Carey's Bible Study Notes
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calling the disciples
life of christ: mark 1.16-20; 2.13-17
galilean ministry: jesus calls his disciples
introduction
All four gospels agree that at the beginning of His ministry, Jesus began to call men to be His disciples. One of the major characteristics of that first century was men joining themselves to rabbis as their disciples. Jesus� relationship with His disciples though radically differed from the relationship other disciples shared with their rabbis. Normally, most men who wanted to become disciples first listened to the different rabbis, evaluated them, and then selected which rabbi they wanted to follow. The disciples ultimately were in charge of the relationship because the choice ultimately fell on their shoulders. Not so with Jesus and His disciples. They did not choose Him; He chose them. Ultimately then, He was in charge of the relationship.
The second difference between Jesus� disciples and the disciples of other rabbis was that whereas the focus of these other disciples fell upon the teachings of their rabbis, the focus of Jesus� relationship with His disciples was upon Him. The disciples of other rabbis listened to, learned, and even memorized the teachings of their rabbis; their commitment though to them stopped at that point. Whereas Jesus� disciples did listen to, learn, and memorize Jesus� teachings, their commitment ultimately was to Him. The focus of Christianity is not a bunch of ethical teachings but instead the person Jesus. The focus of Christianity is not rigidly obeying a set of rules and regulations but a personal, individual relationship with Jesus.
jesus calls the four brothers andrew, peter, james and john (mark 1:16-20)
jesus and the sea of galilee
Jesus is walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee would more accurately be labeled the Lake of Galilee since it measures only 14 mi. by 6 mi. The Sea of Galilee is important first because it is the major water supply for Israel. As a fresh-water lake, it supplies today 75% of Israel�s drinking water. To the northeast of the lake lie the Golan heights (hills surrounding the lake) serving as a buffer between the hostile Syrians to the northeast and Israel�s main drinking supply. Next, the lake was filled with fish, supplying the staple for the Jewish diet in the first century (and in the 21st century as well). As a result, on the northern and western shores of the Sea of Galilee lay numerous villages, deriving their livelihood from the lake: Capernaum, Bethsaida, Chorazin, and Magdala, the home of Mary Magdalene. For most of His public ministry, Jesus will operate within the triangle formed by Capernaum, Chorazin, and Bethsaida. Occasionally, He will venture to the eastern side of the lake; however, He will spend the preponderance of the time in these 3 cities.
jesus calls andrew and peter (1:16-18)
Jesus is walking along the Sea of Galilee when He comes upon 2 brothers, Andrew and Peter, casting their nets. The fishing nets were large nets which formed a large circle when spread out. Around the perimeter of the net were attached weights which helped the net sink into the lake when cast upon it. When the fisherman pulled on the rope in the center of the net, the weights came together and caught the fish up in the net. While they are casting their nets, Jesus calls out to them: "Come after Me, and I will make you fishers of men."
The first thing we notice about this is that Peter and Andrew respond not only positively but also immediately, setting an example for us how to respond to Jesus� call upon our lives. They did not sit down and count the cost; they rose immediately and followed Jesus. Just as these first disciples responded immediately and positively to Jesus� call for discipleship, we should likewise.
Next, we notice that Mark does not give us any prior details about Jesus� relationship to the disciples. By looking at John 1:35-51, we discover that Jesus did have some prior encounters with these men. They probably heard some of his preaching and teaching in the city of Capernaum (the Mark passage), and even had met Jesus during the first week of His public ministry (the John passage). No matter how much or little time Jesus spent with them, they responded immediately and positively to Jesus� call for disciples.
Third, we see that the essence of discipleship is following Jesus. "Come after Me" is what Jesus says, not "Come beside Me" or "in front of Me!" Other images support this: the image of Jesus being the Shepherd who leads the way for the sheep and the image of Jesus as the King whom His people obey. In each case, the emphasis is upon obeying and following Jesus. Jesus is not interested in us promoting our own agendas, either in our homes, our careers, our churches, or our entertainment. The only agenda He wants us to implement is His and His alone. Implementing any other agenda disqualifies us as being His disciples.
Fourth, the image of becoming fishers of men may come from their situation in life (they are fishers) or from the OT passages which describe God�s prophets as being fishers of men. In the OT usage of this image, the sea or lake represents God�s coming judgment. Whenever the prophet fished for a person, he was pulling that person out of the lake of God�s judgment, that is, he was rescuing that person from God�s coming wrath. One element of Jesus� message about the kingdom of God was that wrath was coming. The coming of Jesus to Israel brought God�s judgment upon Israel. The root idea behind judgment is "to decide." God�s people had to decide what they were going to do with Jesus; once they decided, then God was going to decide what He was going to do with them. If they decided to accept Jesus, then God was going to decide to accept them. If they decided to reject Jesus, then He was going to decide to reject them. Unfortunately, they decided to reject Jesus, and as a result, God�s decision upon the people resulted in wrath; within 40 years the Romans would destroy their nation. Jesus here is calling these disciples to help Him rescue people from the coming wrath.
Finally, notice that whenever a person follows Jesus, s/he necessarily fishes for people. A person not fishing after men is not following Jesus no matter how much prayer and Bible study he engages in. Jesus� disciples are always going after other people to bring them to Him. It may violate your comfort zone. It may even not be your spiritual gift; however, if you are going to be a genuine follower of Jesus Christ, then you are going to fish after people.
jesus calls james and john (1:19-20)
Next, Jesus with Peter and Andrew comes upon 2 more brothers, James and John. Unlike Peter and Andrew, these 2 are not alone but rather are with their father and hired hands. The presence of the hired hands indicates that they have a lucrative business in the fishing industry. They are either mending, preparing, or cleaning their fishing nets (the Greek is unclear as to what they are actually doing with these nets). When Jesus calls them to follow them, they respond immediately and positively like the other 2 brothers did.
Two elements in this story absent from the first story are (1) Jesus calls them to leave their family (father) and (2) Jesus calls them to leave a lucrative business. Many misunderstand what God wants for their lives when they claim Jesus wants them to a be a good father, good mother, successful business person, etc. Whereas God does make us these things, these are not the reasons Jesus calls us to be His disciples. He calls us so that we will follow Him. Sometimes following Him means leaving behind certain relationships. Sometimes Jesus does not give us a better relationship with our spouse because our spouse does not wish to follow Jesus. Jesus claimed: "Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law" (Matt. 10:34, 35)
How does this operate? Sometimes a person grouses that their spouse attends church or is involved in some ministry in the church. There are from time to time extreme cases of people who are overly involved in the church, being there every time the doors of the church are open; however, God wants each and every Christian to attend weekly worship services and Bible studies in order to grow in their relationship with Him. Furthermore, when a person becomes a Christian, the Holy Spirit comes to live in that person and give him a spiritual gift that Christian is to use in order to promote the kingdom of God. God EXPECTS us to use that gift. One of the criteria God is going to use to judge us is how we used that spiritual gift to promote His lordship and His kingdom. Christ expects us to resist pressure from anybody who wants to thwart us in our attempts to grow in our relationship with Him and to spread His lordship and kingdom. Yielding to anybody on these 2 accounts results in making that person more important to us than Christ. Such an act then disqualifies us as His disciples.
jesus calls mattew and forms a supper club (mark 2.13-17)
Jesus Calls Levi (Matthew)
Some time has elapsed since Jesus began His public ministry and since He called the 4 brothers to be His disciples. One day while He is walking down the streets of Capernaum, He passes a toll booth where a man named "Levi" (Matthew) is collecting taxes. (Since Capernaum is the first major city of Herod Antipas� territory people would enter from the north, it was only natural to have a toll booth set up there.) Jesus summons Levi to follow Him. He immediately drops what he is doing and follows Jesus.
Why does Mark zero in on this summons whereas he overlooks the call of the other 7 disciples? What made this summons so important? The fact that Jesus summoned a tax collector made this summons so important. Tax collectors were some of the most hated people in all of Israel at that time. The Romans did not have enough manpower in Italy to staff all the different posts in their empire. As a result, they farmed out certain functions to the locals. Collecting taxes was one of these functions. The tax the Romans exacted was not all that exorbitant; however, the tax the collectors exacted at times tended to be excessive. The reason is that the Romans gave these positions out for a price. Moreover, the Romans did not pay the tax collectors their salaries but stipulated that they receive their wages by collecting them from the people they were taxing. As a result, whenever the tax collector collected a sum of money, he was not collecting just for the Roman tax but also for the fee the Romans charged him for the post and also for his own salary. He was collecting for 3 reasons, not one; therefore, the tax he demanded from the Jews tended to be quite high.
Another reason the tax collectors were held in such low esteem was that the Jews viewed them as Roman collaborators. Of all the peoples in the Roman empire, the Jews hated being enslaved more than anybody else. One group of Jews called "the Sicarri" (which literally means "dagger") would sneak up behind one or two isolated Roman soldiers and plunge a dagger into their backs. It was guerrilla warfare at its worst. It was one thing to have the Romans enslave you and quite another to have a fellow countryman to turn against you and support the Romans. Well, this is the fifth man the gospels inform us about that Jesus chose to be one of His disciples.
Mark informs us that Levi left his post immediately and followed Jesus. Matthew had probably heard Jesus preaching on the hillside and longed to be a part of the movement Jesus was inaugurating. Never in his wildest dreams though did he ever think that Jesus would call him; he was too lowlife for that. When Jesus called him though, he jumped at the chance to leave a disgraceful situation and follow Him.
jesus forms a supper club
That evening Levi invites Jesus to a banquet held in Jesus� honor to which Levi invites all his friends. Since the only friend a tax collector could make would be another tax collector, Levi invites all his tax collector friends. On the surface this is what appears to be happening. Mark describes the story though in such a way that makes it look like Jesus is the host and not Levi, although it is in Levi�s home. Moreover, this is no ordinary meal. Whenever the Jews would partake of an ordinary meal, they would sit around a table like we do today. On an important occasion though, the men would recline on couches which surrounded the table, would lean on their left arms, and eat with their right hands. This is such an occasion. It�s an important affair.
What is the meaning of Jesus being the host at a banquet attended by tax collectors? Remember that one of the key images used to describe the kingdom of God is the banquet feast. One of the main characteristics of the kingdom of God is joy. The best image used to describe that joy is people engaged in a banquet. Well, in this episode you have Jesus the Messiah (the king of the kingdom of God) holding a banquet for whom? For the rejects of society. Not for the religious scrupulous but for religious pariahs. As Jesus would say, "Of such is the kingdom of God."
The scribes of the Pharisees observe what is happening and begin to grouse about it to Jesus� disciples. The Pharisees were a strict religious sect which not only observed the Law of Moses but also the strict interpretation of that Law put forth by generations of rabbis. According to the Pharisees, the rabbinic interpretation of the Law was as authoritative as the Law itself. (Whereas Jesus observed the Law of Moses, He completely rejected the rabbinic interpretations as authoritative). The scribes, on the other hand, were copyists who took great pains in making accurate copies of the OT. Since they were so detailed in their knowledge of the Law, they became experts in the Law. Well, these experts see Jesus doing something which violated the rabbinic interpretations of the Law, eating with immoral people! They knew that the Messiah was going to come and save sinners; however, they believed that the sinners the Messiah would save would first of all have to turn from their sins and then start following the rabbinic interpretations of that Law. Only then would the Messiah save them. Not so with Jesus. Jesus saved them while they were in their sin, not after they had gotten their act cleaned up!
Jesus receives information about the scribes� complaints and responds that doctors do not come for the purpose of healing the well but come for the purpose of healing the sick. We need to look askew at any doctor who zeroes in on the well. The only possible reason a doctor would do that is to fatten his pocketbook. The very purpose of the doctor is to heal sick; therefore, he must be around the sick to heal them. The Messiah was to be such a physician. At the very beginning of the Messianic passages in Isaiah, we read: "Comfort my people!" (Is. 40:1) and
Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried; . . .
He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed (Isaiah 53:4,5)
More specifically, Jesus says that as the Messiah, He has come not to call the righteous but sinners.
The sad truth is that all of us are sinners. By saying that people are righteous, Jesus is being somewhat facetious. The righteous Jesus is referring to are those people who are righteous in their own eyes, not God�s. They set up a standard by which they judge who is righteous and who is not. And surprise! They discover that they are righteous. (This should not surprise them since the standard they set up is nothing less than the standard they choose to live by!) Unfortunately, because they refuse to see themselves as they really are, sinners in need of Jesus� help, they prevent Jesus from healing them. Only the people who recognize truly that they are sinners will actually reach out to Jesus for healing and salvation.
Finally, notice the people Jesus associated with and then compare His company with the company we keep. I have seldom seen organizations and associations composed of society�s misfits. Most organizations, sororities, fraternities, supper clubs, etc., are composed of people of like interests and socio-economic status. Many times the organizations serve one of 3 purposes: (1) to give a sense of belonging which is not bad; (2) to give a sense that I am important which is pretty superficial; and (3) to give me a group I can develop into a power base to advance my own personal agenda which borders on wicked. Not so with Jesus. What did He have to gain by the people He associated with? Nothing. It was nothing less than God extending love and forgiveness to the rejects of society, people like you and me.