If you accept the Lord’s invitation to follow him to the Cross of our upcoming season of Lent, then you must take the first steps of that long walk in precisely the same place that Jesus does.
As I suggested a couple sermons ago, baptism begins the march of Christian faith, and you must start your trek in the wilderness – like Jesus did, immediately after his baptism. The initial strides of baptismal discipleship transport you across a steep, rocky, intimidating threshold from one way of living, moving, and being to another. And, so also as with Jesus, the Holy Spirit puts our feet in the starting blocks.
This morning, still dusty and threadbare after his own 40-day desert-wilderness marathon – with temptation nipping his heels at every turn, Jesus is now off to a flying start. And as the crack of a starter’s pistol slaps the eardrum and tightens the gut, a startling pronouncement begins this next leg of the Lord’s long race. With bracing authority, Jesus declares: “The time is fulfilled; the Kingdom of God has come near.” And the tenor of the Lord’s voice makes clear that this new heavenly regime intends lasting consequences: “Repent and believe the Good News.”
God’s plan is unfolding. Jesus is carrying forward John’s testimony and ministry, coupling John’s call to repent with a spiritual command to believe. The way that John prepared really is ushering in the Kingdom of God. And with a new ruler smackdab in their midst, God’s kingdom people are left wondering: What now, what’s next? Listen for the Word of the Lord midway through chapter 1 of Mark’s Gospel.
Now after John the Baptist was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea – for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him.
As he went a little farther, Jesus saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him. (Mark 1:14-20)
Simon and Andrew, James and John, travel in very different social and economic circles.
Simon and Andrew are working-class fishermen who labor for the likes of James and John, heirs to the family business who are learning the ropes from their father. James and John skipper the Zebedee fleet and direct placement of the nets, because James and John are well-versed in the tricks of their father’s trade. On deck guys like Simon and Andrew do the heavy lifting: tossing nets overboard, hauling them back aboard, and emptying their catch to the hold. Their daily work is smelly, grueling, and dangerous.
So, it comes as no surprise that, when a better offer comes along in the Lord’s invitation to follow him, Simon and Andrew jump on board the opportunity for a change of employment and lifestyle. James and John are the ones who surprise. They stand to inherit the family business of fishing tradition and profit, but by some sort of cosmic change of heart and mind, James and John walk away from it all. Like Simon and Andrew, they drop everything to follow Jesus, based simply and solely on the Lord’s authority to declare, “Repent and believe!”
In the most basic sense of the word, to “repent” is “change one’s mind” – about something you’ve done, so that now you feel remorse and thus repent, or about something you did not believe before but of which you are now convinced. In our sin-saturated language and priorities, we do well to remember an essential tenet of following Jesus: In the life of faith and discipleship, we repent of much more than sin. We change our minds about things, because we learn as we live our faith. We are converted to new ways of being and thinking, because of time spent with and for God. And we are converted when we follow close on the heels of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Walking along the shore, Jesus sees Simon and Andrew, and later John and James, and they all immediately “repent” – change their minds about what their futures will hold, as each trades in his net for a different kind of fishing. By immediately getting up and following Jesus, Simon and Andrew, James and John, are converted; their lives have been and forever will be changed. They have repented and let go of those things that gave meaning and belonging to daily life – kinfolk, relationships, jobs, and they are opened to learning something new.
None of this means that what these men were doing before they became Jesus’s disciples was bad or sinful, and yet, here they are, repenting of what was to become different in what will be. God, as our maker and sustainer, and the author and perfector of our faith, is the One who has not only the power but also the authority to do this kind of muscular discipleship-building and faith formation among those who follow Jesus.
The kingdom of God is near! The time is fulfilled! And all of this is still true. We can take some immediate discipleship action of our own. And along with those original disciples, we can realize that changing our mind and living a different kind of life with Jesus is going to lead to a lifetime of learning and changing, a life marked by repentance of things that are clearly sin and from other things that are simply not part of what God needs us to do in a particular season of life.
Indeed, as with commercial fishing, the work of repentance is smelly, grueling, and dangerous. But all the while and through it all, take comfort in the truth of God’s Kingdom still being near – by the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Find courage in the reality of Christ dwelling richly in your heart. And make time for silent stillness together, lest anyone be too busy talking to catch what Father, Son, and Spirit are actually saying.
All around, seismic forces of epic portion are shaking and shifting a whole society, and the collateral damage is an epidemic of motion sickness: All the more reason for more time spent abiding quietly in holy stillness that “cools the heat and slows the pace.”
May it be so. Amen, and amen!
Pastor Grant M. VanderVelden shared this message during worship on Sunday, February 24, 2025, at First Presbyterian Church in Waukon, Iowa, USA. Scholarship, commentary, and reflection by Chelsea Harmon inform the message.