Mark 1:14-20 2:13-14
One of my early recollections of reading the gospels when I first became a Christian is that I was intimidated by the response of the disciples when Jesus called them to follow him. As I read the stories, Jesus was walking along the lake, saw some fishermen who were complete strangers to him, called out to them to follow him and, as Mark records it, At once they left their nets and followed him. They dropped their nets letting the fish they were pulling go free, said goodby to family and friends, left their jobs that provided income. They dropped everything and followed him the first time they had ever laid eyes on him.
I was intimidated by the accounts of the call of the disciples because my following Jesus was a much more drawn out and torturous route. I had a Sunday School teacher when I was 11 who talked about Jesus and I have vague memories of him talking about Jesus in a way that was new and different to me. When I was 13, I went on a trip with a church group to the south of the US to work with churches that were integrated. This was the summer of 1964, which from an historical point of view was an interesting summer. There were many busloads of northerners who came to the south that summer to promote integration of southern society and there were incidents of violence in which several people were killed by those who resisted this integration.
But from a personal point of view, that was also an interesting summer for me. I was with a group of about 35 kids, most older than me. I was not very skilled at the give and take young people have since I had lived out in the country most of my life with only one friend within walking distance.
As I look back on it, the kids played tricks on each other, but when the trick was played on me, I didn’t know how to take it and I was feeling miserable. On the bus someone would sleep with their mouth open and someone else would put toothpaste in their open mouth. In my case, someone put shaving cream in my sleeping bag and close to midnight, I left the dorm where we were sleeping, upset and miserable.
I walked outside in the dark and came to a church. I went in and walked to the front. I kneeled down and prayed, asking God to help me.
I went to church every Sunday but I don’t think I was a Christian at that point. At least, I had never prayed to give my life to God and don’t think I really understood what it meant to become a Christian. But the next day, my relationships with the rest of the kids seemed better and I promptly forgot about God and went on with my life.
When I was 14, my oldest sister came home from her first year of college for Christmas and told us all, in great excitement, that she had become a Christian. She shared the four spiritual laws with us, a tract from a Christian organization that explained how to become a Christian.
She was excited and we were stunned. We didn’t know how to handle this and we rejected her message with enthusiasm. I mocked her and she tells me she went to bed in tears because of what I said to her.
I remember once, in a weaker moment, that I told her I wanted to tell her something. I wanted to tell her about my experience on my trip the previous summer, but I chickened out and said nothing. She pressed me but I refused to talk.
I was 20 years old and in college when a girl used to come to see her boyfriend who lived just a couple doors down the hall from me. She would stop and talk with me and told me about having a living relationship with Jesus. She encouraged me to pray each night, asking God to reveal himself to me. And I began to do that.
But I had many defenses. I wondered if becoming a Christian was just a matter of wanting to believe something hard enough that you eventually talked yourself into believing it. And then over time, you became more and more convinced that what you believed was true even though there was nothing at all to what you had believed in the first place.
God worked at my defenses. I was shoplifting at the time, mostly taking books from stores without paying for them. I would walk in, sneak the book under my jacket and then walk out of the store. When I began to pray at night that God, if he existed, would reveal himself to me, I was no longer able to steal books. I remember walking into a store and thinking, “I can’t do this. God is watching me and I cannot steal this book without him knowing about it.”
A couple weeks later during our spring break, I flew to Chicago to visit my sister who had become a Christian in college and spent a week with her and her husband. I talked a lot that week, presenting to my brother-in-law all my objections and he patiently answered my questions one by one. At the end of the week, we went to their church and instead of a sermon, people stood up and talked about their experience with Christ.
A young man, a construction worker with a hard, muscular body, jeans and a white t-shirt, short blond hair and sunburnt neck, arms and face, stood up to talk about how he had started coming to the church and how he had recently given his life to Jesus. He was terribly embarrassed, his face got even redder as he talked. He was not eloquent. But as he talked I told God, “OK, I’ll give my life to you but not here in front of all these people.”
On the plane going back to Boston, my mind was on the stewardess and I needed to study and I prayed. For the first time I prayed, “God, help me” rather than “God, if you exist, help me.”
I began to attend Park Street Church in Boston and that fall was baptized by the pastor during one of our services.
Contrast my story with Mark’s account of the call of Peter and Andrew, James and John.
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 fishers of men.” 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.
Do you see why this story intimidated me? What was it about the disciples that allowed them to respond so instantaneously? What was wrong with me that my route to following God was so convoluted and torturous?
The call stories in the gospels are not quite as simple as they seem. When you compare the call stories in the gospels, there are some inconsistencies. In John’s gospel, the disciples are called at the Jordan River. In Mark and Luke, they are called at the Sea of Galilee. In Mark’s gospel, Peter, Andrew, James and John are called before Peter’s mother-in-law is healed of her fever. Matthew seems to follow Mark’s chronology, but in Luke’s gospel, they are called after Peter’s mother-in-law is healed.
How do we deal with these seeming inconsistencies?
Let me ask you a question. When did I become a Christian? Was it when I was 11 and a Sunday School teacher introduced me to the gospel? Was it when I was 13 and went into a church to pray and asked God for help? Was it when I was 20 and became aware of the presence of God? Or was it when I sat in a church in Chicago and said, “Not here God. Later?” Or was it when I was on the plane coming back to Boston? Or was it when I joined Park Street Church and was baptized?
The truth is that our call stories are not so neat and clean. Many of us have stories of coming and fading away and coming back again to Jesus. I think the disciples had a similar experience.
The gospel writers had an enormous amount of material to deal with and they had to make choices about what to include and what to exclude. Mark was in a hurry to get to the passion of Jesus. If he had been writing my story, he might have said, “Jesus spoke to Jack in a church in Chicago and told him, ‘Come, follow me,’ and Jack left everything behind and followed him.”
That is a true account and yet does not tell all of the story.
What is the more complete story about the call of the disciples? Remember that John the Baptist and Jesus were not strangers to each other. They were cousins and had undoubtedly spent a fair amount of time together at family gatherings, trips to each other’s homes. When John saw Jesus and said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” this was not the first time they had met.
There is an indication of the close relationship Jesus and John had when Matthew writes what happened after the disciples of John came to Jesus to tell him John had been beheaded.
When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place.
It seems to me that Jesus needed time by himself to grieve over the loss of his cousin whom he had known from infancy on.
At the baptism of Jesus, John may have viewed Jesus with a fresh pair of eyes. God may have given him a new insight into who Jesus was. But they were not strangers.
There is some evidence that Jesus may have been one of the disciples of John the Baptist. And several of the disciples of Jesus were probably first disciples of John. We don’t know exactly how it was, but it seems clear that when Jesus walked along the Sea of Galilee and called Peter and Andrew, James and John to follow him this was not a stranger calling to them. They already knew Jesus and followed him because of their prior experience of him. They may have spent a lot of time together as disciples of John the Baptist.
It is possible that the disciples knew Jesus and were present when John baptized him. After some time, they went back to Galilee and resumed their fishing. Later Jesus came along and called them to come follow him. They experienced again his miraculous powers in Galilee and then again took some time to go back to their families. At a later point in time, as recorded in Luke, Jesus met them and demonstrated his power once again by pulling in a miraculous catch of fish which led Peter to get on his knees and cry out, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” When you read this story in Luke 5 of Peter and Jesus, it begins to make more sense when you realize that they had a pre-existing relationship.
The call of God is not a one time event in our lives and one possible reason why the gospels seem to offer different accounts of the calling of the disciples is because they look at different stages in the call.
Christians cannot say that they are saved and that is all there is to it. Paul used three tenses in talking about our salvation.
In Ephesians 2:8-9 he wrote that we have been saved, past tense:
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
In I Corinthians 1:18 Paul wrote that we are being saved, present tense:
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
In Philippians 1 Paul wrote that we will be saved, future tense:
Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel 28 without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God.
Our salvation, our calling is a life-long affair and we can see this in the gospels.
It was not just the twelve disciples who followed Jesus. When Jesus traveled from place to place, a crowd traveled with him. People who wanted to see Jesus had to talk to his disciples to get near to him. We see this when Jesus protested that the children were not being permitted to come to him. The Greek Jews who came to the feast in Jerusalem came to Philip to ask if they could see Jesus. Jesus was most often surrounded by a crowd, unless he made a special effort to get away by himself.
When Jesus came to the funeral procession where he raised the widow’s son to life, there were perhaps 1,000 people traveling with Jesus.
But not all who began to follow Jesus continued to follow Jesus. Jesus taught some things that were not easy to hear:
Luke 18
“How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! 25 Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
26 Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?”
27 Jesus replied, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”
Luke 9
“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
In John 6 Jesus taught about his being the bread of life and introduced the symbolism of communion, saying
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
Jesus spoke further about what it meant to follow him and the consequence was:
66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
When Jesus taught the parable of the sower, he talked about seed that is planted in shallow soil and cannot send down deep roots so that when the sun comes up, it withers and dies. Other seed was planted among thorns and got choked by them so it could not grow.
Where did Jesus get the idea for this parable? He got the idea from watching people who came to him but were not able to sustain their initial enthusiasm or by watching people like the rich young ruler who came to him but were unable to leave behind their wealth and possessions. Jesus got the idea for this parable from the many who came to follow him but later turned away when it became too difficult.
Following Jesus is not a one time event. In the story of our call, we have multiple opportunities to follow Jesus and there are many points when we can choose to turn back and no longer follow him.
This Easter Sunday, we will again this year hear resurrection stories. Four people will share with us how the resurrected Jesus has worked in their lives. But a good resurrection story does not simply talk about how it was in the past tense. A good resurrection story also talks about how it is in the present tense with expectation for the future because we were called to follow Jesus, we are being called to follow Jesus and we will be called in the future to follow Jesus.
Some resurrection stories will include coming here to RPF. We are a remarkable community of faith and many who come here discover that they are renewed in their faith and that coming here has been an opportunity to grow closer to God.
This has been the case for me. I have grown in many ways and continue to be stretched by the faith of those around me. One of the reasons I so much enjoy being pastor of RPF is that God has put me in a place where I can grow.
The call of Jesus on my life did not end when I was twenty.
I was in college and planning to apply to go to medical school when a friend suggested I ask God what he wanted me to do with my life. Jesus called me, “Come and follow me,” and although it took three months to submit to this call, I dropped my plans to go be a doctor and applied to go to seminary.
I’ve talked before about how Annie and I had some difficult years in marriage. There were times when I wanted out but Jesus called to me, “Come and follow me,” and I pushed down my pride and worked to repair my relationship with Annie.
There have been times when I was tempted to watch things on the television that were not good for me to watch and Jesus called to me, “Come and follow me,” and I turned off the television.
A year after my decision to give my life to Jesus, I started working with the junior high youth group at Park Street Church and began teaching the boy’s Sunday School class. There was one 11 year old, Doug, who was rather repulsive. He burped, belched and passed gas during our class. He sat there with his shirt falling out of his pants and would not pay attention.
And Jesus called to me, “Come and follow me,” and I began to pray each day that God would give me love for Doug. Amazingly, I began to love Doug and spent a lot of time with him and his life began to change. His parents were having difficult times and all he needed was someone to care for him.
I was working as a youth director in a Methodist Church in the state of West Virginia in the US. The pastor had a very liberal theology, denying the physical resurrection of Jesus, among other things. Sam was a very insecure man and threatened by the growth of the youth group. The church had some financial difficulties and he decided I needed to leave.
He gave us three months to find another ministry and we spent the middle month of that period on vacation. While we were away, the youth group organized a fund raiser so they could keep me as their youth pastor. We knew nothing about this until we returned and Sam called me into his office and ranted and raved, accusing me of manipulating the youth in an attempt to split the church and take those who agreed with me away.
He was vicious in the things he said to me and how he attacked me, personally as well as professionally. In the end, when I left to pastor a couple Presbyterian Churches in Ohio, he calmed down. But Jesus called me, “Come follow me,” and I had to choose to let go of the hurt and anger I felt and forgive Sam.
I present this way of looking at your life this morning. Jesus is calling you. Each day, in decisions you have to make – especially the difficult situations – Jesus is calling you to come and follow him. Will you follow Jesus or because the decision is too difficult, will you turn back and no longer follow him?
The theme song of the concert the last two nights had this chorus, Jesus, you are my best friend and nothing will ever change that. We sang this over and over and because my mind has been in this sermon, I thought about us singing that line in light of what I have been talking about this morning.
There were Christians in this country who sang similar sentiments and then in the middle 80s there was a crackdown and they were pulled into jail. Many of them did “change that” and renounced their faith in Jesus so they could escape going to prison.
Christians who sing this chorus get married in a burst of love and celebration of God’s goodness in bringing them together, but then when it becomes difficult, they separate and divorce. Something did “change that”.
When you are in an exam and having a difficult time and you see the paper of a classmate within view, you can choose to “change that” by cheating and copying those answers.
When you do something wrong and try to hide what you did rather than take responsibility for what you have done, you do “change that.”
When you face temptation to watch something you should not watch, to make a deal you should not make, to take something that does not belong to you, to cover up what you should confess, to walk away when you should stay, to hold on to hurt when you should forgive; will you follow Jesus or will you turn back and no longer follow him?
Every day and throughout the day Jesus is calling you to Come follow me and what will you do? Will you be one of his followers or will you be like those who found it too difficult and turned back, no longer following him?”
Let the sense that Jesus is present and calling to you to come and follow him be what enables you to make good choices today and the rest of your life.
