that it is about the ‘good news of Jesus the
Messiah’. Now Jesus proclaims the ‘good news
from God’.
‘The time has come’ means the right time,
the proper time. God has kept his appointment
made through the prophet Isaiah, which the Baptist
has also drawn attention to, and now is the
time of opportunity, of challenge. Here is the
good news. Make your mind up!
We tend to see a kingdom as a place. The Kingdom
of God is central to the preaching of Jesus.
Yet he does not explain it, so his hearers must
have understood what he meant. The Kingdom is
close at hand means that the Kingdom has approached
us. There was an atmosphere of expectancy among
the Jews at the time of Jesus. Now, as we were
reminded at the baptism of Jesus, heaven is
open. Communication is restored by God’s choice;
the call is therefore to welcome it. Found both
in the present and in the future, God’s purposes
are at work here and now and will find their
fulfilment later. How is one to respond to God
at work in the present? Repent and believe.
The good news challenges us not just to listen
but to do something about it. To repent means
to change the way we think, to change our minds,
to take the message to heart. To believe means
to trust and make a commitment to the good news,
not just to have a conviction of the mind that
this is a good thing or a true doctrine.
The Sea of Galilee is smaller today than it
was in the time of Jesus. Called the ‘Sea of
Chinnereth’ in the Old Testament (which means
‘shaped like a lyre’), its shores were heavily
populated. It served as a boundary between the
Greek-speaking east bank and the Aramaic-speaking
(and Jewish) west bank. There was a large fishing
industry. Mark wastes no time in moving the
story on. Jesus is an itinerant preacher, calling
disciples in the open air. Those called are
engaged in ordinary work. There is no attempt
to explain why Jesus chose fishermen rather
than men from the countryside. Personal details
are not included. Once again the focus is on
Jesus and the power of his call. He alone speaks.
These disciples are to have a personal attachment
to him and share in his mission. Responding
to the call means joining others who have responded.
The vocation of John and James underlines that
people as well as things may have to be left
behind. Finally, Jesus chooses his disciples,
unlike the normal way at the time by which the
student chose the rabbi or master or philosopher
in order to study his teaching.
• The time has come. God made promises through
the prophets and the day of fulfilment has
arrived. With God there is no past, no future,
so that he is fulfilling his promises for
us right now in the present. It is my chance
to make history in the way I respond.
• Repent and believe. The word ‘and’ here
can mean in Greek ‘that is to say’, so that
to believe the good news is to repent. To
believe that the news is really good, that
God is love and forgiveness and welcome, must
provoke a new way of thinking and a change
of heart. For us, to repent usually means
resolutions and will power and often failure.
Maybe I do not start in the right place, with
God’s love rather than my will power.
• The four asked to follow were at their
daily work, four of the many fishermen by
the Sea of Galilee. We know that Jesus called
other people at their work. Not all had to
leave everything, but they all followed Jesus.
Have I been called? Personally?
• For all of us the mission is to bring Jesus
into the circumstances in which we live, which
makes clearer our role in our families—leading
in prayer, in example, and so on. Is there
any way in which I might play a wider role,
with people less fortunate than myself, in
my parish, in church? How will the growing
shortage of priests be reflected in what I
am prepared to be involved with?
• John and James would seem to have been
better off than Simon and Andrew and could
leave the fishing to their father’s employees
but it made no difference to their response.
Simon, for one, was also married and settled.
Generous? Foolish? The Baptist had just been
arrested, and Simon and Andrew would follow
Jesus and like him be crucified.
