Come follow me

Mark 1:16-20

Jesus is eager to get on with his mission – and he knows he needs some people to work with him. Why did Jesus want them to follow him? He obviously had a purpose for their lives, and we see through the rest of Mark1 that they went on to share in the work of Jesus and to reach others with the Good News of the kingdom.

Here we’ve got Simon, Andrew, James, John1…and Jesus telling them to stop what they’re doing and follow him instead. I’ve often thought of these four fishermen to be around the same age as Jesus, but it’s likely they were much younger, perhaps even just in their late teens, whereas Jesus was around 30.

When you think about it, it’s a big ask…give up your job, your home, your comfort, maybe even family and friends…to follow Jesus. There must have been something remarkably compelling about Jesus to cause these fishermen to down nets and follow him into an uncertain future. They didn’t ask where Jesus was going first, what Jesus was going to do or what that would mean for them…they just followed.

Sometimes Jesus still asks us to give things up to follow – maybe ambition or a particular lifestyle. But more often, Jesus asks us to offer those things to him; our jobs, our homes, our comfort, our money. It doesn’t necessarily mean we physically leave them behind like these early disciples. It might mean that Jesus wants us to follow him in the job we are already doing, as taxi drivers, shop workers, cleaners, teachers or admin workers etc.

1.You can read more about the disciples in the other Gospels, Matthew, Luke and John. Read about their mission after the death of Jesus in the book of Acts.