Jesus Tempted in the Wilderness
Mark 1:12-13
Parallels Texts: Matthew 4: 1-11; Luke 4:1-13
Jesus Returns to Galilee
Mark 1:14
Parallel Texts: Matthew 4:12; Luke 3:19-20; John 4:1-4
Jesus Teaches in Galilee
Mark 1:15
Parallel Texts: Matthew 4:17; Luke 4:14-15
Jesus Calls Disciples
Mark 1:16-20
Parallel Texts: Matthew 4:18-22; Luke 5:1-11
I don’t know if you’ve been reading the verses I’ve listed above, but if you have, you can see just how pithy this gospel is. See where Matthew and Luke are by the end of this, while Mark has only written a few verses for these incidents? Matthew is well into chapter 4 and Luke is well into chapter 5 while Mark is not halfway through chapter 1! I keep having to remind myself that I’m covering Mark, and not the life of Jesus, so tempted am I to fill in the blanks…
Mark does, however, give us something really interesting to sink our teeth into in verse 16 ff.
This is His first command to His disciples: “Follow me.” I always enjoy pointing out that His ministry begins in earnest with “Follow Me” and ends with “Go and make disciples”. In between these two commands Jesus makes disciples and saves the world. If you stop and think about that, you will surely gain wisdom, for you will be looking right directly at the eternal purpose of God.
Another interesting aspect to this story is that when Jesus walks up to these guys and says “Fellow Me,” they actually drop everything and obey His command! What would I do if some 30-year-old kid walked up to me and said that? If I was in a really good mood I might say, “And you are… who exactly?”
These guys just dropped their nets and answered His call, and when you read that they dropped their nets, understand that those nets were their profession not their amusement. Jesus has called you and me to do a number of things. He’s called us to love one another; do we drop our nets and follow? He has called us to make disciples, do we drop our nets and follow? I’m sure you can see where this is headed, and no, we usually put up a bit of a fight with Him when he calls us to do something.
Yes, even though Mark rushed through some things, there’s always a zinger lingering somewhere!
Life Project Blog 
“we usually put up a bit of a fight with Him when he calls us to do something” – have you been reading my notes? 🙂
Well, I have the general picture anyway… maybe it’s a picture I see in the mirror a lot 🙂
Thanks for visiting my blog post The Fire of Doubt. I like what you said ” understand that those nets were their profession not their amusement”. You see I did just that when I dropped the loaded trailer I was pulling and came home. It has been 8 years now with much twists and turns and tumbling but I will never let go of my Savior. In God I put my trust, my heart, it is hard to understand for some.
Yes it is… thanks for sharing that, maybe it will help some to see, I hope so!
We need to remember that Jesus said some hard, direct things regarding our obedience, or lack thereof, like:
“Not everyone who calls me ‘Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom, but those who do the will of my Father”
“You are my friends IF you do whatever I command you.”
“Why do you call me Lord, Lord and not DO what I say?”
Is He LORD? Or is He not? Looking at the world of Church and Christianity as we know, see and experience it, we must conclude He is not. Can this be the reason the Church has become practically irrelevant in most of our world today?
Quite possibly!