Mark 1:17 - God Can Redeem Your Abilities

The Verse

Mark 1:17 "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will send you out to fish for people."


My Paraphrase

"Come as you are and follow me. I will send you to fish for people," Jesus said.


My Thoughts

Notice here that Jesus doesn't beat around the bush. He doesn't ask or suggest. He commands. He doesn't even word it like, "If you follow Me, then you will receive such and such. . ." No. Instead He gives nothing but a totally authoritative command. As a result, Simon and Andrew have only one of two choices to make: To follow or not to follow. He knows His audience--that they are men of action--and He commands them accordingly. 

However, at the same time, he makes a joke. I wonder what Simon and Andrew thought about the joke. "Fish for people?" Think about how weird that statement would be if you'd never heard it before. What is this Man even talking about?

I wonder how good and stable a job fishing was back then. It was probably pretty steady and probably competitive as we learn that so many of Jesus' followers had this job as well. We even see in the next verses that it was a time-honored job passed down through generations. It was probably a completely normal and expected working-class job of the area and time--much like industrial work today. It wasn't a high-end job, but it was a respectable and secure job. People always need to eat, so fishermen would always be necessary.

Yet, here comes a Guy--who we've already established cares very little for luxury or job security--yelling for people to repent, telling everyone that He is the fulfillment of prophecy, healing, and doing all kinds of crazy things. Yet we see Him here stopping for a moment to watch these humble , run-of-the-mill fishermen. Men just going about their daily work routine. Nothing very special. Minding their own business. Just working. Then He bends down and says, "Come follow Me. . .Take on the life of the unknown. Leave your comfort and job stability behind." 

Yet, He doesn't leave it there. Besides commanding them to follow, He also makes the connection between their skill sets and His requirements. He doesn't come to them and say, "You are humble fishermen. Leave it all and become wise, bookish theologians." No. Instead He says, "Okay, so you can catch fish. Let's use those same skills, but let's use them for a higher purpose." I think sometimes, we as Christians, think we have to change who we are when we get saved. It's true that repentance has to do with change. But the word "repentance" only has to do with the mind. "Think differently" is the literal translation. The disciples didn't have to stop being fishermen, but they did have to think differently about what fishing meant. Just because you had certain skills pre-salvation, doesn't mean that all those skills are bad. It's not necessary to quit being who you are just because you are now in Christ. God made you who you are. You simply need to think differently about who you are. When you do this, you continue being yourself, while God redeems the parts of you that are self-destructive. This means that if you were a psychedelic drug-addicted rocker, leave the drugs behind and rock out to God's glory like Brian Welch! If you were an atheist scholar, accept the God who is right in front of you, and become a Christian academic like C.S. Lewis! If you were a high-class prostitute, stop selling your body and become a "Hooker for Jesus" like Annie Lobert! 

Perhaps you, pre-salvation, weren't as "dirty" as these examples I've just mentioned. After all, these fishermen weren't horrible, rotten sinners just because they were fishermen. There is nothing morally wrong with fishing. . .or plumbing or being a lawyer or an office worker. But even the best fisherman, who fishes unredeemed, is headed for the same end as the "worst of sinners," you know?

So if they weren't dirty, rotten sinners, what was the real problem? Where was the need to change? The answer is in the next verse. . .(Hint: It has to do with nets.)

Mark 1:9 - Jesus' Baptism: More than Obedience

I am really enjoying this study (I'm also REALLY behind in blogging my daily thoughts. Sorry), taking the Bible verse by verse and really spending time thinking and reflecting on what is going on in the book of Mark. I am so thankful for attending the Priscilla Schirer simulcast a few months ago, as that is what inspired me to do this. I've read the Bible several times and each time there is always something new and compelling to learn, of course. But it's more than that. It's even how I've studied the Bible each time that makes a difference. Reading it in a "Read the Bible in a Year" plan, I get a nice overview. Listening to it on CD gives me the story as a whole--without the ability to stop and reflect--so I am forced to hear the whole thing in context. But this slow, inductive method really helps drive points home and gives me insight that I might otherwise have missed. Especially paraphrasing and writing down thoughts. Like. . .more and more thoughts come as I start to write. And then when I rewrite them again on this blog, it really helps to solidify what I've learned.





The Verse (NIV)

9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.


My paraphrase

9. Jesus begins His Messiahship with an act of humility: Baptism by John.


My thoughts

I think more than anything else, this verse explains Jesus' purpose for coming as "suffering servant." I know that's a weird thought to have at this, His baptism when He isn't suffering at all, but hear me out. John (the Baptist) just got through telling us that he was unworthy to touch Jesus' feet, but then here we are seeing Jesus go through an act that required repentance. Isn't that strange? Any time any person is heralded and lauded by another person, throughout Scripture or anywhere else for that matter, do you see the heralded person then act like a servant? I certainly can't think of any examples. We can't just look at this scene and go, "Well, of course Jesus behaved that way. That's what He was supposed to do." When we react that way, I think we miss something major. Why was He supposed to? Why was this an act of obedience? It's a weird thing for the perfect Son of God to do.

It's weird, of course, because ironically Jesus had nothing to repent over as He was without sin, yet He still acted in the obedience of baptism. I have heard a lot of commentators and teachers state that His baptism was an act of obedience because He is our example and so He was paving the way for future believers. . .But that still doesn't answer the why question. Not well at least. Future believers were, are, and will be sinners. Jesus is and was perfect, so why did He do it? 

I think the key to the question of why He behaved like a servant was because, in being baptized, He was foreshadowing His death (which He also didn't deserve)--an act that would put all sin upon Him. That is the only reason that makes any sense to me. When we get baptized, sometimes our baptizers will even say, "Buried in the likeness of His death. Raised in the likeness of His resurrection." I think that's why He did it. He was foreshadowing what would happen to Him--death, burial, and resurrection. In that way, yes, He was paving the way for us, but it's more than just a ritualistic expression of the start of a tradition. It was a paradigm shifting event. No longer did baptism merely mean an outward show of an inward cleansing. Now, Christ's life, death, burial, and resurrection were attached--the very stuff of salvation. Not that baptism equals salvation, but rather that baptism solidifies salvation. Baptism makes salvation concrete because it assumes the physical positions of the Christ who gives it all meaning.

One last thought--and this one really excites me because I've never had it before. Think of the significance of Christ being baptized in the Jordan River. I mean, think of everything that had happened there. How many battles? How many significant events? Jacob crossed it on his way back to Haran. The water that covered Jesus would have run over the sand that had once been dry ground for Joshua and the Israelites and also Elijah and Elisha. The Jordan needed to be crossed in order for the Israelites to reach the Promised Land. These same waters were used to cure Naaman of leprosy. That is just to name a few. . .Now think of Jesus' baptism. It was the start of Jesus stepping into His Messiah role--the role which gave every prior event its eternal meaning. More than stories on a page. Now the Promised Land meant heaven. Now the dry ground meant grace. Now the healing meant eternal life. It was the true fulfillment of everything else that ever happened or would happen in these same waters. All of them in that moment.

God Saves the Sick

Did God save you from something, or did you become a Christian because that's what good Christians do?

Mark 2:13Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

15While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the "sinners" and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: "Why does he eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"

17On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

I've been going through a study on the book of Mark. (The entire study can be downloaded at: http://www.xenos.org/teachings/nt/mark/dennis/index.htm). The pastor through his exposition pointed out just how radical this calling of Levi (Matthew) was.

Tax collectors were hated by their own people. First of all, if you were walking down the road, and a tax collector saw you, they would make you pay. But you could run into another tax collector 20 minutes later and he would make you pay too. There was no checks and balances on this system. Furthermore, tax collectors were allowed to keep everything above the Roman quota they were required to collect. That means, they would cheat their own people in order to make money.

So you had these cheating low-lifes taking money from their own people; of COURSE the Jews hated them. Therefore any self-respecting Jewish religious person would not let a tax collector buy any of their merchandise. But that wasn't all. The Romans resented them for the same reason. Any person who could do this to his own people was not fit to buy from the Romans either. Think of the name "Benedict Arnold" and you start to get the feeling associated with publicans.

So here you have these guys who are getting filthy rich off their own people, who are not only forbidden to spend money among their own people, but also among the oppressive nation for which they work. So where do they spend money? Naturally, they would only be able to buy from people who were even lower on the "sin" level than themselves: prostitutes, pimps, and sinners. I love how paintings from the Renaissance give us this picture that Levi and the "sinners" at his house were these pious-looking scholarly male inquirers rather than the drinkers, revelers, and party animals they really were. Some of these pictures I find for this blog . . . they just make you laugh.

Jesus even going to Levi's house was a huge deal because of the "sin" he was infecting Himself with by being there. In that day, it was thought that after breathing the same air as a prostitute, you would have to undergo a full religious bath. Not for hygiene's sake, but because you might catch some of their sin through the air. What a terrible view of humanity, right? That there are "good" people and "bad" people? But we do the same thing today.

So this is the context of just where the Pharisees were in their spiritual dilemma. When they saw Jesus sitting there, they were appalled to the highest (or maybe lowest) degree. How could someone calling Himself equal with and a person of a Holy Godhead POSSIBLY think that this was appropriate behavior. Obviously, God wants all of us to live holy, pristine lives, right?

This is why Jesus brings up the point (I love when Jesus talks. He's just so dry and to the point.) If you are so healthy in your "goodness" then you can't be helped. When people realize their sin is the only time God can fix anything because they know they need fixing. If a person has a broken leg and they refuse to see it as broken and they continue to walk on it without medical help, they will never be fixed.

Blessings to God. If He is able to raise even Himself from physical death, He can surely save a spiritually dying people.

Anyways, as I listened to this teaching a rhetorical question popped into my head:

Did God save you from something, or did you become a Christian because that's what good Christians do?