Daily Devotional for Wednesday 17th April
Jesus calls his first disciples
Poor old John the Baptist disappears into prison in today’s reading and we know from the other ‘synoptic’ gospels that it didn’t end well! But Mark is more interested in – yes, you’ve guessed it, the story of Jesus. At first sight Jesus sounds very like John – preaching a message of repentance. And soon we see that the first Disciples join Him. It sounds to me like a very brave move – not only leaving your livelihood to follow a stranger, but also a stranger who was probably heading for prison or execution, by trigger-happy Roman authorities always spooked by any signs of uprising among those troublesome Jews.
We learn later that one of the new disciples was a ‘Zealot’ (Mark chap.3) – i.e. a Jewish patriot who was committed to the overthrow of the Roman oppressors. So, the Disciples were a group of (probably mainly quite young) men who had a desire to do something different with their lives. They lived in troubled times and wanted to see things change. I can’t help feeling sorry for Zebedee, father of two of the main ringleaders (James and John) – left standing in the boat (verse 20)! But Jesus’ call was an uncompromising one – He didn’t say “come along when you’ve got a free moment” or “try and fit in being my disciple around your day-job” – and for some reason these men were so impressed by what they saw (or knew already) about Jesus that they went, there and then. They didn’t know then about the Cross but they could see spiritual authority when they met it.
Time to reflect…
For many of us we feel something, too, when we see the Jesus of the Bible – especially the Jesus who willing accepts a criminal’s death for us. We don’t know all the theology, or all the answers, but we do know we want to follow this leader in our lives.
Pause to pray…
The Disciples would have identified with the sentiments of the hymn-writer below – our prayer for today:
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast
Save in the death of Christ, my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to his blood.
