Response



Daily reading: Mark 1:1-20
Friday January 15, 2016

Focus passage: Right away, they left their nets and followed him … At that very moment he called them.  They followed him, leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired workers.” Mark 1:18 and 20.

Something about the good news, the gospel, demands an immediate response.  It calls for urgency, otherwise it is just an interesting notion, something that only resides in the head to be pondered and either dismissed or acted on or build upon.

There does exist within the text some implied cultural understanding that can be lost on a 21st century audience.    Teachers or rabbis as they were known did not go out and recruit students or followers. 
Students would apply and if found worthy or capable, then the invitation to learn under the rabbi would be extended to the student.  Some scholars say that the phrase “follow me” would be the words of invitation which if that is the case would lend more insight into what sort of following Jesus was extending to the four men on the shore.

Prayer: God help me to realize your presence in my life.  May I respond by setting myself on the path to follow you.  Amen.

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