Immediately They Followed A sermon by the Reverend John W. Howe Rector of Truro Episcopal Church, Fairfax, Virginia January 24, 1988 Scripture: Mark 1:14–20 Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to St. Mark: Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel.” And passing along by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in the boat mending the nets. And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him. The Gospel of the Lord. --- One of the things I find most intriguing about the four Gospel accounts of Jesus’ ministry is the very different ways in which the four authors begin their story. Have you noticed that? Matthew’s concern is that we see Jesus as the one who fulfills prophecy, who stands in the chain of events of the Old Testament and fulfills them. So he begins his account with a genealogy that stretches all the way back to Abraham: so-and-so begat so-and-so, all the way back to Abraham. Luke has a concern that we see every detail of this story rooted in contemporary history—that we be able to place it in the events that were going on at the time. So he begins with the angelic visitations, first to Zechariah and then to Mary, and their songs of praise offered in response to God’s grace. And then he’s the one who goes into all that detail we associate with the Christmas celebration: detail about Caesar Augustus and Quirinius being governor of Syria, and Mary and Joseph making their trek to Bethlehem to participate in the census, and how she brought forth her firstborn and laid him in swaddling clothes in a manger. John steps back from all of that. He wants us to see the cosmic picture: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Very different approaches. And over against all of that, we come to Mark’s Gospel. Mark is the man of action. He wants to know what’s happening right now. He wants to get to the point. No philosophical discourse, no unnecessary detail. I think Mark would have really enjoyed Ian Fleming. You know: James Bond killed the guy, kissed the girl, and lived happily ever after. No room for Dostoevsky here. Mark begins with the baptism of Jesus, skips over all the detail about the temptation in the wilderness, skips over any detail of John the Baptist’s arrest and death, and jumps right into the ministry. You can just sort of hear him saying, “Let’s get on with it. Let’s get on with it. Let’s see what’s next.” And I find it interesting that in this very first chapter he uses the little word “immediately” seven times. Jesus calls Simon and Andrew, and immediately they left their nets. He sees James and John, and immediately he calls them, and they left their nets. They go into Capernaum, and immediately he goes right into the synagogue and begins teaching. Even before you get to the next point, there’s conflict with a man who has an unclean spirit. After he takes care of that, immediately he leaves the synagogue and goes to heal Simon’s mother-in-law. Immediately they tell him about her, and Jesus restores her to health. And then a leper comes begging for mercy. It says, moved with pity, Jesus touches him—you don’t do that with lepers. Jesus does. And immediately he’s made clean. This is how Mark tells his story all the way through: this, then this, then this, then this. Point after point after point. If you want character development, you might read Luke. If you want to know what happened, check it out with Mark. I mention that this morning because I want us just to consider for a moment the calling of Simon, whom Jesus nicknamed Peter. Interesting change of names there. Some of you know this: Simon means “sandy” or “shifty.” You wouldn’t build on Simon. It wouldn’t last. It would collapse. Peter means “rock”—the sort of foundation that you can build on. Very interesting when Jesus changes a name like that. He sees something in Simon that doesn’t in fact take place right away, but eventually does. Eventually this rather shifty character becomes a rock, like unto the Rock. I want us to think for a moment about the calling of Simon Peter and his brother Andrew. If all we had to go on was Mark’s account, it would seem that out of nowhere—with no previous discussion, no prior contact, no antecedent whatsoever—Jesus simply appears on the shore of Galilee one day, a totally unknown figure, and calls these two guys: “Come on, follow me,” and immediately they do so. But in fact, this would be a good Bible study for you. Go back and read the first couple of chapters of John’s Gospel, and you’ll see a whole lot of detail that Mark skips over. Andrew was previously the disciple of John the Baptist. We don’t know for how long. What we do know is that John the Baptist’s whole ministry was involved in preparing the way for Messiah. That’s what it was about—and a tremendous ministry that touched as far as Ephesus and down into Egypt. John was the figure of his day prior to Jesus himself. How long was Andrew discipled by John? I have no idea. But I do know that John would explain over and over, as fully as he knew how, dealing with all of the relevant Old Testament texts, what Messiah would do and what he’d be like. And John would call men and women to repentance and to the sorting out and reordering of their lives so that they’d be ready for Messiah when he comes. John’s Gospel tells us that Andrew was one of two disciples (we don’t know who the other one was) who heard their master, John, greet Jesus when he arrived one day with the words, “Behold, the Lamb of God. This is the one I’ve been telling you about.” And as soon as Andrew heard that, he immediately left John the Baptist and went and spent a day—and probably a night—with Jesus, plying him with questions, interrogating him, checking him out. And finally he becomes convinced, personally, that John’s assessment is correct: that Jesus indeed is the Christ. And immediately he goes and tells Simon Peter, “We’ve found the Messiah.” That, by the way, is Andrew’s great claim to fame in Scripture: that he went and got his brother. He told somebody about Jesus. We have in the Episcopal Church a Brotherhood of St. Andrew—a society of men and boys who take their cue from this disciple who is noted for having gone to tell somebody else about Jesus. That’s what we remember Andrew for. Now that’s what John adds to the story. Turn to Luke’s Gospel, and Luke is the one who fills in all the marvelous detail of Peter’s first meeting with Jesus himself. I know you know the story, but I want you to bear in mind that before Jesus ever appears, Peter has had the witness of his own brother, who is also his business partner. His own brother has shared with him the conviction that Jesus is the Christ before Peter ever sets eyes on him. You know the story—wonderful story. Peter’s been out fishing all night. He’s caught nothing. He’s tired. He’s frustrated. He wants to clean his nets and go home and go to bed. And along comes Jesus with so large a crowd following him—jostling each other, trying to get close to him, to touch him, hanging on every word at this early hour of the morning—so large a crowd that in order for people to be able to see him and hear him, Jesus steps into the back of Peter’s boat and says, “Would you push off from shore just a little bit?” I imagine that Peter was more than a little irritated at that. He wants to go home, go to bed. But he’s also intrigued. What is it about this man that would draw such a crowd at first light? What is it about this man that would convince my brother that he’s the long-awaited Messiah? And so he complies. He pushes off a little way. The crowd sits down, and Jesus begins to teach. For how long? Five minutes? A couple of hours? I have no idea. We do know that sometimes Jesus taught the whole day long. How long would you have to listen to him before you began to be aware that this man was speaking as no one you ever heard speak before? I’m sure it was not only those two disciples on their way back to Emmaus who reflected on their time with Jesus and said, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he opened to us the Scriptures?” I’m sure that was the common experience. I’m sure that as Peter sat there, two or three feet away from Jesus in the back of his boat, Peter’s heart began to burn within him. Don’t you think? As he heard Jesus relating Scriptures that he’d never been able to put together before, and opening up insights into the character of God and into the promises regarding Messiah that had never made any sense before. And suddenly he hears them and says, “Of course. How did I miss that?” And as Jesus began to press the point home in a personal way, as he always did, and he begins to cut to the quick, Peter feels that in his own heart and spirit and says, “Yeah, that applies to me.” How long do you suppose he listened before that began to happen to him? And then comes the coup de grâce. Jesus turns to him and says, “Pete, I know you’re having a little trouble believing all this stuff. Why don’t we do something different? Let’s row out a little deeper and do some fishing.” And Peter says, “Sir, you undoubtedly are the greatest preacher I have ever heard in my life. But look—fishing is my business. I mean, I’m the professional here, and we went at it all night. We’ve caught nothing. If you don’t catch them at night, you’re not going to catch them in the daytime.” And Jesus says, “Yeah, I know. Let’s give it a try.” Can’t you just hear Peter saying to himself, “It’s going to be worth the hassle of stretching out my nets again to show this guy that I know a little bit more than he does, at least in this area”? And so he goes out and lets down his nets—and immediately there is such a catch. It says he enclosed a whole shoal of fish. This huge school of fish is enclosed in the nets. He begins to pull them in, and the boat begins to sink. He never saw anything like that before. This is a miracle in his own area of expertise. He falls to his knees and says, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.” He knows at last who it is he’s dealing with. And Jesus says, “Yeah, I know that you’re a sinful man. But you’re exactly the sort of man I’ve come to catch—just as surely as we’ve caught these fish. And I’m going to tell you something else: if you’ll come with me, I’ll teach you how to catch others.” I want you to see that all of that is included in Mark’s word “immediately.” All of that: - The extended witness of John the Baptist (second-hand, and through him the witness of the Old Testament Scriptures, second- or third-hand) - The direct witness of Andrew, his own brother and business partner (first-hand) - The dramatic witness of this huge crowd of people attentively hanging on Jesus’ every word - His own heart burning within him as he hears Jesus preach and teach with his own ears - And then the miracle—the staggering, impossible provision, the blessing that Jesus provides in Peter’s own field of expertise, where Peter couldn’t do it himself, and Jesus does it overwhelmingly And finally, when he realizes that he’s face to face with the Holy One of Israel, when he’s convicted of his own unworthiness, what he hears from Jesus’ lips is not a word of condemnation, but a word of blessing and welcome. And immediately, he follows Him. Of course, it took another three years before he even began to understand Him. Mark isn’t distorting anything. This is what the next important event was, see? And Mark gets to the point. My point is that sometimes “immediately” takes a little longer. And I want to say just two things about that this morning. First: I wonder if there’s somebody in your life that you’ve longed to bring to Jesus. You’ve spoken to that person, shared literature and tapes maybe, and you’ve prayed for that person—maybe for years. Nothing’s happened. Don’t give up. Don’t give up. Be patient. We’re dealing with a God to whom a thousand years is as a single day. How many of you know that God is very seldom on schedule and never late? I heard a story about a father who prayed for his son, and prayed and prayed for his son day after day, year after year. This was the classic prodigal son. Nothing happened. The father went to his grave with his prayers unanswered. Only—you know what? A funny thing happened at the funeral. The son gave his life to Jesus. Don’t give up. Sometimes “immediately” takes a little longer. Keep praying. Keep witnessing. Keep sending books and tapes if you can do that without offense. And take a cue from Jesus Himself. He says, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. I will show you how to do it.” And how He did it was by becoming an overwhelming blessing to Peter in his area of need. “Lord, how can I be the vehicle of blessing to so-and-so?” Get it? You want to catch fish, you have to have some bait. “Lord, how can I be a vehicle of blessing to my son, my daughter, my friend?” Be patient. God isn’t finished yet. Secondly: If you yourself are a person who hasn’t yet come to a conclusion about Jesus—that could be, couldn’t it? I mean, you might have been here week after week, and yet in your heart you’re not sure. Maybe you’ve come for the first time this morning, or for the first time in a long time. I challenge you with this question: Would you be willing to ask God to show you the truth about Jesus—one way or the other? Please don’t ask Him to do that unless you’re willing to deal with the consequences. Jesus said, “If anyone is really willing to do My Father’s will, he’ll have no problem knowing the truth about Me.” You see, we tend to view it as an intellectual problem, but He said it’s a moral problem. It’s a problem of your will. If you’re willing to follow the evidence where it leads, sooner or later it will lead to Me. And immediately, your life will be changed. --- Let’s bow our heads together. Could we take hands with each other? And if there’s anyone in particular who comes to your mind that you would love to bring to this Lord Jesus, could you just very quietly mention that person’s first name? And now would you pray for the folks on either side of you—that the Lord would renew their desire, their strength, their patience in bearing witness to that friend or member of their family, and that the Lord would show them how to become His blessing to that person. Lord, thank You for those who have been as Andrew to us. We pray that we might be as Andrew to these for whom we pray. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen.