Walking away from your net.

Mark 1:12-27

One thing I think it's important to notice in the first few verses of this passage is that Christ went from a wonderful, uplifting spiritual experience to a pretty rough time of temptation directly by Satan. In the same way that we go through "dry" times or "desert experiences," Christ had times in his life that were more of a struggle than others.

The calling of the first few disciples here is often glossed over. Christ didn't go out and and choose venerated and scholarly old fishermen, who had spent as much time studying and praying and fishing, although this seems to be the opinion of Domenico Ghirlandaio, who did the painting above. No, it's much more likely that the 30ish Christ chose young guys, 15 - 20, to follow him. And the strange thing is, these guys were good with that. They just chuck down their nets "See ya, pops" and off to follow the Rabbi. Zebedee's standing there with the hired men "Guys, hang on, you've got to finish, your nets are still a mess, we've got mouths to feed, get back here." They're walking away, they don't even know what a fisher of men is, but this guy is important, and their gonna follow him.
Are we willing to drop our lives when Christ calls? When he yells, "Hey, I need you to reel this person in with a demonstration of my love" are we right there, chucking down our nets and filling the gap He needs to? Or do we tell the God of the universe "Hang on a minute, I'm fishing, and it's very important."


Christ taught with authority. That's always surprised me a bit, growing up in churches where ALL the teaching was authoritative. But no longer. The world and empty religious ritual lack authority. We've realized that WE can't know anything for certain. Part of that is our own preconceptions which influence our understanding, and part is a certain uncertainty that we are receiving correct data to begin with. Christ had none of these problems. He perfectly understood the Word of God, (Himself) and had no incorrect preconceptions to deal with. As a result, He taught the Word correctly, and with authority. We can follow His example to the extent we are sure we understand Him correctly.