Zebedee

Gospel for January 21, 2024

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Mark 1:14-20
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Mark has a breathless, rapid-fire delivery as he tells the story of Jesus’ ministry, at least until he reaches the descriptions of the Passion and Resurrection much later in chapters 14 to 16. He delivers the story almost like an excited child — “first this happened, then that happened, and then…”

In verses 9-11, he relates the account of Jesus’ baptism with economy of language; and then in just two verses, 12-13, he tells how Jesus was sent out into the wilderness where he was tempted by the devil for forty days.

In our passage he begins his ministry at the very moment that John the Baptist’s ministry appears to be ending. John has been arrested by Herod for denouncing Herod’s unlawful marriage to his brother’s ex-wife.

It seems as though this is an intentional transition. As John the Baptist says of Jesus in the Gospel of John 3:30:

He must increase, but I must decrease.

Initially, Jesus’ message sounds similar to that of his cousin. Like John, he also calls people to repentance. However, there are two key differences. John declared that one was coming who would baptize the people with the Holy Spirit. Jesus declares:

The time is fulfilled.

He elaborates further and declares:

God’s Kingdom is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News.

In just those few words, his message is distinct from John’s. The kingdom is not in the future, it is now! And furthermore, the bad news, that people need to repent of sin, is followed with good news that they are to believe. The law has been fulfilled through grace.

Then Jesus begins to gather his team as he walks by the shores of the Sea of Galilee, luring fishermen from their vocation of catching fish and calling them instead to fish for people.

What is startling, as Mark tells it, is that these two pairs of brothers, Simon Peter and Andrew, and James and John the sons of Zebedee, leave their nets immediately.

Mark gives the impression that these four men drop everything, their careers, their families, their lives, to follow Jesus.

With Mark, everything is immediate.

APPLY:

The message of Jesus is both bad news and good news. The bad news is that we are sinners who desperately need to repent and turn away from our sin. The good news is that in Jesus Christ, the kingdom of God has come near us, and when we believe in him we experience his presence and his kingdom.

This is a kind of “realized eschatology,” that the moment we turn to Jesus the kingdom of God has entered our lives, and we live according to that reality, not in the unreality of sin and death. That’s why it is good news!

As we repent and believe, then we hear the call of Jesus to become fishers of people. For Andrew and Peter, James and John, this meant leaving their jobs and leaving their families and father. For some Christians who are called to full-time ministry, the call may mean the same thing.

But we are to remember that all Christians are called to be witnesses — even if they remain in their jobs and with their families. In fact, it may be that that is where they are to be fishers of people — where they work, where they live, and with the people closest to them.

Don’t think that because you haven’t quit your job or left your family to enter full-time ministry that you are any less in ministry. Make your job and your family an expression of your ministry, and witness for the Good News of Jesus where you are.

It’s up to you to figure out how that witness will be expressed.

RESPOND:

I heard this simple message many years ago:

The time is fulfilled, and God’s Kingdom is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News.

I understood that for me it meant giving up my own personal dreams of writing the great American novel or becoming a journalist, and entering instead into full-time Christian ministry. I have been trying to be a fisher of people for the past forty years. But the call to be a fisher of people has many different expressions — it may include preaching, teaching, witnessing, counseling — but witness may come through other means as well. Like writing a blog, for instance!

I hope to discern where I hear Jesus asking me to take up the nets and fish for people at every stage of my life.

Our Lord, your kingdom has come near in Jesus. And when I sense your presence I must repent. But your grace and pardon become for me a source of good news that I must share with others. I can do no other. Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Repent and believe” by Cathy Stanley-Erickson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for October 17, 2021

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Mark 10:35-45
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

In this passage we catch a glimpse of the real limitations and fallibility of the disciples.

James and John, the two fishermen sons of Zebedee, have been with Jesus since the very beginning. But at this point in the ministry of Jesus, even after the time they have spent with Jesus, James and John still don’t “get it.”

First, the brothers come to Jesus with a “demand”:

“Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”

Why do they have the audacity to ask anything of Jesus? First, they have witnessed the power of Jesus on multiple occasions, so they have begun to believe that he is truly the Messiah. Second, we get the hint from the other Gospels that Jesus has offered the promise of answered petitions:

“Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).

And even more clearly, he says in John’s Gospel:

^“I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it” (John 14:13-14).

But it is what they ask that is the most audacious of all:

“Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”

They are asking to be his vice-regents! To sit at the right and left of the king is to be next to him in power and glory! To be second and third in command!

The answer of Jesus is diplomatic, but also instructive:

“You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”

With all the impulsiveness of the nickname Jesus has given them (the Sons of Thunder ), they declare:

“We are able.”

What Jesus understands (and they don’t yet), is that the way to glory follows the path of suffering. We are reminded of Jesus’ agonized prayer in the Garden of Gethsemene:

he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. He said, “Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want” (Mark 14:35-36).

We cannot help but think of his Last Supper, when the disciples are invited to share in the cup representing his blood poured out for them.

And we know from Luke’s Gospel that baptism is a sign of his death:

I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!” (Luke 12:50).

Jesus tells these impetuous brothers that they will indeed share in his sufferings as his disciples, but there are limitations to his power to grant their request:

“The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”

Jesus doesn’t clarify for whom this place of honor has been prepared in glory. That is not his purpose at this time. We do know that when he is crucified, two bandits will be crucified at his right hand and his left!

We also know from Biblical history and church tradition what happens to the brothers. James is martyred on the orders of King Herod:

He had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword (Acts 12:2).

John, on the other hand, lived to a ripe old age in Ephesus and as an exile on the Island of Patmos. He lived to write the Gospel of John, the three Epistles of John, and, according to some authorities, the Revelation. According to tradition, John is the only apostle who did not die a martyr’s death.

The reaction of the other disciples to this bold request from the Sons of Zebedee is predictable, given human nature. They are furious:

When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John.

This isn’t the first time the disciples have debated who would have positions of power, or jockeyed for position. Earlier, while Jesus was walking with the disciples to Capernaum, he detected a debate amongst his friends. When they arrived at the house, he asked what they were arguing about,

But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest (Mark 9:34).

Talk about an awkward moment! And now, so soon after this initial lesson about servanthood, Jesus must revisit the same subject:

“You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant,and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.”

Jesus is contrasting the “will to power” of the secular world with the “will to servanthood” of the Kingdom of God.

And, in case they missed the point, he uses himself as the role model:

“For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

Jesus will illustrate his servanthood vividly in the Gospel of John, when he washes the feet of his disciples in the Upper Room (John 13:1-20).

And even more vividly, he demonstrates his servanthood by his sacrificial death. This image of ransom provides one of the oldest understandings of the doctrine of atonement. Jesus offers himself as a substitute for those who are held captive by sin, death, and the devil.

APPLY:

This passage is a lesson to us about humility and servanthood. James and John have a knack for missing the point, especially since Jesus has already addressed the subject of servanthood.

But we also learn a thing or two about being careful what we ask for! James and John boldly declare that they are able to endure whatever Jesus endures. Really?

There is a famous hymn written by Earl Marlatt in 1926 based on this passage, in which he intones the words of Jesus:

“Are ye able,” said the Master,
“to be crucified with me?”
“Yea,” the sturdy dreamers answered,
“to the death we follow thee.”

And then the dreamers, both past and present, sing lustily:

“Lord, we are able.” Our spirits are thine.
Remold them, make us, like thee, divine.
Thy guiding radiance above us shall be
A beacon to God, to love, and loyalty.

Michael Hawn, the United Methodist hymnologist, writes of this hymn:

United Methodist Bishop John Wesley Hardt, former Bishop in Residence at Perkins School of Theology, places this hymn in the context of its time: “Toward the end of the 19th century and early in the 20th century, the dreams of ‘the coming Kingdom of God’ inspired the YMCA and YWCA as well as the vision of ‘The Evangelization of the World in Our World in Our Generation.’ A companion spirit inspired many young people to volunteer for service in the first great World War with the motto ‘to make the world safe for democracy.’”

While inspiring, we are reminded of the irony of these words that may well reflect the irony of Jesus. The world wasn’t free from war after the “War to End All Wars.” Neither was the entire world evangelized in that generation.

Today, we are perhaps more chastened and humbled than either the Sons of Zebedee or Dr. Marlatt. We understand that we do not build the Kingdom of God by our efforts — Christ brings the Kingdom by his own life, death, resurrection, ascension and his ultimate return.

That is not to say that we are absolved of our responsibility to follow Christ’s example. As he leads us by precept and example, we are to find true greatness not in power but in weakness, not in seeking to be first but in being last, not in tyrannizing others but in serving them.

The concept of “servant leadership” is critical to understanding how true leadership is to be exercised in the church today.

RESPOND:

When I was young, I wanted to be great at something. I wanted to be a great astronaut, or a great athlete, or a great… anything. Life has a way of humbling us of our pretenses to greatness.

However, I have discovered a very important principle in Scripture. All of us are highly valued by God:

you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).

Moreover, true greatness is something available to all Christians, no matter their I.Q., their success in business, their physical beauty, or popularity. True greatness is to be found in service to others.

Lord, you have taught us and shown us what true servanthood looks like. When you washed the feet of your disciples, and then when you gave your life as a ransom for us all, you revealed the sacrificial nature of servanthood. I struggle with my ego and my foolish pride. Help me learn that greatness comes not by seeking to be higher than others, but by lowering myself to true servanthood. Forgive me and call me to serve. Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Not to be Served…” by Art4TheGlryOfGod by Sharon is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for January 24, 2021

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Mark 1:14-20
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

It seems as though this is an intentional transition. As John the Baptist says of Jesus in the Gospel of John 3:30:

He must increase, but I must decrease.

The time is fulfilled.

He elaborates further and declares:

God’s Kingdom is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News.

Then Jesus begins to gather his team as he walks by the shores of the Sea of Galilee, luring fishermen from their vocation of catching fish and calling them instead to fish for people.

What is startling, as Mark tells it, is that these two pairs of brothers, Simon Peter and Andrew, and James and John the sons of Zebedee, leave their nets immediately.

Mark gives the impression that these four men drop everything, their careers, their families, their lives, to follow Jesus.

With Mark, everything is immediate.

APPLY:

It’s up to you to figure out how that witness will be expressed.

RESPOND:

I heard this simple message many years ago:

The time is fulfilled, and God’s Kingdom is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News.

I hope to discern where I hear Jesus asking me to take up the nets and fish for people at every stage of my life.

PHOTOS:
“Repent and believe” by Cathy Stanley-Erickson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for October 21, 2018

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Mark 10:35-45
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

In this passage we catch a glimpse of the real limitations and fallibility of the disciples. James and John, the two fishermen sons of Zebedee, have been with Jesus since the very beginning. But at this point in the ministry of Jesus, even after the time they have spent with Jesus, James and John still don’t “get it.”

First, the brothers come to Jesus with a “demand”:

“Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”

“Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).

And even more clearly, he says in John’s Gospel:

^“I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it” (John 14:13-14).

But it is what they ask that is the most audacious of all:

“Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”

They are asking to be his vice-regents! To sit at the right and left of the king is to be next to him in power and glory! To be second and third in command!

The answer of Jesus is diplomatic, but also instructive:

“You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”

With all the impulsiveness of the nickname Jesus has given them (the Sons of Thunder), they declare:

“We are able.”

What Jesus understands, and they don’t yet, is that the way to glory follows the path of suffering. We are reminded of Jesus’ agonized prayer in the Garden of Gethsemene:

he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. He said, “Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want” (Mark 14:35-36).

We cannot help but think of his Last Supper, when the disciples are invited to share in the cup representing his blood poured out for them.

And we know from Luke’s Gospel that baptism is a sign of his death:

I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!” (Luke 12:50).

Jesus tells these impetuous brothers that they will indeed share in his sufferings as his disciples, but there are limitations to his power to grant their request:

“The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”

We also know from Biblical history and church tradition what happens to the brothers. James is martyred on the orders of King Herod:

He had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword (Acts 12:2).

The reaction of the other disciples to this bold request from the Sons of Zebedee is predictable, given human nature. They are furious:

When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John.

But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest (Mark 9:34).

Talk about an awkward moment! And now, so soon after this initial lesson about servanthood, Jesus must revisit the same subject:

“You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant,and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.”

Jesus is contrasting the “will to power” of the secular world with the “will to servanthood” of the Kingdom of God.

And, in case they missed the point, he uses himself as the role model:

“For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

Jesus will illustrate his servanthood vividly in the Gospel of John, when he washes the feet of his disciples in the Upper Room (John 13:1-20).

APPLY:

This passage is a lesson to us about humility and servanthood. James and John have a knack for missing the point, especially since Jesus has already addressed the subject of servanthood.

But we also learn a thing or two about being careful what we ask for! James and John boldly declare that they are able to endure whatever Jesus endures. Really?

There is a famous hymn written by Earl Marlatt in 1926 based on this passage, in which he intones the words of Jesus:

“Are ye able,” said the Master,
“to be crucified with me?”
“Yea,” the sturdy dreamers answered,
“to the death we follow thee.”

And then the dreamers, both past and present, sing lustily:

“Lord, we are able.” Our spirits are thine.
Remold them, make us, like thee, divine.
Thy guiding radiance above us shall be
A beacon to God, to love, and loyalty.

Michael Hawn, the United Methodist hymnologist, writes of this hymn:

United Methodist Bishop John Wesley Hardt, former Bishop in Residence at Perkins School of Theology, places this hymn in the context of its time: “Toward the end of the 19th century and early in the 20th century, the dreams of ‘the coming Kingdom of God’ inspired the YMCA and YWCA as well as the vision of ‘The Evangelization of the World in Our World in Our Generation.’ A companion spirit inspired many young people to volunteer for service in the first great World War with the motto ‘to make the world safe for democracy.’”

While inspiring, we are reminded of the irony of these words that may well reflect the irony of Jesus. The world wasn’t free from war after the “War to End All Wars;” neither was the entire world evangelized in that generation.

The concept of “servant leadership” is critical to understanding how true leadership is to be exercised in the church today.

RESPOND:

When I was young, I wanted to be great at something. I wanted to be a great astronaut, or a great athlete, or a great . . . anything. Life has a way of humbling us of our pretenses to greatness.

However, I have discovered a very important principle in Scripture. All of us are highly valued by God:

you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).

PHOTOS:
“Not to be Served…” by Art4TheGlryOfGod by Sharon is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for January 21, 2018

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Mark 1:14-20
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

It seems as though this is an intentional transition. As John the Baptist says of Jesus in the Gospel of John 3:30:

He must increase, but I must decrease.

The time is fulfilled.

He elaborates further and declares:

God’s Kingdom is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News.

Then Jesus begins to gather his team as he walks by the shores of the Sea of Galilee, luring fishermen from their vocation of catching fish and calling them instead to fish for people.

What is startling, as Mark tells it, is that these two pairs of brothers, Simon Peter and Andrew, and James and John the sons of Zebedee, leave their nets immediately.

Mark gives the impression that these four men drop everything, their careers, their families, their lives, to follow Jesus.

With Mark, everything is immediate.

APPLY:

It’s up to you to figure out how that witness will be expressed.

RESPOND:

I heard this simple message many years ago:

The time is fulfilled, and God’s Kingdom is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News.

I understood that for me it meant giving up my own personal dreams of writing the great American novel or becoming a journalist, and entering instead into full-time Christian ministry. I have been trying to be a fisher of people for the past forty years. But the call to be a fisher of people has many different expressions – it may include preaching, teaching, witnessing, counseling – but witness may come through other means as well. Like writing a blog, for instance!

I hope to discern where I hear Jesus asking me to take up the nets and fish for people at every stage of my life.

PHOTOS:
“Repent and believe” by Cathy Stanley-Erickson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for Jan. 25, 2015

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

Mark 1:14-20

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Mark has a breathless, rapid-fire delivery as he tells the story of Jesus’ ministry, at least until he reaches the descriptions of the Passion much later. He delivers the story almost like an excited child: “first this happened, then that happened, and then . . .”

It seems as though this is an intentional transition. As John the Baptist says in the Gospel of John 3:30 “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

Initially, Jesus’ message sounds similar to that of his cousin. Like John, he also calls people to repentance. However, there are two key differences. First, while John was declaring that one was coming who would baptize the people with the Holy Spirit, Jesus declares “The time has come.”

He elaborates further and declares “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” In just those few words, his message is distinct from John’s. The kingdom is not in the future, it is now! And furthermore, the bad news, that people need to repent of sin, is followed with good news that they are to believe. The law has been fulfilled through grace.

Then Jesus begins to gather his team as he walks by the shores of the Sea of Galilee, luring fishermen from their vocation of catching fish and calling them instead to fish for people.

What is startling, as Mark tells it, is that these two pairs of brothers, Simon Peter and Andrew, and James and John the sons of Zebedee, leave their nets at once and without delay.

In John’s Gospel at least there is the sense of preparation: Andrew has heard John the Baptist declare that Jesus is the Lamb of God and has already spent a little time with Jesus. But Mark gives the impression that these four men drop everything, their careers, their families, their lives, to follow Jesus.

With Mark, everything is immediate.

APPLY:

But we are to remember that all Christians are called to be witnesses – even as they remain in their jobs and with their families. In fact, it may be that that is where they are to be fishers of people: where they work, where they live, with the people closest to them.

It’s up to you to figure out how that witness will be expressed.

RESPOND:

When I heard this simple message many years ago – “The time has come . . . The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” I did understand that for me it meant giving up my own personal dreams of writing the great American novel or becoming a journalist, and entering instead into full-time Christian ministry. I have been trying to be a fisher of people for the past forty years. But the call to be a fisher of people has many different expressions – it may include preaching, teaching, witnessing, counseling – but witness may come through other means as well. Like writing a blog, for instance!