Introduction
I love this pericope because it comes with a good contextual introduction. Verses 14 & 15 are really the end of Mark’s apocalyptic prologue, but they also function as a transition into the calling of these first four disciples.
In contrast with Matthew, Jesus does not open with the same words as John the Baptist. These are fresh new words. John alludes to the coming of Jesus but in Mark it is only Jesus who announces that the kingdom of God has come near. John is not transitioning authority to Jesus (like in Matthew). John is merely the herald. Only Jesus knows what the coming kingdom means.
Now, John’s being arrested serves two purposes. First, practically speaking, John needs to step out of the picture. As a familiar character to first century hearers, there would have been questions of the importance of John. Mark sidesteps that. John is arrested and he is no longer in the story. Enter Jesus.
But there is another purpose, too. John’s arrest is an apocalyptic foreboding as well. The bringing of God’s gospel (good news), even for someone who is merely the herald, is a dangerous gig. To embark in this work will mean entering into the fray against the forces that defy God (worldly and other worldly). The time has come. The kingdom is near.
The Calling – Authority – A Different Discipleship
Let’s get a few of the fun parts out of the way and then we’ll enter into the difficulty of this text.
First, we get the infamous line (in Matthew too), “fishers of men” out of this text. It is a poetic line with the conscious purpose of connecting their vocation from one form of work as fishermen, to their work of making disciples for the coming kingdom of God. While there’s some connection to Luke’s version and “catching” people, it’s far less aggressive in Mark’s version. While urgent, it is more of a connection to their vocation.
Second, there is a suggested implication of class difference between the four disciples. Peter and Andrew appear to be on their own with nets that would have been manageable for two people. James and John are out with their father and with hired help. Possibly with more than one boat. Peter and Andrew, while not destitute, seem to be poorer. James and John, working in their father’s business along with hired help seem to be “middle class.”[1] This is a conscious choice by Mark. Jesus is not only seeking the poor or the rich. Jesus is calling those who are ready to follow the call. Additionally, it also seems funny that Mark includes the comment about hired hands. He may want the reader to know that the sons of Zebedee did not totally abandon their father on the lake.
But there is an important distinction that we have to address regarding this story and the call to discipleship versus the discipleship that we often talk about today.
David Schnasa Jacobsen addresses this well,
“The action makes little sense to us [all four dropping their nets and following], in part because we may be inclined to confuse discipleship with a lifestyle choice. When we frame these Galilean calls with Jesus’ Galilean proclamation of the kingdom, it begins to make more sense. Jesus brings good news that God is entering the fray with an apocalyptic gospel of the reign of God. There is no more and no less a heeding of that gospel call.”[2]
Jesus’ call is an apocalyptic one. The kingdom is coming, the day of Judgment is coming, the time has come. Mark’s sense of call is one of urgency and immediacy (as the temple has fallen and Jerusalem has been destroyed in 70CE) because the end has come. The disciples have no need for their nets because there will be no time in which to return to them. The only work that they have now is the work of Jesus Christ and ushering in the kingdom of God. And because of this, this is not a moralistic, heroic action. It’s not the disciples’ decision and the disciples’ action. It is Jesus who is almost always the subject and director of the actions. It is Jesus’ call and Jesus’ command.
Jacobsen writes, “The disciples are not decisive heroes really—certainly not in Mark’s portrayal where the disciples eventually flee and fail miserably. Right now, they hear the trumpet call and discern the meaning for tomorrow. It flows not from their internal resources, but from the naming of the kairos moment.”[3]
The nuance here is that this is not Matthew or Luke’s “cost of discipleship” moment. The disciples drop their nets not thinking about the cost. They are only responding to this God moment. The cost conversation will come later. In Mark 10:28 Peter will say, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” And Jesus will respond, “29Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, 30who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age — houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions — and in the age to come eternal life. 31But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”
Preaching Possibilities
Nuance
The nuance here matters. Because while some are claiming that we are in an “end-times moment,” we are not in the same immediate and urgent moment that Mark was as the temple was destroyed and the Romans forced a diaspora. We do not need to drop our families and our work and leave everything behind to join a fledgling messianic and doomsday following. We do not need to “catch people” with the gospel in desperation for fear of the world ending too soon. We do not need to manipulatively “win souls for Jesus” to raise our numbers for the final battle. But we do need to heed the call of Jesus and recognize the kingdom of God at hand. The Gospel does have something urgent to say about the brokenness and violence that exist in our reality here and now. So how do we talk about THAT urgency this week?
What is Jesus calling to us today? What does it mean to follow Jesus in the year of our Lord 2024?
While we may not need to drop our jobs, is what we do life-giving to ourselves and to the world? While we may not need to “win souls for Jesus,” when was the last time that we talked about our faith outside of the confines of our church walls? While we may not need to “catch people” in desperation, when was the last time that we invited a friend or acquaintance to hear the good news of God’s love?
Our urgency is not about the end of the world. Our urgency comes from ensuring that we and ourselves and all our neighbors know that they are loved by God. Our urgency comes from ensuring that no one in this world is forgotten. It is urgent that we live in accordance with God’s command to love God and love our neighbor (Mark 12:29-31).
Jesus is calling. There are things we must do. Are we responding?
Life-Change
As a note from my lived experience, an exception to the nuance that I’m seeing this week is for those who may be more connected to recovery communities. Sometimes we do need to drop everything and follow.
I have heard from more than one person in 12-step groups that in order to enter into recovery, you often need to drop everything for a time and only focus on your recovery for a while. It is a kairos time. Some people do 90 in 90 (90 meetings in 90 days) and nothing else. People spend a week or a month in rehab. People move out of their dangerous situations, drop their friends and their dealers and seek a location elsewhere where they can hear the hope of a world made new.
Recovery isn’t the only situation like this, but this is the community that I know best and I only want to talk out of experience.
Sometimes the best news for some communities is that you CAN drop everything and live into a new life with God’s guidance. There can be a whole world of possibility if you can leave the death dealing forces behind. Drop the nets and walk freely into God’s call.
[1] David Schnasa Jacobsen, Mark, 37.
[2] Jacobsen, 37.
[3] Jacobsen, 38.
Micah Krey 
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