Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-january-5-2023
Friends –
I’m out of the office this week, so here’s a Reflection that was originally posted on January 12, 2021. Thanks for your patience with this week’s ‘re-runs.’
Henry
Mark 1:14-28
The Calling of the First Disciples
14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fish for people.” 18 At once they left their nets and followed him.
19 When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets.20 Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
Jesus Drives Out an Evil Spirit
21 They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.23 Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, 24 “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
25 “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” 26 The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.
27 The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him.” 28 News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.
Today’s gospel reading is made up of three short stories from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. The first of them, at least, is a pretty familiar story, but it seems to me there are some important ideas in it that we should think about from time to time. And the second little story doesn’t get that much attention, but it also has some things to say to us that are worth reflecting on.
The first story is about the very start of Jesus’ ministry. We’re told that it was after John was put in prison that Jesus began his ministry. The way it’s expressed in this passage suggests to me that Jesus heard of the imprisonment of John, and understood that as a signal that it was time to begin his ministry. The first words quoted from Jesus’ public ministry are “The time has come.”
It also seems like we might skip too quickly over Mark’s report of the actual message that Jesus was preaching – especially because it’s so different from what the voice of the church typically says. Jesus announces that “the kingdom of God has come near.” Older versions of the Bible quoted Jesus as saying that the kingdom of God was “at hand,” but notice that scholars have now adjusted that wording to say more correctly that the kingdom has come near. That might seem like a trivial adjustment, but think about it – the point being made is that in Jesus, the kingdom of heaven has begun to actively break into this world.
That’s actually a pretty important idea. Most Christians tend to think about the kingdom of God – or ‘heaven,’ as we tend to call it – as somewhere far off. And clearly the New Testament describes it as a separate realm of some kind. But when you really pay attention, Jesus and the authors of the New Testament seem to be consistently making the point that the kingdom is actually breaking into this world. When Jesus taught us how to pray, he called on us to pray for the fulfillment of that kingdom “on earth, as it is in heaven.” And for that matter, the last two chapters of the New Testament, Revelation 21 and 22, paint a picture of the kingdom of God coming into this world and being established here as a present reality.
There are some of our fellow followers of Jesus who say we shouldn’t worry about trying to establish peace and justice in this world, because God is going to destroy it all when Jesus comes back. So we should just call people to get saved so they’ll be ‘raptured out of the world’ before it goes up in smoke, or whatever. But some of the leading scholars of the New Testament say the preaching and teaching of Jesus is focused to a surprising degree on the kingdom of heaven, and on the role of his followers in bringing it to fulfillment here in this world.
And Jesus says in his preaching that the coming of this kingdom should be received as “good news.” He also says that receiving and believing that good news demands repentance, which as we said yesterday literally means “getting a new mind.” So receiving the good news seems to mean having an open mind so you can see the new reality of God’s kingdom as it comes. That’s a challenge for followers of Jesus as for everybody – our human nature is to cling to our established ways of looking at the world, so changing our minds about anything is seldom seen as “good news.”
The second part of today’s reading tells us about the calling of the first disciples, two pairs of brothers who were all fishermen. It’s a familiar story, but it’s important to keep in mind that in mid-eastern culture, fishermen were considered coarse and rugged ‘blue collar’ types. So as he started calling disciples, Jesus was calling ordinary people without any particular training as teachers or Bible scholars.
But apparently Jesus called in a way that expressed great authority, because the four fishermen left their boats and came “without delay.” (And remember, Mark is understood to be the account of Peter, so this is probably a very accurate description of what happened.)
The third part of today’s reading tells us about another occasion when Jesus spoke with great authority – and people specifically commented on that. As Jesus is teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum (his hometown as an adult), people say that he has an authority that their religious leaders did not seem to have. And then Jesus goes on to demonstrate that his authority extends to evil spirits, when he casts them out of a man in the synagogue.
This is one of the stories in the gospels that’s really about exorcising a demon, and not just about a person with mental illness. The evil spirit in the man has supernatural insight – it knows who Jesus is before his identity has been revealed to his followers. But Jesus refuses to let the evil spirit speak. Mark doesn’t tell us why – it seems possible that Jesus just wasn’t ready to be publicly identified as the Messiah.
And after Jesus had cast out the evil spirit, people remark once again about the authority he had demonstrated. It seems that establishing the authority of Jesus was understood to be one of the most important tasks of his early ministry. And in these stories, Jesus is shown to have authority over people called to serve him, over the scriptures he was preaching out of, and even over the powers of evil. And when you think about it, these three kinds of authority would turn out to be the foundation of his earthly ministry.
Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for coming into the world in the form of Jesus, and demonstrating that even in human form, you had the authority to silence and cast out evil, and to proclaim good news that would change everything. Open our hearts and minds to receive that news freshly every day. Amen.
Grace and Peace,
Henry
(The listed readings for today are Psalms 1 and 33; Isaiah 41:1-16; Ephesians 2:1-10; and Mark 1:29-45. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted in Biblica.com, the website of the International Bible Society.)
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