Follow Him

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MARK

FOLLOW HIM

Mark 1:19-20

19 When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20 Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

NIV

It would appear Jesus was still walking along the water front area where many of the fishermen had tied up their boats and spent the morning mending nets and getting everything ready for the next nights outing in the water. James and John who we will see later Jesus calling them the sons of thunder were with their father in their boat. Again we see a family business that must have been rather successful as Zebedee also had hired men working for him. So we might conclude that both James and John were not poor men, but were of some substance. Again they left right away when Jesus came by and called them to follow him. We do not know if they said anything to their father like, “This is the one who we saw at the Jordon, and heard the voice of God” or “Father we have to go, this is Jesus the one we have all heard about”. We have no record of any conversation between James and John with their father. But we do know they left the boat and followed Jesus. This might have put “dear ole dad” in a bit of a pinch as now he was two men short.  Yet we do not hear anything about this. All we know is that when Jesus called them, they left their family business and followed him. Again we do not know where they slept, if they went home that night and explained the day’s activities with Jesus or they all simply camped out somewhere getting acquainted with their new friends. We know from the next sentence of this account they ended up in Capernaum. But we do not know the time frame, so all we know is when Jesus called them they left what they were doing and followed him.  We also do not know why Jesus called them instead of some of the hired men, or even Zebedee for that matter. We do know that it is the will of God that all men are saved through the blood of Jesus, so why just call James and John? Why didn’t the hired men yell out, “Can we come too?” Maybe they did and Jesus waved them off, we just don’t know. What was so special about James and John? Can we conclude that Jesus does call some particular people for a special calling in life? It surely would appear that way. It is true Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to convict all men of their sin and need for repentance. It is true God so loved the whole world, all the people of the world, his entire creation, so much that he sent his only Son to die on the cross for all of them, not just a select chosen few. But we also know it is true Jesus calls some of us to a very special calling and if we are among those he has called for a purpose we have the choice to stay where we are, doing what we are doing or leave what we are doing and follow him.