After John Was Arrested
Dealing with the times at hand.
How do you think you would have received the news of John the Baptist being arrested? (Pretend you don’t know about Jesus’ power yet.) Surely it could have caused many people fear, no? How can things be going well if such a great leader is squashed by being arrested and put in jail?
Mark wastes no time at all. In the same sentence, John is arrested and Jesus announces the gospel. Then he gets going. His strategy appears weak. He begins gathering people to follow him.
Fishermen.
They gonna break John out?
But then things get real. In Mark, Jesus’ first miraculous sign (other than perhaps selecting fishermen to be his followers) is to cast out a demon. Get used to it in Mark.
Jesus has come to eradicate evil. But not the evil perhaps we might expect. Those who threw John into prison are still in power. In fact, John will not get out of this alive.
Ultimately, Jesus will die, too. We just revisited that whole deal on Good Friday. In the end, Jesus will have victory over death. But the human powers-that-be won’t be vanquished.
Isn’t that weird?
It’s definitely not convenient. Nor does it feel very safe.
But we hold on to faith — faith that the right things can and do happen, even if only in the spaces we are given to control.
Mark 1:14-28
After John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee announcing God’s good news, saying, “Now is the time! Here comes God’s kingdom! Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news!”
As Jesus passed alongside the Galilee Sea, he saw two brothers, Simon and Andrew, throwing fishing nets into the sea, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” he said, “and I’ll show you how to fish for people.” Right away, they left their nets and followed him. After going a little farther, he saw James and John, Zebedee’s sons, in their boat repairing the fishing nets. At that very moment he called them. They followed him, leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired workers.
Jesus and his followers went into Capernaum. Immediately on the Sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and started teaching. The people were amazed by his teaching, for he was teaching them with authority, not like the legal experts. Suddenly, there in the synagogue, a person with an evil spirit screamed, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are. You are the holy one from God.”
“Silence!” Jesus said, speaking harshly to the demon. “Come out of him!” The unclean spirit shook him and screamed, then it came out.
Everyone was shaken and questioned among themselves, “What’s this? A new teaching with authority! He even commands unclean spirits and they obey him!” Right away the news about him spread throughout the entire region of Galilee.
Psalm 29:1-10
You, divine beings! Give to the Lord—give to the Lord glory and power!
Give to the Lord the glory due his name! Bow down to the Lord in holy splendor!
The Lord’s voice is over the waters; the glorious God thunders; the Lord is over the mighty waters. The Lord’s voice is strong; the Lord’s voice is majestic. The Lord’s voice breaks cedar trees—yes, the Lord shatters the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon jump around like a young bull, makes Sirion jump around like a young wild ox. The Lord’s voice unleashes fiery flames; the Lord’s voice shakes the wilderness—yes, the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The Lord’s voice convulses the oaks, strips the forests bare, but in his temple everyone shouts, “Glory!” The Lord sits enthroned over the floodwaters; the Lord sits enthroned—king forever!
Prayer
God,
Sometimes it’s hard to make sense of it all. The wrong people seem to stay in power.
The good ones suffer. The world feels too broken for the little things we can do.
But you came anyway. You called fishermen. You drove out evil in the lives of those most vulnerable. You spoke good news — not from a throne, but from dusty roads and hurting towns.
Give us faith today—not in human strength, not in easy outcomes, but in your steady work that cannot be undone. Help us to do what we can do, trusting that even small faithfulness matters in your kingdom.
By your Spirit & in Christ,
Amen.