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!
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!
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