Chapter # 1 Paragraph # 6 Study # 2
January 15, 2019
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(040)
1901 ASV
16 And passing along by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net in the sea; for they were fishers.
17 And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.
18 And straightway they left the nets, and followed him.
19 And going on a little further, he saw
James the [
son] of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the boat mending the nets.
20 And straightway he called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went after him.
- I. "The Sea of The Galilee".
- A. "The Galilee" has already been established as a reference to Jesus' absolute status as One without "reputation" in the eyes of men and totally without any interest in the "glory" that men characteristically heap upon their sycophants who stand with them in their wicked agendas.
- 1. John's "pride of life" (1 John 2:16) is, in reality, "the arrogance of functional capacity" when analyzed word by word within its context.
- a. At issue is man's "fall" before the Deceiver Who posited two companion deceptions in the Garden.
- 1) The first deception was the out-and-out contradiction of God's straightforward warning ("In the day ye eat thereof ye shall surely die") with "Ye shall not surely die".
- 2) The second deception was the out-and-out lie that disobedient/disbelieving creatures could pit their "wisdom" against God's and come out ahead: "Ye shall be as God".
- b. Within this issue of man's fall before deception (Adam was not deceived, but Eve was: 1 Timothy 2:14) is the issue of "pride", which boils down to basic arrogance and its boastfulness.
- c. And, in companionship with this "arrogance" is its "root": man's ability to accomplish goals he/she champions ("life" as the body's ability to take action and achieve results).
- d. Thus, man, bolstered by his/her sometimes-effective pursuit of certain limited goals, takes his/her "sometimes-effective pursuits" as indicators of a kind of "unlimited capacity to be effective". Because this is easily demonstrated to be stupid beyond measure (Jeremiah 51:17 according to the NASB), it becomes the measure of man's enormous foolishness.
- 2. Jesus' total lack of interest in being the recipient of foolish/stupid man's "glory" is the point of Mark's entire "Gospel of Jesus Christ".
- a. It is not that Jesus is not interested in men coming to grips with His identity and abilities: His love for men insists that, for their sakes, they come to grips with these realities.
- b. What He is not interested in doing is violating Love and Truth in order to gain/maintain men's "praise" as it arises out of their bestowing upon Him their "approval".
- c. It did not "bother" Jesus one whit that He "came out from" Galilee under the mocking scorn of men who derided His identity based upon a rejection of His home (John 7:52) as a matter of course in their human ignorance ("Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?"; John 1:46).
- d. The reason for Mark's fixation upon this issue is that it is at the very root of man's extreme depravity as he attempts to be "wise" in the face of the true "wisdom of the infinite God".
- B. Likewise "The Sea" has already been established as another of Mark's uses of "geographical metaphor" wherein he presents "geographical" conditions as a mirror of "relational" ones.
- 1. In the case of John the Baptizer's use of the "wilderness" as a maze of geographical chaos to illustrate the maze of man's relational chaos, Mark presented "repentance" as a building of a highway in the chaos of the desert (a geographical effort) so that his hearers might be able to grasp "repentance" as the only effective solution to relational chaos.
- a. The point of the geographical chaos of the desert is the magnitude of the summons to "build a level highway in the desert for our God".
- 1) This "point" is to make men aware of the magnitude of their "need" before God's summons: they are hopeless in the face of the task.
- 2) This "point" also, however, is to make men aware of the magnitude of the "grace" of God as He addresses what men find impossible [Note well Jesus' comment in Matthew 19:26].
- b. The impact of this point is at the core/heart of John's call for "repentance".
- c. Thus, the reality of the desert's chaotic condition is a parallel to the reality of man's depravity rooted in his complex, and deceitful, heart: this "hopelessness" wedded to "faith in grace" begins man's actual walk with God.
- 2. Now, Jesus, "walking along the shore of The Sea of The Galilee" presents the "ministry" as a matter of "fishing for men" (to get them out of the deadly "sea" of "the arrogance of functional capacity") and "mending the entrapping nets" (to correct man's bondage to that "sea"; the "mended nets" will deliver men from the snare of the "sea" by giving them "truth" to replace "The Lie").
- a. Note this of primary importance: there was no "need" for Mark to present Jesus as "walking along the sea of the Galilee" or to present Jesus' metaphor of "fishing" as the key description of His view of the disciples' future ministry if there was no real "link" to his message about Jesus as the solution to his particular problem.
- 1) There is no "filling stories with extraneous (not necessary or pertinent) details" in the inspired words of God to men.
- 2) All of the details of all of the stories have significance in a "jot and tittle" record of Truth (Matthew 5:18).
- b. "The Lie" is that men can "believe the Deceiver's characterization of God as a Liar" and "be sufficiently wise as to be able to deliver themselves from bondage to Him".
- c. The "truth" of the "nets" is that God is Truth and there is no threat in the idea of being totally subject to His sovereign wisdom as a "slave".
- d. As the desert presents the opportunity for a "beginning", The Sea puts the major issue before men as a "continuation".
- 1) They must stop seeking "Life" from "The Sea".
- 2) This is the on-going issue as Paul's own words testify in both 2 Corinthians 12:6-10 and 2 Corinthians 1:9 (apparently Paul never did become immune to the temptation to self-exaltation).
- II. Simon and Andrew, James and John.
- A. Simon is the New Testament equivalent of Simeon whose initial introduction to us is in Genesis 29:33.
- a. As an initial individual, Simeon is given his name by his mother because she thinks that he is the result of God's "hearing" ("Simeon" is a derivative of the Hebrews verb for "to hear") because the introduction to Leah's sons begins with "the Lord saw that Leah was hated, so He opened her womb". This "Simeon" is Leah's second attempt to gain her husband's "love" by bearing him sons. Her third attempt was "Levi" and her comment was, "Now this time will by husband be joined unto me because I have born him three sons". This was an admission that Simeon had not fulfilled her expectation of becoming her husband's "favorite wife". In the larger scheme of "theology", "gaining Love by reason of performance" is most fundamentally flawed and is the very root of all "legal" theology.
- b. Thus we have a man whose DNA had "the pride of life" written all over it. It is no accident that Simon, as Peter, had a marked influence upon Mark and is the "traditional" source of much of Mark's record.
- B. Andrew is a name derived from the Greek word "man" when "maleness" is the primary thought. It is sometimes translated "husband" as in "her man". He is the brother of Simon, but he not given any particular prominence in Mark's record, only referring to him by name in four contexts. It is John, the brother of James, who tells us in his record that Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptizer who went after his brother, Simon, to tell him of his discovery of Jesus as "the Messiah" (John 1:40-41). Mark, apparently, did not consider this a needed part of his record. However, John's record certainly "fits" the "I will make you a fisher of men" motif in respect to Andrew as he "fished" his own brother out of the "sea" by telling him of the Christ.
- C. James is the Greek form of "Jacob". The Old Testament patriarch was named "Jacob" because he was the one who "supplanted" his brother Esau and connived with his mother to get the birthright blessing. Esau actually ties his name to his behavior in Genesis 27:36. It, therefore, is not a terrible surprise that it was "James" with his brother who came to Jesus to try to get a jump on the other ten disciples in seeking the most coveted positions in Messiah's kingdom (Mark 10:35-37); an action that was not significantly different from his patriarchal namesake and significantly irritated the ten. In this light, it is interesting that Jesus called him and his brother "Boanerges", meaning "the sons of thunder" (a fact that Mark considered significant in Mark 3:17). It was this James that Herod murdered/martyred (Acts 12:2) in contrast to his brother's death by old age (John was the only one of the original twelve who died a natural death). By placing his name first, Mark may have incidentally indicated that he was the firstborn.
- D. John is the name that meant, in Hebrew, "Yahweh is Gracious" and is used, as a name, by Mark 25 times in this record, 15 of which refer to John the Baptizer. It had no significant predecessor in the Old Testament, but became a critical issue in the New. This John is the author of both the gospel that bears his name as well as three relatively short letters and the Book of the Revelation in the New Testament. These writings are clearly in harmony with the "net-mender" motif as a dispenser of true doctrine to enable those who escape (are dragged) from "The Sea" to grow beyond the death impact of that environment.
- E. Simon, James, and John all seemed to have a strong penchant for "life by recognition". Andrew does not fall under this observation. Interestingly, Jesus formed Peter, James, and John into a kind of "inner circle" in Mark's record. As "four", these men represent the concept of "disciple" as well as the twin tasks of the Church to come: evangelism (fishing for men) and edification (mending the false concepts built into many of the "nets" used). Priscilla and Aquila are classic illustrations of "net-menders" in respect to their help to Apollo in Acts 18:26.
