2. “The Disruptive King” (Mark 1)

 

Last week we began a new series on the gospel of Mark that we’re calling “A Disruptive Life,” referring of Jesus. Our goal is as simple as it is ambitious: I want us to encounter, in a meaningful way, the real Jesus.

It’s common in our day to speak of the rising tide of secularism, and yet the significant majority of the people in our country still believe that Jesus was a legitimately great person. Survey after survey shows that Jesus continues to be one of the most highly esteemed figures in human history. But as to why they consider him great? Well, here there’s a difference of opinion. People will speak of him being inspiring, of his teachings being important today; they might even talk about how his words and life made the world a better place—yet, when it comes to the question of whether or not Jesus was truly the son of God? Well the majority say they believe that is unlikely.

I have a suspicion that the opinion most people have formed about Jesus is often not drawn from directly studying the Jesus of the Bible. Rather, I believe many have come to their view by absorbing the Jesus of our culture—the legend, you might say, that has been formed through a kind of game of telephone, where one person hears from another and another, and so on. And as is often the case with a process like this, something has gotten lost in translation. The Jesus people think of when they hear his name is quite different from the Jesus who walked on this earth 2000 years ago. The real Jesus, I would suggest, is more confusing, unsettling, and also far more captivating than the somewhat tamer life-coach Jesus of our day.

And this is one of the things that makes the gospel of Mark so interesting. Because here in these verses, we find someone quite different from life-coach Jesus. Mark’s account here is most likely drawn from conversations with his friend, the apostle Peter, a recording and organization of Peter’s eyewitness testimony, written only around 30 years after Jesus’ death. It’s not the sanitized almost Disneyfied Jesus of legend, but far more surprising and mysterious Jesus of real life.  

That, I would suggest, is the central goal of the gospel of Mark: to enable us to encounter Jesus, to experience him as he is and to wrestle with what difference that makes for who we are and who we might be. And so for this series I want to invite us to take on a posture of curiosity, to try to look with new eyes and pay close attention to what we’re being shown so that might indeed see the real Jesus more clearly.

Part 1

In the opening verse of our passage, we meet Simon, later called Peter, along with his brother, Andrew. They’re in Capernaum, located along the large lake in Israel known as the Sea of Galilee. Capernaum is not the smallest village in the area—it has a synagogue in the village center, as well as a Roman outpost for collecting taxes—but, with a population of around 1500, it’s hardly a burgeoning metropolis. Everyone would know everyone else. And pretty much everyone—or at least most every Jewish male—made their living from fishing, 

That’s what Simon and Andrew were: fishermen. This is the life they had always known. When they were young boys, they sat in the boat with their dad and uncles and were taught how to mend the nets with their little hands. As they grew, they increasingly took on harder jobs within the family business. They had been raised in the smaller fishing town of Bethsaida, but Simon fell in love with a Capernaum girl, and after marrying, he and Andrew moved a few miles away to this larger community. They’ve now become friends with Zebedee’s family, with John and James, whom they would see nearly every morning as they set out to fish along the same coast. Fishing was hard work. It was not an easy life, but it was a steady one.  

And so, predictably enough, our passage finds Simon and Andrew early in the morning in their boat, likely with some hired men, casting their nets into the water—throwing them into the lake with a kind of spin so that the weight on the ends of the net would stretch it out and then carry the net to the bottom and hopefully capture fish swimming underneath. One of them would then dive underwater, pull a rope that would cinch the edges of the net closed, and then they would pull the net and the fish into the boat. 

But on this morning the process is interrupted. After the nets have been thrown into the water Simon and Andrew hear a voice calling to them from the shore. “Simon, Andrew!” They turn and see Jesus walking to them.

Now we know elsewhere from the gospel of John that this isn’t the first time Simon and Andrew have interacted with Jesus. Maybe a year or so ago Andrew had taken some time off to go out into the wilderness to hear John the Baptist preach. Because as steady of a life as fishing might offer, there was also a discontent that Andrew and many others were feeling. There was a restless awareness among many that Israel was not what it should be. Andrew felt deep down that he was not what he should be. And so when he heard John’s preaching of a baptism of repentance, of a coming kingdom, he felt deep down the truth of these words and was himself baptized. 

And one day as Andrew was out there in the wilderness listening to John’s teaching, he sees John pointing to a man he had never met and said, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” Andrew, curious, elbows a friend, and they together walk over to meet Jesus, and Jesus invites them to dinner. As they dine together Jesus begins talking to them about the kingdom of God. He tells him between bites: “The long wait is over—the time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand.” And as Andrew listens, his heart burns, and he knows that this man is different from anyone he ever met. 

And that’s how Simon learns of Jesus. He sees Andrew one day coming into his house, eyes wide with excitement, and before Simon even has a chance to say hello, Andrew blurts out, “I think I’ve found the Messiah.” So of course, Simon goes out to meet Jesus, and it’s not long before he invites James and John to come along as well. This becomes a repeated thing; again and again they choose with their free time to listen to Jesus preach in the village square or people’s homes, as he calls them to repent, to believe that now is the time of the kingdom. His words felt like sunshine breaking through a fog, like cold water splashed on the face, finally making them alert after living half-awake for so long. They watch him; they feel inspired by him. They don’t fully understand what they’re seeing, but they know: this man has come from God.

And now Jesus has come out to them as they work. He’s standing on the shore, just a little ways away, and after he gets their attention, he simply says, “Follow me.” That is, “Become my apprentices. Peter and Andrew, you have met me, you have watched me and listened to me, and now I want more than that for you. I am starting something new, and I want you to join me.” 

Think about how much Jesus is asking of them while giving such little detail. He is not inviting them to do a little something on the side in their free time. He’s calling them to leave the only life they have ever known and to walk down a new path that they barely understand. And all he tells them is that this will mean a change in identity. No longer will they be those who catch fish. They will become those who catch people.

Later on, we will come to understand that this kind of call isn’t unique to the apostles. Jesus says, “Whoever wants to join with me must lose his former life and follow me.” Because Jesus isn’t interested only in being an inspirational figure. He is much more than that, and for that reason he wants something much better for us than that.

Rather strikingly, Simon doesn’t even look over at Andrew to talk about it, and neither of them pause to think. They just leave their nets in the water, dive out of the boat, and swim ashore. Their lives will be forever changed by this decision. 

Jesus begins walking along the lake, now with Simon and Andrew following right behind, and a short while later he finds Zebedee’s boat, where his two sons, along with some other workers, are busily at work. Jesus, again, calls out. “John, James.” They turn and see him, and he says, “Follow me.” And they too leave their boat, their dad, and their nets, and swim ashore to join with Jesus. 

We’re not told what happens on the rest of that day: the initial conversation they have with Jesus about what this all means, or the conversation they probably had just with each other. Undoubtedly they were filled with a kind of nervous excitement: they had just made a big change in their lives. What in the world did it mean? 

Part 2

The next day they would begin to see that they had begun along a path far more extraordinary and unpredictable than they could have anticipated. It was the Sabbath, and like all devout Jews, Jesus, now with Peter and friends in tow, walked in the morning to the synagogue. We should imagine a crowded large room filled with many Jewish families from the community, likely sitting on mats on the ground. At the front are a couple of benches where the scribes—the experts on the law, sit along with the synagogue ruler. At the appointed time the synagogue leader gets up and leads the congregation in a liturgy, reciting parts of the law together and perhaps singing a Psalm. And then the time of teaching comes. Often a few people will speak; the scribes will of course share their latest insights, but often laymen known for their ability will be invited to read a passage and comment on it.

And so at a certain point Simon finds Jesus, sitting next to him, stand up and move to the front. Simon looks around and sees his whole congregation becoming quiet, for by now they all have at least heard rumors about this man. Jesus asks for a specific scroll, maybe it was Isaiah. He reads it out loud, and then he begins to explain it. And as he preaches, everyone is captivated by him. Not just captivated in the sense that their attention is completely fixed; it’s more than that. His words feel weighty, powerful, placing their claim upon the hearers. So often when scribes would speak much of their time would involve talking about how this rabbi believed this about the verse, and another believed that. It would be stimulating perhaps, but also, well, safe. Very little demand was placed upon the hearers.

But verse 22 says when Jesus preached, they are astonished—really, the idea is more overwhelmed, because “Jesus taught them as one who had authority, not as the scribes.” He speaks with conviction, with the confidence that comes in knowing that you are God’s beloved Son. He announces that they are now at a decisive turning point in human history: the kingdom of God is at hand! Jesus’ teaching places a claim on his hearers, as he calls people to believe this news and allow it to do its work on them. You see, when Jesus preaches you are not given room to remain a neutral observer, to treat him just as an interesting teacher. You must either reject what he says or accept it and be transformed. 

And there’s a moment when he preaches on this Sabbath that the difference between him and the scribes becomes utterly clear. Verse 23 says, “There was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit.” Which is an odd detail, right? In the synagogue, the place where these scribes taught God’s Word, a man possessed by a demon is hanging out comfortably week after week, without anyone even knowing. Every week he sits and listens to this teaching without any fuss, because, well, there was no authority, no claim being placed upon it. 

But then comes Jesus. And as Jesus speaks of the coming kingdom; as he calls people to repent, to believe the gospel, the demon causes this man to uncontrollably interrupt with a cry asking: “Jesus of Nazareth, have you come to destroy us?” Notice the plural—this demon is not just asking about itself, but about all of Satan’s servants. What is your purpose, Holy One of God? What have you come to do with us?”

Can you imagine Simon and his friends in this moment, watching their new mentor, their new master, wondering what would happen?

What they see is with that same confident authority with which he had preached just a moment before, Jesus, who is indeed the Holy One, rebukes the unclean spirit for what it is, saying that he has no place in this community of God. Without any special tricks or enchanting or whatever, he simply says “Be quiet, and leave this man.”

What they see is nothing short of terrifying. It says this man was thrown into convulsion: he fell down onto the ground, out of control and began violently shaking; he yelled with a pained, terrified cry. For a moment, it might have seemed like Jesus destroyed that man. And indeed the change Jesus brings always involves a certain kind of death. It can be terrifying. But the demon leaves him, and the man is restored to his sanity.

And you would think that when people left church that morning they would have been saying something like, “Can you believe that? Joe was demon-possessed! And then this man exorcised him.” But it’s not the demon they want to talk about. It’s Jesus’ teaching. “What is this? A new teaching.” And what they say about this teaching is not that it was so interesting, so inspirational. No, the thing that struck them most was that Jesus words were filled with authority. An authority so great that even the demons obey him. The thing that sticks with them most is how Jesus laid a claim upon them, calling them into something new.

Part 3

Jesus tells Simon he’d like to go to his home for lunch, and of course Simon agrees, although he lets Jesus know that his mother-in-law won’t be able to eat with them due to her fever. But as they step in the house, before Simon even has a chance fully to introduce her, Jesus goes to her, lying down on a mat on the floor, and kneels beside her, and he speaks a few words, takes her by the hand, and Simon suddenly sees his mother in law spring up and begin apologizing for the condition of this house and telling Jesus just to wait a minute as she will prepare a great meal for him. Who is this, that even fevers obey him?

That evening, after the sun goes down and the Sabbath is now over, they hear a knock at the door, Simon opens it to see a neighbor whose child has been terribly ill, asking if Jesus could come out and help them. Then another family comes, and another, people with cancer, demon possession, chronic pain all have come out to Jesus. And he heals every one of them.

And I suspect that in that moment Simon and his friends really began to feel like they understood what their lives would now be about; they felt like they understood what Jesus was going to be—the great healer of their people. Their minds were filled with visions of enormous success, the huge following Jesus would gain as family after family came for his help. He would make so many lives happier and healthier, Everyone would love Jesus as the great healer of the region, and they, his apprentices, would get to be a part of it. But Simon doesn’t quite yet see clearly. 

The next morning he hears a knock at the door and sees more people coming to be healed, and he’s excited to see another day of great meaningful success. He calls out for Jesus, only to realize that Jesus isn’t in their home anymore. What’s happening?

Simon goes outdoors a neighbor tells him that he saw Jesus going for a walk towards the village outskirts. After searching for a while with Andrew, James, and John, Simon eventually spies Jesus in the distance in the middle of nowhere, kneeling, prostrate, clearly in prayer. It feels a little jarring to him for a moment because Jesus appears almost helpless, troubled, as if he is working through something difficult before God. In a couple of years Simon will again see Jesus in this helpless posture, on that occasion it will be in a garden at night.

But rather than asking questions, Simon is driven by his self-appointed task of keeping Jesus on schedule. He hurries toward him and says, “Jesus—you might not be aware of this, but everyone is looking for you. It’s going to be another full day!”

But Jesus, to his surprise, looks up from praying and shakes his head. “No, we need to go,” he says. “I need to keep preaching about God’s kingdom in all the villages. Because this is why I came.” 

This is why he came. Because this is who he is.

Jesus didn’t come just to be an inspirational figure, to be someone whose story might encourage other people to do better. He didn’t come simply to give people a better understanding of what life was about. And he also didn’t come simply to heal people so that their lives on this earth could be easier. He came for something far bigger and far better. He came to bring a new kingdom, because he is God’s appointed king. Because he is God’s Son. 

C S Lewis famously wrote in his classic Mere Christianity, “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

Jesus came to do something far greater than just being a human teacher, because he is much more than a great human teacher. And because of this, he also demands much more from us. He came with authority to claim you and me into something bigger and better and more mysterious than the life we think we want to live—to call us to follow him and join his kingdom under his rule. Until we see this, we will never be dealing with the real Jesus. Until we see this and respond to Jesus’ call upon us, we will never truly know what it is to live.