Let us follow without hesitation. Those first disciples came without questions when called. They just followed Jesus. That’s all. They did not understand when he called them. And, as we see clearly throughout Mark’s Gospel, they never understood. They abandoned Jesus near the end, when things got really tough. Yet, Jesus, Jesus kept relentlessly calling followers, sticking by them, searching out new ones. He does this still. That is how we came to be here today. Great is God’s faithfulness. God holds onto us no matter that we have let go of God years ago.
I hope you were able to see the following in your reading of Mark 1:14-20 and 1 Corinthians 7:29-31:
First, note carefully that you have not sought and found God. God has found you in Jesus Christ. Jesus calls his own disciples. This one realization is worth ongoing gratitude for the rest of your life. “While we were yet sinners…,” God sent Jesus for you.
Second, then as now, those disciples Jesus calls respond in both positive and negative ways: they leave behind old lives, jobs, family obligations. They also follow Jesus. This is part of the mingling of joy and sorrow I mentioned already. This is part of repentance. This is part of the cost of the decision to follow. We so often say that grace and salvation are free. By this we mean that one cannot do anything to earn salvation. But, never think that your turning towards God will not cost you in the decisions you must make in the all the areas of your life: joy and sorrow.
Third, having set out to follow Jesus, the first disciples and we today will not become students of the Law, as students of a rabbi might have, but will become those who fish for people to bring them to the throne of God, to offer them entry into the family of God, so that they experience the joy and sorrow of their own walk with Jesus. In other words, Jesus now enables us to carry on his ministry in his absence
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