After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” As he passed by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea; they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Then they abandoned their nets and followed him. He walked along a little farther and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They too were in a boat mending their nets. Then he called them. So they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him.” (Mark 1.14-20)
Arguably, the central motif of the gospels is the call by Rabbi Jesus to follow him, understood as an invitation to others to participate in his life both by listening to his teachings and in living by his words. Near the start of each of the four gospels, we find an initial call to a small band of followers who accept the invitation and who travel with Rabbi Jesus throughout Galilee, listening and learning.
As a general rule, at the end of the gospels, after the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, we see this same small group going out “into the world,” furthering the mission of the Risen Rabbi, and inviting others to do as they have done–to listen, to learn, and to live in accord with the teachings of the Rabbi. In this way, the good news passes from hand to hand, from mouth to mouth through the ages, all peoples receiving the same invitation that Rabbi Jesus first extended to a small coterie of followers that were the first to carry the name disciple.
So, it is no surprise that we find that invitation in the section of scripture that is ours to study today, a slice from the Gospel of Mark who will be our spiritual guide–for the most part–through the year ahead. In it, we find the call of those first followers, as remembered by the writer we know as Mark. We are familiar with it, the key elements of that call found in the three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
As we see, the picture that is painted for us shows Rabbi Jesus walking alongside the Sea of Galilee, where he finds fishermen hard at work. He sees the brothers Simon and Andrew and invites them to share in his mission, telling them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Perhaps some chit chat preceded the invitation; perhaps not. Regardless, the result was the same.
A few steps further down the road, he spies the sons of Zebedee, James and John, also fishermen, and they receive a similar invitation. “He called them,” Mark tells us. And so begins the public ministry of the Galilean Teacher, who gathers around him a close group of followers who will walk the way with him as he preaches and teaches throughout the region. He will add others to the group along the way.
Of course, if memory serves us well, we recollect the call of the disciples last Sunday as recorded by the evangelist John. And it does not take but a moment for us to see big differences in John’s version of the event. As John tells the story, two of John the Baptist’s followers see Rabbi Jesus walk by and, hearing John refer to him as “the Lamb of God,” they decide to follow him. “Where do you stay?” they ask Jesus. “Come and see,” he says to them.
The most obvious difference in the storytelling is that the pair initiates the meeting by going to Rabbi Jesus. He does not go to them. And Andrew, one of the two who follows Jesus, will bring his brother Simon to Jesus, assuring him that the Galilean is the Messiah. The easiest explanation for the difference is the high Christology of John, a term that refers to John’s presentation of Jesus in very exalted terms. In line with this Christology, the followers seek out Jesus, as a supplicant might a king. He does not go to them. Of course, there are other explanations.
Getting these two versions of the call as found in Mark and in John to connect would be as tedious as a game of twister. At most, they agree that Rabbi Jesus began his public ministry with a small group of followers that wanted to be a part of his mission. While the literalist always desires a historically accurate account, it simply isn’t available here, our efforts to reconcile as futile as making the two accounts of creation in the Book of Genesis align, one account having the creation of humans at the end and the second account having the creation of humans at the start. We simply have to say that such is the beauty and the complexity of sacred writ.
However, as we make our way through the Gospel of Mark, we will see soon enough that the disciples of Rabbi Jesus occupy a good part of the gospel, front and center in a way that the other gospels do not quite equal. Each major section of his gospel begins with a story that involves the disciples. Perhaps it is because Mark’s gospel was the first to be written, some decades before the others, and becoming a disciple was critically important at that stage in the evolution of the mission of Rabbi Jesus.
Apparently, Mark merges several traditions to arrive at the calling that he gives us, using the call of the prophets of old as a template and combining it with the tradition of Jewish rabbis and Hellenistic teachers. So, Rabbi Jesus issues the call, as we find in the Hebrew scriptures when the Most High God calls a prophet to preach his word, but encases it in the words, “Come after me,” which points to the Jewish practice of a student walking a few paces behind the teacher. In time, we will find them seated around the Rabbi, reminiscent of the students of the Greek philosophers.
Particularly in the Gospel of Mark, more so than the other gospels, these first followers are the recipients of the private instructions that Rabbi Jesus provides them, such as the so-called “Messianic secret.” The crowds that come to him play a secondary role. Perhaps of more interest, Mark portrays the first disciples as slow learners, sluggish in comprehending the message of Rabbi Jesus, often speaking and acting in ways contrary to what he has taught them.
We can make of this whatever we want, finding in it an honest assessment of how they were not quick to grasp the teachings of the Galilean, or we can find in it a warning to the reader should we also be slow to understand the ways and the words of Rabbi Jesus. Regardless, some of the Rabbi’s strongest reprimands are addressed to his disciples in this gospel. The other evangelists clean up the disciples, much the same as Widow Douglas does with Huck Finn, although, even then, one can only do some much spit polishing of a truant, as the Widow Douglas learns.
Each of these various facets of this early section of Mark’s gospel that contains the call of the disciples is intriguing and interesting. And each deserves attentive soul-searching to see what it says to us in our own circumstances and in regard to our own calling. We can learn much from these first few followers, both from their successes and from their failures, lessons found in both sets of circumstances.
If I might focus our attention on one particular detail of this “call narrative,” offering it as a critical component of our call as much as it was the call of these first followers, it is found in Mark’s emphasis on these four men leaving behind their former lives in order to become disciples of Rabbi Jesus. Mark beautifully and succinctly presents this reality to us in a paucity of words, simply stating that “Simon and his brother Andrew abandoned their nets and followed him” when they hear the invitation “come after me” from Rabbi Jesus.
Here, as we see, Simon and Andrew let go of the means of their livelihood, that is, their nets, dropping them in the sands and stepping behind Rabbi Jesus as he led them away from everything that they had known up to that point. We shouldn’t allow the familiarity of the story to blind us to the immense sacrifice that these brothers made in order to become followers of the Galilean Teacher. They gave up their paycheck and their way of life.
Likewise, the evangelist tells us that much the same occurred with the next two disciples, James and his brother John. When Rabbi Jesus approaches them, they are “in a boat mending their nets.” Mark says that “then he called them and so they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him.”
And it would seem that the sons of Zebedee were called upon to make an even larger sacrifice, or so Mark insinuates when he tells us that the brothers “left their father in the boat” and followed Jesus. So, not only did they leave behind their means of support, but they also left behind their father and, by extension, their families. They had to trust that their father, aged and alone, would survive through the help of hired men.
As we can see, the simple invitation “come after me” belies the magnitude of the sacrifice that these first four followers had to make if they were to answer the invitation. The lesson implied in their response is that there is no way to follow Rabbi Jesus without making big sacrifices. One spiritual writer once made the observation that God never gives without first requiring something of us.
At first glance, that statement might seem to suggest a transactional God, someone who wants something in return. But, the real truth is that there is a cost to discipleship. And if we think we can be faithful followers of Rabbi Jesus without paying the cost, we are either sadly mistaken or sorely falling short of true discipleship. Any mode of discipleship, if it is authentic and realistic, is going to cost us a pretty penny.
Of course, that is completely contrary to the so-called prosperity gospel that is so popular in our culture and in our cities today, a brand of evangelism that promises the opposite. Instead of God asking us to sacrifice something, this gospel promises that God will make us prosper, enriching our bank accounts and our love lives. With a sleight of hand and a cockamamie contrivance, the cross disappears and a cash flow replaces it.
Clearly, Mark would scoff at such a distortion of the call to follow Rabbi Jesus, instead putting front and center here at the start of his gospel the great cost that these four followers made when they made the decision to walk after the Teacher. And it was only a down payment. More and greater costs would await them, as they would learn along the way.
In a few chapters, as we will see soon enough, the sons of Zebedee will ask Rabbi Jesus “grant that we may sit, one on your right and the other on your left in your glory.” They still have much to learn, as the Rabbi makes clear when he answers them, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup I drink?”
So, as we reflect on the call of those first followers of the Galilean Teacher, we are left to ponder the nature and the degree of the sacrifices that we are making to become his disciples. Have we understood the cost of discipleship and are we willing to make it? Mark will end his gospel with the Galilean nailed to a cross, leaving little doubt as to what the cost of following the Teacher will be for any who truly walk after him.
–Jeremy Myers
Sunday Brunch 