Alternate title: What are you looking at?
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him.
Mark 1:14-18
“They left their nets.”
I’ve gotta tell you: I’m not sure I know how to make sense of this part of the story. I mean, at least insofar as we, as Christians, are to ask scripture to speak into all of our lives—I’ve found it difficult to figure out what it means for us that Peter (the disciple formerly known as Simon) and Andrew left their nets. We know from the text that they were fishermen. Catching fish was their 9-5. So what about our nets? Yours and mine? Those of us who are realtors and dental hygienists, stay at home moms and dads, students and teachers, are we supposed to drop out of school, ditch the kids, leave clients in the lurch when we feel Jesus calling us? How is this story of Peter and Andrew’s following Jesus supposed to serve as an example for our lives? Surely, the text doesn’t mean that God wants us all to abandon the people and institutions to which we’ve made commitments—does it? So what does this morning’s text have to say to us?
I think the key to this puzzle requires that we connect that last moment of this morning’s text—where the disciples leave their nets and follow Jesus—to the first moment of the text—where Jesus shows up in Galilee, his own backyard, proclaiming the Good News. “The kingdom of God has come close to us!” he cries. And then he offers the first of a series of imperatives, or instructions, in this morning’s reading: Repent.
It’s worth noting that there’s something physical going on here. Both the Greek word for repent—μετάνοια (metanoia)—and the Hebrew word for repent—שׁוּב (shoov)—mean physically to turn around, to reorient your body to what’s around you. (By the way, the Hebrew word שׁוּב appears throughout the book of Jonah, and in the first reading from this morning. When the Ninevites repent of the evil they had done, the Old Testament says they shooved—that is, they turned around—from evil, and toward God.) So, when Jesus says: “μετανοεῖτε! Repent!,” in the same vein as the Hebrew prophets that preceded him, he’s saying: “Turn yourself around!” And I think it’s important that Jesus begs people to turn around just after saying that the Kingdom of God has drawn near. It’s right here, it seems like he’s saying: “Just turn around and see it!”
It’s incredible how different the world can look when you look in a different direction. Have you ever been on the beach on a sunny day, maybe, or in the middle of a lush forest at night, looking out at the natural environment around you, and someone says to you: Look—right there! And if they hadn’t been looking and hadn’t gotten your attention, you wouldn’t have seen that there was a shooting star right above you, or a dolphin jumping right there on the water’s horizon, or any number of cool things that we have to direct our eyes to in order to see.
That’s what Jesus is saying. Look—just there—it’s the Kingdom of God! You can see it, if you just look in the right direction. You’ll see it. And as you see it, you’ll do the second thing that Jesus tells the world to do: Believe. Believe in the Good News! Get a glimpse of that Kingdom that’s so close, if you just look in the right direction, and you won’t be able to help but believe in all of the good things that that kingdom stands for.
Ok, we might say, but hey—which direction is that? When someone points you toward the dolphin on the horizon or the shooting star overhead, they usually say, “Look!” and then they point and you know exactly where it is that you’re supposed to be looking. This morning’s passage from Mark doesn’t ever say, “and then Jesus pointeth toward the…” There’s no specific place that we’re supposed to direct our attention toward. So, where do we look?
The answer to that question becomes clear when we come across the third instruction in the text. It’s hidden in some translations, including the translation you’ve got in your hands right now. But when Jesus tells Peter and Andrew to follow him, there’s not one, but two imperatives that appear in the original Greek. Jesus says: Come, before he tells his disciples to follow him.
And that’s the direction we’re supposed to be looking in. We’re to look at Jesus. We’re to draw near to him, just as the kingdom of God has drawn near to us, to behold and to concentrate on the one who spent his time fishermen from the backwaters, who told the world about the Good News of God, who gave his life out of love for his friends. Look—right here—come to me.
What are the things that we might see if we were to turn our heads around, to turn from gazing at our bills and the news programs on TV and the traffic on the highway and the long line at the grocery store, and look, instead, at Jesus? What are the shooting stars and jumping dolphins that we’re missing out on when we don’t listen to Jesus’ call to turn around and look? There’s forgiveness for wrongdoers, friendship for the lonely, healing for the ill, freedom for prisoners—boundless love for all. And we can’t see any of it if we continue to stare at all of the other things that demand our attention.
We’ll see it best, though, when we not only turn around, but follow Jesus. That’s the fourth instruction that shows up today: Follow. Because the best way to see that kingdom which has drawn near is to see it from Jesus’ own eyes. As we follow Jesus’ footsteps—when he dared to consort with the outcast, to speak honestly to the authorities, to offer mercy to the rich, to give his very breath for those who hated him—we’ll get the best angle on the whole thing. Front row tickets. Not only are we to look at Jesus, but also alongside Jesus, as his disciples and his friends, to see the kingdom through his eyes.
I think that’s what the whole thing with the nets means. How ready are we to turn around from the things that preoccupy us, and turn toward the God who loves us? How willing are we to forsake those things we’re so often fixated on, to turn around and behold the Christ who is calling us even today? It doesn’t mean we ditch the kids, or leave clients in the lurch—but it does mean that we are called to reorient our heart and our soul and our mind toward our God, and called to come to see the world, and our place in it, from God’s perspective.
For God has already drawn near to us. Look—right there! It’s Jesus, the creator and savior of the world, making known his love to you, calling you to repent, believe, come, and follow. Turn your eyes upon him. Amen.