Bible Study Series: Mark 1:16-20. What is your calling like? How did you decide to follow Jesus?
Friendly greetings and a warm welcome to this Bible study! I write to learn, so let’s learn together how to apply these truths to our lives.
I also translate to learn. The translations are mine, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to see many others, please click here:
If you would like to see the original Greek, please click here:
At that link, I also offer more commentary and a Summary and Conclusion, geared towards discipleship. Scroll down to the bottom and check it out!
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Mark 1:16-20
16 As he was going by the Lake of Galilee, he saw Simon and Simon’s brother Andrew, throwing their net into the lake; they were fishermen. 17 Jesus said to them, “Come, follow me, and I’ll make you become fishers of people.” 18 Instantly, they left their nets and followed him. 19 Going on ahead a little ways, he saw James, the son of Zebedee and his brother John, and they were in their boat preparing the nets. 20 Then he called them; and leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, they departed after him. Mark 1:16-20)
Commentary
Let’s take it verse by verse.
Some critics see irreconcilable differences in the calling of the early disciples. The differences can be reasonably resolved.
Jesus Calls Certain Disciples in Four Gospels. Do the Accounts Contradict?
16:
These three men—Peter, James and John—will form the inner core of Jesus’s twelve apostles (see Matt. 17:1; 26:37). Apparently, he saw something in them that was special. Peter will turn out to be the lead apostle. Sidebar comment: I wonder how it would feel to be Peter’s brother, Andrew and not chosen to be the inner circle? Let’s hope Andrew admired him and was not jealous.
17:
“Come, follow me”: Etiquette required the disciples of a rabbi to walk behind him, literally. That social reality is revealed in the Greek construction: “come after me.” People walk behind the leader. Discipleship means to follow Jesus. Jesus is following the example of Elijah and the calling of his disciple Elisha (1 Kings 19:19-21). “Rabbis did not call their followers; rather, the pupil adopted the teacher” (France). But Jesus is switching things up. He calls them.
Commentator Garland on “follow me”: “Prophets did not call people to follow themselves but to follow God (compare 1 Kings 19:19-21). The sages of Jesus’ day never called people to follow them, only to learn Torah from them. Jesus’s call of the disciples is therefore dramatically authoritative and matches the biblical pattern of God’s calling of humans: a command with a promise, which is followed by obedience (Gen. 12:1-4). The call so overpowers these disciples that their lives will never be the same again.”
Further, Jesus “makes” them become fishers of people. Apparently discipleship and teaching and reaching people is not done automatically. One has to be made a follower and leader.
18:
Mark’s narrative is compressed. If you want to read an expanded version, go to Luke 5:1-11. In Luke’s version, the four men were business partners. In his version, Jesus performed a miracle of a catch of fish. That’s why Peter and Andrew and James and John were convinced to follow Jesus instantly.
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus, saying, “Depart from me, because I am a sinful man, Lord!” 9 For fear overcame him and everyone with him at the catch of fish which they caught. 10 Likewise also for James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. (Luke 5:8-10, my translation)
No wonder they followed him instantly.
In Matt. 4:16, when Jesus launched his ministry, he was the great light. Light shining out of the soul and spirit of Jesus can draw people. They felt something coming from him. Add the miraculous catch of fish, and of course their response was “instant.”
19-20:
I wonder, however, how Zebedee felt about his two sons leaving him with the fishing business. Sometimes people just have to make great sacrifices. It could be that Zebedee appreciated Jesus. Or it could be that Zebedee was surprised to see his sons walk on down the path near the lake, going out of sight. But see this possible explanation:
Were Jesus, James and John First Cousins? Was Clopas Jesus’ Uncle?
His wife followed Jesus too, with other women from Galilee (Luke 8:2-3). En route to Jerusalem she asked Jesus if her two sons could sit on Jesus’s right and left hands, when he comes in his kingdom (10:35-45). Of course, he replied that he could not guarantee it. It was a mild rebuke or push back. Their mother went all the way to Jerusalem to see Jesus be crucified and then resurrected (Mark 15:40-41 // Matt. 27:56). She was bold and committed.
Strauss concludes the pericope (pronounced puh-RIH-koh-pea) or section or unit with this insight:
Discipleship is at a cost. In the closest OT parallel to this narrative, the call of Elisha by Elijah. Elisha asks and is (apparently) given permission to go back and say good-bye to his parents (1 Kings 19:19-21). In Mark’s narrative, James and John simply leave their father in the boat to follow Jesus immediately. This would have been shocking—even blasphemous—in a first-century context where honoring parents was among the greatest of values (Exod. 20:12; Deut. 5:16; Prov; 23:22 …).
Yet as we shall see throughout Mark’s Gospel, the demands of the kingdom are radical. They involve not only leaving wealth (10:21-24) and family (3:33-35; 10:29), but also denying yourself, taking up your cross (possibly in literal death), and following him (8:34).
GrowApp for Mark 1:16-20
1. Jesus called four fishermen. Have you ever stepped out in faith towards a new endeavor, a new calling from God?
2. How about your conversion? Your service in church? Did your friends and family support or oppose you?
3. What did you give up to follow Jesus?
RELATED
10. Eyewitness Testimony in Mark’s Gospel
2. Church Fathers and Mark’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES
For bibliographical data, please click on this link and scroll down to the very bottom:
Dr. Jim's Essential Bible Teaching 