Leaving and Following (2)

At once they left the net and followed him. (Mark 1:18)

Yesterday I suggested illusively that in Mark 1: 18, the key point is “following”, but it has a dialectic relationship with “leaving”. The person, who had experienced his spiritual salvation through following Jesus, had no choice except giving up extra things. And what does it mean by leaving something in here in details?
While we are following description of the text, first of all, Simon brothers left their net. The net was a tool to make a living for them. Giving up their net by which they used to fish everyday means that they gave up their basic way of living in this world. In here it sounds a little bit strange to us. Even though there must be charisma in Jesus, isn’t it strange that they gave up everything to follow the person whom they met for the first time and who seemed to be in the same age as they were. I think I have mentioned before. Probably this could not be the first encounter between Jesus and Simon brothers. For a certain time, they might know each other, and Simon brothers could make up their minds to leave home just like Jesus. The Bible just likes to pay attention to Messianic character in Jesus, so that it does not say what happened in details. But we should think about what happened exactly while reading the Bible. Our expectation is not decisive for our faith, but definitely a literary imagination is required in order to read the Bible texts more vividly.

We can’t help asking a fundamental question in here. Was it a good thing for Simon brothers to give up the net? Even though we can’t figure out exact situation in details, the net might be a lifeline for Simon brothers, having tears and sweats for their life. Regarding Simon brothers having abandoned the precious net for a living, they did not seem to have a family to support or they did not have any desire to support family. Even though it must be very valuable to follow Jesus, abandoning family relationship like this did not look appropriate.

After today’s text, according to verse 30, there comes the incident that Simon’s mother-in-law had fever. It might be more serious problem for a married person to give up his net. And then is it possible to think like this? The description in the Bible that they gave up the net and followed Jesus could not mean literally abandoning family relationship, but it could be a loose kind of leaving home. What about this? Just in some special occasions like visiting Jerusalem in Passover, they might follow Jesus, and in other times they could stay at home to do routines. You could forget about this, because there is no any foundation for this kind of my imagination. Anyway, whether it means definitely leaving home or loosely leaving home, it is clear that Simon brothers transferred from family community to Nazareth Jesus community. The author of the Gospel might describe that situation as leaving the net to follow Jesus.

We cannot follow Jesus by the way of leaving home, because we are not in the same position as the disciples, and we don’t have to do it. But we should remember that they had abandoned their net. From old order to new one, from earthly order to heavenly one, from family community to Jesus community, they had moved the center stage of their life. For this nobody could describe precisely what we should give up in details. It should be decided on his own. Only it is a problem that only you could decide and choose for yourself. This is a decisive moment only between you and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Lord, help us to live as a person who has moved our living into Nazareth Jesus community. Amen!

Leaving and following (1)

At once they left their nets and followed him. (Mark 1:18)

After Simon brothers listened to Jesus’ command, “follow me”, they at once left their nets and followed Jesus. Why did the author of the Gospel of Mark mention this happening? As a matter of fact, the net was not that important at the tense moment when someone’s fate would be decided. It is impossible for us to understand clearly if there must be some intentional effort from Mark for this sentence. Of course we could explain depending on the basis of faith like this. We could say that we need some courage to give up certain way of living in order to follow Jesus. We often seem to read the Bible this way. This point of view is well-known analysis that is ok pretty much.

But we could analyze this happening from a viewpoint of the Bible as a whole. This is what an analytical circulation of the part as well as of the whole means. This kind of point of view could decrease misunderstanding, and also open the deeper recognition of the text in the Bible. Look. The topic of the whole New Testament is basically Jesus Christ. When we read from that point of view, the essence of today’s text is Jesus Christ, not the net. It means that following someone is more important than leaving something.

Here it might be possible for us to ask this kind of question. Isn’t it the same thing leaving and following? And then why should we say that the latter is more important than the former? These two are related with each other. Of course without leaving the net, you cannot follow Jesus, and also without reservation to follow, it is impossible to leave the net. But analysis to emphasize on leaving is quite different from the one to put more weight on following. It is because the center of our life is Jesus Christ himself, depending upon his calling. Only when this calling is so strong, the meaning of leaving could have be much more important to us.

Sometimes some people put emphasis on leaving for faith. As an extreme example, there are rare cases in which there are some people who want to be a pastor because they have failed whatever they like to do in the world. They regard those kinds of failure as the Lord’s calling. Of course it could happen such things, but those things could distort essence of our faith in case of generalizing Christianity. Because in that case people could have regrets or desires for what he had left or had not achieved, it is possible that he could not have clear ideas about whom he should follow or he could have some bigoted attention.

What is worse, some pastors are saying without hesitation they have enough incomes through their books or speeches, so that they could give back all of their pay from their ministry as offerings. If they could give up material things, what many people are craving for, for the church that is the body of the Lord Jesus, it could be very praiseworthy enough, but if someone is boasting it off, it is because he is so foolish not to understand what the essence of our faith should be. At this point, I suggest we don’t put focus on “leaving” for sermons. There must be lots of things we should give up as a Christian, but that is not a key point for the Gospels. We should explain more about Jesus Christ, who is holding our hearts and souls enough to give up the net than such trivial things. We should try to let them understand the kingdom of God. Yes, we should. Our starting point is not to leave the net, but to follow the Lord Jesus. To differentiate this difference is related with making sure what the essence of the Gospels is.

Lord, we like to follow you as much as we could forget the net. Amen!