The Way & Means
His call? "Follow me." The destination? The Kingdom. The means? Jesus himself.
Have you ever wondered if Jesus is bigger than the Kingdom or if the Kingdom is bigger than Jesus? It’s actually a theologically moot question, but I ask it to simply try and place things in their proper perspective. When it comes to our faith, Jesus is the locus. His call to his disciples - Follow me! - leads to the central core of all else in the Christian faith.
And yet, he didn’t come announcing himself. He came announcing the Kingdom of God.1 And while the call is to become like him and do as he commanded, there are a lot of things often assumed to be true to the call that are not. What I mean is, Jesus did not ask his people to make everything Christian. Rather, he announced a Kingdom - a way - and he himself is the means.
Putting Christian stickers on everything is not the way. Declaring territory for God - not something he told us to do. He wants our lives. He will indeed make all things new. He will redeem all of creation. He already is.
But what he wants of us is to follow him. It’s a human desire to conquer and declare and posture and position. We see it in Joshua’s cry - As for me and my household! But Jesus shows absolutely no sign of trying to Christianize any land, any nation-state, or any thing at all. What he does seek are the hearts and lives of people to be gathered together by his Spirit into the Church, to live within the world as a testimony and witness to the Kingdom.
Can you feel the difference?
James, writing to communities learning how to live this way, names the interior challenge that so often accompanies such a calling. Wisdom is needed, he says—not certainty, not control, not dominance, but wisdom that comes from God. And that wisdom requires an undivided heart. A life split between competing loyalties, James warns, will never find its footing.
Mark 1:16-34
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.
After leaving the synagogue, Jesus, James, and John went home with Simon and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed, sick with a fever, and they told Jesus about her at once. He went to her, took her by the hand, and raised her up. The fever left her, and she served them.
That evening, at sunset, people brought to Jesus those who were sick or demon-possessed. The whole town gathered near the door. He healed many who were sick with all kinds of diseases, and he threw out many demons. But he didn’t let the demons speak, because they recognized him.
James 1:5-8
But anyone who needs wisdom should ask God, whose very nature is to give to everyone without a second thought, without keeping score. Wisdom will certainly be given to those who ask. Whoever asks shouldn’t hesitate. They should ask in faith, without doubting. Whoever doubts is like the surf of the sea, tossed and turned by the wind. People like that should never imagine that they will receive anything from the Lord. They are double-minded, unstable in all their ways.
Prayer
God,
Honestly, it’s pretty frustrating sometimes. I don’t want to project that I have everything right about you. But this incessant effort to “take over for Jesus” seems to be really hurting his cause. I know that Jesus can’t be hurt at this point and that even my desire to protect him is actually not too far from the domineering I’m decrying.
I guess I have some insecurities to work out, too.
So help me, God: Grow my sense of trust and security in that Christ is enough. Transform my frustration with brethren into a faithfulness toward Christ’s fidelity to you.
By your Spirit & in Christ,
Amen.
In fact, we’ll come to read quite a bit in Mark something scholars call the “Markan secret,” which is the very opposite of self-promotion. In Mark (and slightly in other gospels), Jesus frequently resists public acclaim or tells others not to speak about him at all. In this way, Mark emphasizes that Jesus can only be truly known through the whole story, especially the cross.