Preaching, relocating, gathering students.

Mark 1.14-20, Matthew 4.12-22, Luke 4.14-15, 5.1-11.

Whenever bible scholars try to sync up the gospels, we’re guessing. They’re educated guesses, but still guesses. The authors didn’t expect we’d ever try to line ’em up; some might’ve assumed there weren’t other gospels, or that theirs superseded all others. But we wanna tell Jesus’s story comprehensively, so sometimes we do. I don’t know whether the events I’m writing about here, come right after Jesus healing the royal’s son. But it kinda works, so it’s the order I’ll go in.

At some point, John the baptist got hauled off to prison, ’cause he pissed off the Galilee’s ruler, Herod Antipas.

Luke 3.19-20 KWL

19Quarter-king Herod Antipas,

embarrassed by John about his brother’s wife Herodia,

and everything evil Herod does,

20shuts John up in prison,

adding this to everything.

The gospels eventually get into what became of John; it’s not pretty. But as soon as John went into the clink, Jesus took up John’s charge and began proclaiming the good news of God’s kingdom.

Mark 1.14-15 KWL

14After John’s arrest,

Jesus goes into the Galilee preaching God’s gospel,

15 saying this:

“The time was fulfilled.

God’s kingdom has come near.

Repent! Believe in the gospel!”

Matthew 4.12-17 KWL

12Hearing John is arrested,

Jesus goes back to the Galilee.

13Leaving Nazareth, coming to Capharnaum,

he settles by the sea

on the border of Zebulún and Naftalí,

14so he can fulfill

the prophet Isaiah’s word saying,

15 “Land of Zebulún, land of Naftalí,

on the sea road, beyond Jordan,

the Galilee of gentiles:

16The people sitting in the dark

see a great light.

To those sitting in the place of death’s shadow,

light rises to them.” Is 9.1-2

17From then on, Jesus begins to preach and say,

“Repent: Heaven’s kingdom has come near!”

Luke 4.14-15 KWL

14Jesus goes back into the Galilee with the Spirit’s power.

Rumor goes out across the whole region about him.

15Revered by all,

Jesus teaches in their synagogues.

The gospel of Christ Jesus is summed up in Mark 1.15: “The time was fulfilled. God’s kingdom has come near.” With Messiah—who’d be Jesus—as its king.

You might notice a whole lot of folks who supposedly preach “the gospel” don’t preach that. Instead they quote John 3.16: God loved the world, sent us his son, and those who believe in him get eternal life. They claim that’s the gospel. It’s not. Getting saved is how we get into the kingdom. But the full gospel is what we have now that we’re in God’s kingdom. We get access to our inheritance.

And that’s why so many evangelists only proclaim a partial gospel. Some of ’em don’t believe we have access to our inheritance. Some of ’em are mighty uncomfortable with everything God’s kingdom entails.

In many Christians’ minds, we don’t get the kingdom till Jesus returns. If the Left Behind fans are to be believed, that day will always be seven years from now. Good luck catching up with it. For many others, the kingdom’s been pushed away into the neverland of “heaven.” We only encounter it after we die. Either way, it’s not in reach, so Christians don’t live in expectation or preparation of it. We don’t tap its power. We don’t really repent, turn away from our pagan lifestyles, and work on producing good fruit: We don’t figure we’ve anything to reform for. The gospel’s been hobbled.

I go on about the kingdom in my article on it. Read it if you wanna know what Jesus really meant by his kingdom. Many of us Christians are proclaiming it. ’Cause it’s really good news.

Gathering students.

Jesus gathers his first four students in Bethany-beyond-Jordan—Andrew, Simon, Philip, and Nathanael Jn 1.40-51 —in John. Some folks assume John was among ’em, but the text says nothing about it. But in Capharnaum, Jesus again gathers four students: Andrew and Simon again, plus his cousins James and John.

Mark 1.16-20 KWL

16Passing by the Galilean sea,

Jesus sees Simon and Simon’s brother Andrew,

casting a net into the sea:

They’re fishers.

17 Jesus tells them, “Follow me!

I’ll make you² fishers of people.”

18Quickly abandoning the nets,

they follow Jesus.

19Going on a little,

Jesus sees James bar Zebedee, his brother John,

and those in the boat mending nets.

20Quickly he calls them,

and they abandon their father Zebedee

in the boat with the employees,

and go away after Jesus.

Matthew 4.18-22 KWL

18Walking by the Galilean sea,

Jesus sees two brothers,

Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother,

throwing a net into the sea:

They’re fishers.

19Jesus tells them, “Follow me!

I’ll make you² fishers of people.”

20Quickly abandoning the nets,

they follow him.

21 Going on from there,

Jesus sees two brothers,

James bar Zebedee and his brother John,

in the boat with their father Zebedee,

mending their nets.

He calls them.

22Quickly abandoning the boat and their father,

they follow Jesus.

Most teachings I’ve heard about this passage make it appear as if the kids’ response to Jesus’s call was a spontaneous reaction to his powerful, Christlike charisma. Maybe some supernatural might in his voice, maybe some special winsome way in which he called them. Something miraculous which drew ’em to immediately, even hypnotically, quit their jobs and follow a stranger. Which is hogwash. All of ’em already knew who he was.

The prophet John had already told Andrew that Jesus was the Lamb of God, the one who’d come after him. Jn 1.29-31 They already understood—they all understood—this meant Messiah. The King of Israel, the one who’s gonna conquer the world and establish God’s kingdom in it. If Messiah comes looking for you and says, “Follow me!” what’re you gonna do? Right: You jump off the boat and follow.

I explained in that previous article how most Christian art and movies tend to depict these guys like they were contemporaries of Jesus, if not older. That’d make ’em too old to become talmidím, Pharisee students under a rabbi. People married young, had kids young; by Jesus’s age (figure mid-30s) they’d be grandparents. And Jesus wasn’t training grandparents. He trained young men, between the ages of 12 and 20. Teenagers. That’s why they act like teenagers so often, why Jesus keeps calling ’em “children” Mk 10.24, Jn 13.33, 21.5 and griping about “this generation.” Mk 8.12, Lk 7.31, 11.51 That’s why they could drop their careers easily, and follow him. They were at the age when kids followed a rabbi and got their secondary education.

Galilean fishermen of the day, because of the very high demand Romans had for freshwater fish, weren’t poor. If you were ever worried they might be, Luke’s version of this story includes the fact Jesus decidedly took care of any financial concerns.

Luke 5.1-11 KWL

1This happened when the crowds pressed on Jesus

to listen to God’s word:

He’s standing by Lake Khinnerót.

2Jesus sees two boats run aground by the lake.

The fishers left them and were cleaning the nets.

3Jesus enters one of the boats, which is Simon’s.

He asks Simon to put out the boat

a little ways from the land.

Sitting in the boat,

he teaches the crowds.

4When Jesus stops speaking,

he tells Simon, “Bring us out to the deep.

Let down your² nets for a catch.”

5In reply Simon says, “Captain,

we caught nothing after working all night.

But on your¹ word, I’ll let down the nets.”

6Doing this, a multitude of many fish were caught.

Their net broke.

7They signal to their partners in the other boat,

who come to rescue them;

who come and fill both boats

till they were sinking.

8Seeing this,

Simon Peter falls on his knees before Jesus,

saying, “Leave me:

I’m a sinful man, Master.”

9For they, and all with them,

are seized up in shock over the catch of fish they had.

10Likewise James and John bar Zebedee,

who are fellows of Simon.

Jesus tells Simon, “No fear.

From now on, you’ll¹ catch people.”

11Pulling the boats onto the land,

they leave everything and follow Jesus.

Galilean fishing boats weren’t huge; they were small enough for two men to drag onto the shore. But Jesus filled two of them to the point of sinking, with thousands of dollars’ worth of fish. If they ever doubted they could afford to follow Jesus, that doubt was gone.

Simon Peter later pointed out how they gave up everything for Jesus. And in reply, Jesus pointed out those who leave things and people for his sake, in the kingdom, get it back a hundredfold. Plus eternal life. Mt 19.28-29 Sounds neat? Sure. Are we always gonna get the verification of two boatloads of fish? Not always; for some of us it takes great faith. Or even small faith. Either way, God can work with our faith, and grow it.

Did these kids expect they’d become revolutionaries in Messiah’s army? Maybe. Remember, not everybody understood what Messiah was about. Jesus would have to train them—and sometimes they’d be spectacularly dense, ’cause the kingdom he taught is radically different from the political monster they had in mind. It’s not far different from a lot of Christians who assume now that we’re following Jesus, we’re gonna get stuff. Material goods. Power. Sometimes in the guise of a mansion in heaven; sometimes in the guise of self-righteousness and political might. If we’re really following Jesus, he’ll disabuse us of all these short-sighted notions.

But you remember how things were in the beginning: As new Christians, we naïvely expected everything would be sunshine, lollipops, rainbows, and ponies. We had no clue. Neither did Jesus’s students. They learned better. (Hopefully so did we.)