Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary
Early Christian writers were, on the whole, rather dismissive of Mark. Its Greek is the blunt, rugged speech of street and market. It was not until scholars recognized that Mark’s material was probably based on direct oral recitations of Jesus-traditions, conveyed mouth-to-mouth in the early church and early Christian mission, that Mark began to be valued as the “first gospel.” Today’s lection, Mk 1:14-20, includes Mark’s report of the inauguration of Jesus’ preaching ministry and two call narratives regarding four of Jesus’ disciples, all Galilean fishermen (Simon Peter and Andrew, followed by James and his brother John, sons of Zebedee). These scenes can be treated in a single sermon; or one might choose to build a sermon focused on only vv 14-15 or 16-20.
Transitions from scene to scene in Mark are often nothing more than a breathless, “Immediately, …” or “At once, …”, lacking the “therefores” or similar clues that help readers understand how circumstance or motivation drive the plot. Yet cues about time and place in vv 14-15 (“When John [the baptizer] had been arrested” and “Jesus came to Galilee”) do, in fact, provide us with clues. First, Jesus’ preaching ministry begins precisely when John’s ends. When John is silenced, Jesus announces not defeat, but that “the time is fulfilled, the reign of God has arrived.” One gets the impression that the silencing of God’s truth-telling prophet stands as evidence that the merely human power of Rome-backed Judea is being challenged by a far greater power.
Second, backwater Galilee is the place where Jesus begins to spread the word about God’s “reign” (power) being unleashed in the world. Galilee was a place of mixed cultures and general poverty, only reached by crossing Samaria, the homeland of the hated, mixed-blood Samaritans. We might imagine Jesus choosing to announce the inbreaking of the reign of God in a border refugee camp, immediately after a leading minister has been arrested for harboring undocumented migrants.
In other words, the meaning of opaque phrases such as “the time is fulfilled” and “the reign of God has come” is constructed rhetorically by place and circumstance. Jesus deliberately chooses mundane Galilee as the site where God’s reign will be manifest in deeds of healing and deliverance. In this marginalized territory, God’s rule will confront and subvert the effects of empire. Empires create many a Galilee—neighborhoods of mostly poor, working-class people whose enterprises the empire controls and taxes. Where, we preachers might ask, do we find such “Galilees” today –?
If we choose to interpret the call stories of vv 16-20 strictly in terms of the narrative world Mark constructs, the fishermen’s response is without prologue or precedent; it is instant, unquestioning, radical. They abandon kin and livelihood to embrace the vocation Jesus has declared for them: “fishing” for people (v 17). Astoundingly, they make this abrupt, socially and economically unthinkable decision under the shadow of John the Baptizer’s recent arrest by Roman authorities.
Notably, the lectionary designers deliberately precede this account in Mark with last week’s call stories from John. There, Andrew began trailing after Jesus before being formally called. Andrew announced news to sibling Simon Peter: “we have found the Messiah.” A sermon could compare the accounts: Did Jesus’ summons to the fishermen come irresistibly out of the blue, or was this moment weeks in the making? Such a sermon would remind listeners that our stories of becoming Jesus-followers differ. Yet, the end result is the same: metanoia. We leave behind whatever we have counted on in this world to establish our worthiness, our belonging, and our security, to follow Jesus—not to a takeover of Jerusalem, but to our modern “Galilees.” There, God enlists us to help rescue those captive to life-diminishing systems, shielding and healing the broken in body or in spirit.
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 