NOTES for Mar 1:14-20

One of the main themes we encounter in the Gospel of Mark is that of calling and our response to it. The point here is not spontaneity: these four were apparently already acquainted with Jesus (this is one way to understand Jn 1:35-51). After all, we ourselves are not reading these lines for the first time. What is striking here is something else: how briefly the evangelist speaks of it. Indeed, a calling, a conversion, is only the very beginning of the path. Much more will be said about the words and deeds of Jesus, the disciples' hesitations and denial, and the joy of the Resurrection.

Yet, on the other hand, without this episode there would have been no Gospel at all. What would have happened if no one had followed Jesus?

In our own time, Christ's work in this world continues. And this time, the disciples without whom nothing would happen are you and I. That is why it is so important for us today to realise once again that the Lord has called us to follow Him, and to find within ourselves the courage to climb out of the boat and go after Him.

Mark describes the calling of the apostles sparingly, concisely, in a few words. He called - they went. Other evangelists mention certain details in some cases, give dialogues that unfolded between Jesus and His future disciples. Dialogues, of course, did take place, because to call means to make oneself heard and answered, and here dialogue is impossible to avoid; here words must certainly be spoken. For Mark, however, they are not important. He sees the main thing: that response to the Savior's call which in the end and in essence could be reduced to one thing alone, to the fact that the one called leaves everything and follows the One who called. This is the main thing, and everything else is only the embodiment, the expression of the main thing, an embodiment necessary insofar as we live not only in eternity, but also in time.

The main thing lies in the relationships that bind the disciples to Jesus, just as they bind us, if of course we are Christians not only in name. In essence, these relationships are completely impossible to express, just as it is impossible, for example, to express the experience of one's own existence, what is sometimes called pure self-consciousness. Just as pure self-consciousness can be experienced but is completely impossible to express in words, so it is impossible to express a true relationship in words; it is no accident that poets of all times and peoples have maintained that for true, deep love, for example, it is completely impossible to find adequate words that would express it.

This, however, does not mean that love or another deep and authentic experience is in principle inexpressible. They are expressed and embodied perfectly well, but not at the level of abstract description; rather, in the context of those same relationships, at the level of interaction between people who love one another. So too true relationships of disciple and teacher are indescribable, but fully expressible in the context of the interaction that becomes for them a kind of outer covering, just as shared life in marriage for spouses who love one another becomes the outer covering of their love.

In this case, however, the evangelist pays very little attention to the covering; he is interested in the essence of the matter. He called - they went. Nothing more can be told here; the rest is hidden inside this "went." The story becomes a hint, a hint at what cannot be expressed in words but what everyone can experience as the reality of his own life when a meeting with Christ takes place in it. The very meeting without which there is no Christianity.

What is a calling? How can we find our calling and understand what God wants from us? So much has been said and written on this subject over two thousand years of Christian history that one might think no questions should remain, yet they do not grow any fewer. The apostles, however, or one might say the future apostles, faced no problem of choice and had neither doubts nor hesitation. Curiously, Jesus says nothing special to them, does not teach them anything or deliver long sermons; He simply invites each of them to follow Him. And they go, as though they had always been waiting for this encounter. Of course, they had most likely heard something about Jesus before and may even have heard Jesus Himself. But hearing is one thing, and leaving everything to follow Him is quite another. It is clear that a true calling is always revealed to a person with complete certainty.

One might, of course, say that this was a unique situation, for the Saviour Himself stood before them, and if the future apostles understood Who stood before them and where He was calling them, there was nothing surprising in their resolve. And yet the evangelists give examples of far less resolve among some of those whom Jesus called to follow Him in exactly the same way. On the other hand, can there be any discussion of a Christian's calling without that personal encounter with the Risen One, without which not only any calling, but Christianity itself is impossible? Apparently, the question of calling is resolved quite simply: a calling is that without which it is impossible to live, because life loses its meaning. And if a person still has questions, doubts or hesitation about whether a particular activity is his calling, then the answer is most likely negative. If the answer were positive, the person called to serve, whatever that service might be, could and would have no doubts or hesitation.

Of course, what is meant here is specifically doubts and hesitation concerning the content of the service itself, not the difficulties that may accompany it. Sometimes the cunning human mind, in its desire to spare its owner the difficulties and problems inherent in the service to which God is calling him, supplies doubts about whether the call is genuine and whether the decision already made or being made is right. But that is another matter, a question of spiritual honesty, without which no one can find his calling.

Today we read in the Gospel of Mark about the calling of the disciples and their response to that calling. This is far from being about an ability for spontaneous actions: apparently, these four already knew Jesus. That is how John 1:35-51 can be understood. After all, we ourselves are not reading these lines for the first time. What is surprising here is something else: how briefly the evangelist speaks about it. Indeed, calling and conversion are only the very beginning of the way. The words and deeds of Jesus, the disciples' wavering and denial, and the joy of the Resurrection will be described in much greater detail. On the other hand, without this episode there would have been no whole Gospel. What would have happened if no one had followed Jesus?

In our time Christ's action in this world continues. And the disciples without whom nothing would have happened are, this time, us. Therefore today it is so important for us to realize once again that the Lord has called us to follow Him and to find in ourselves the courage to climb out of the boat and follow after Him.

Today's Gospel reading is devoted to Jesus' confrontation with evil: possession and sickness. The world was created by God in wisdom and perfection; there was no place in it for death and disease. The Book of Revelation says that at the end of time death and disease will be conquered. Today's passage tells of the beginning of this battle. We see that Jesus does not remain indifferent to the fate of suffering people, but conquers sickness and frees a person from the power of dark forces.

The Kingdom of God and evil are incompatible. This excludes every defense of death and sickness as some kind of good that God brings upon people for their correction. God permits the existence of evil as a consequence of the sinfulness common to humanity, but He does not create evil; He conquers it. We too must take part in this victory if we want to be co-workers with Christ. The sickness and bondage of people are a task for us as well. We must "overcome evil with good": relieve the sufferings of our neighbors, free ourselves from the power of sin, and free the world from it.

The Lord was tempted in the wilderness for forty days in order to be entirely like us. Thus, when we begin to complain that the Lord cannot understand this because He has never gone through it, He can answer us: “No, I am here now, with you, in the trial in which you now find yourself. If you are undergoing temptation, know that I went through it and overcame it; you were created in My image and likeness, I created you, I love you, I died for you on the Cross and rose again, and therefore you too can emerge victorious from temptation. I showed you an example; I overcame temptations, and I overcame death.” The Kingdom of God is very near; it is within us to the extent that we make room for it in our heart. Fasting is a time when we can clear space within ourselves, carry out a thorough cleaning, and take out the trash; then much more room will remain for God. Then God will come, proclaim the Good News of Salvation to us, and become King in our heart, for a kingdom is what belongs to the King, His own personal domain.

The Saviour's earthly ministry begins with the descent of God's Spirit, followed by the trial in the wilderness (described in greater detail by the other evangelists) and the ministry itself, the testimony to the Kingdom (Mark describes all this briefly and concisely). What, then, do we have before us: a unique feature of Jesus' ministry as Messiah, or a certain universal spiritual algorithm (insofar as one can speak of algorithms in spiritual life at all)? Or perhaps both?

Of course, Christ's path is unique. Yet, on the other hand, Jesus was not born as a human being in order to have nothing in common with us, including in matters of spiritual life. We will probably not face trials like those that awaited Him in the wilderness, although something similar may quite possibly await us as well: the devil is not as inventive as he is sometimes thought to be. We will in any case have to bear witness to the Kingdom, provided that we are Christians not merely in name. And the descent of God's Spirit will also certainly become part of our spiritual life, unless, of course, we remain forever, in the spiritual sense, children who have taken the first step towards the Kingdom and stopped as soon as they crossed the threshold.

But how all this will happen remains an open question. Similar or identical spiritual processes sometimes take very different forms under different external conditions. They take their own form for each person, and there is no point in imitating someone else's spiritual life: it is useless in any case and almost always brings only harm.

Quite apart from the fact that, in the Messiah's case, such efforts look simply ridiculous as well. Jesus did not come into our world so that we would imitate His life, nor to force each of us to travel the same path that He travelled (in the end, none of us is capable of this, for one would have to be free from sin). Jesus came into the world to give us the Kingdom, to give it to everyone who wishes to enter it, and also to help us get there.

Of course, the way into the Kingdom is no less difficult than the way of righteousness in pre-Christian times, and it is just as impossible to travel it without God's help as it was to travel the way of righteousness without His help. But on the way into the Kingdom there is an obstacle that is in principle insurmountable for a human being: the sinfulness of fallen human nature. Even if a person is somehow able, with God's help, to walk the way of righteousness, any one of us can only be carried into the Kingdom in His arms. And Jesus' entire earthly path was necessary precisely so that He could later carry each of us into the Kingdom in His arms.

This, of course, by no means implies that there will be no trials in our lives or that we will not need the help of God's Spirit. It is impossible to travel the whole way in the Messiah's arms, and life in the Kingdom also requires the ability to walk. But He will help us overcome what is insurmountable for us. Otherwise we would have to forget about the Kingdom forever.

So we begin reading the Gospel according to Mark. Following the evangelist, we will remember and live through the Gospel events we know so well, relate them to our own life experience, and try to change ourselves so that we may become at least a little more like "the pioneer and perfecter of faith, Jesus" (Heb 12:2). How many times have we read this Gospel? Where should we begin this time? Mark begins his account with words about John and the baptism of Jesus. In order to receive the Good News of Jesus, the people had to repent, to recognize that they did not correspond to the coming Kingdom of God. And how are we to apply to ourselves the words of the prophecy: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight"? It is here, at the very beginning of the road, that we face the need to reassess and reconsider our whole life so that we may be able to follow Mark into the later stories, in each of which we can meet the Lord Jesus.