Has anyone ever made you an offer you couldn’t refuse? Here, in these early verses of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus calls his disciples to follow him. More than a bucolic stroll through the Galilean hillside, this will be a call to suffer and die. They will also, in turn, call others as Jesus makes them into “fishers of men.” Although this metaphor seems pleasant at first thought, consider what happens to the fish you catch! You and I are both the recipients of Jesus’ call to follow him and the subjects of the disciples’ finishing ministry. What difference does it all make and how can we see the growth of the kingdom expressed through these actions? All that and more this Sunday as we continue in our new sermon series through the Gospel of Mark.
The Gospel of Mark is known for its quick pace. Jesus, as Mark tells it, does everything “immediately.” The picture of Jesus we get from Mark isn’t of a languid guru, but of a man on a mission. As we return to our spring sermon series in the Gospel of Mark, we’ll give special attention to the picture of Jesus Mark is conveying to his readers. For in Jesus, God’s king and God’s kingdom has come…and nothing can ever be the same again.
