Monday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
(Hebrews 1:1-6; Mark
1:14-20)
Today’s gospel makes an
interesting study of comparison and contrast with next Sunday’s. It gives the account of Jesus’ call of his
first disciples in the Gospel of Mark.
Sunday’s gospel will proclaim the story of the call in the Gospel
according to John.
In Mark, John the
Baptist has been arrested when Jesus goes to Galilee to proclaim the Good
News. Finding Peter and Andrew fishing,
he calls them to follow him. In John, the
Baptist himself tells his disciple Andrew that Jesus is the “lamb of God.” In both Mark and John Jesus takes the initiative
by inviting his future disciples to “come.” Again, in both cases again the men assuming
the role of disciples explicitly “follow” Jesus. Finally, in Mark Jesus tells Peter and Andrew
that they will be fishers of men while in John, Andrew goes out fishing for his
brother Simon to become Jesus’ follower.
Many begin to doubt the
truth claim of the gospels when they hear of inconsistencies like the ones mentioned
above. But when we think about it, don’t
the inconsistencies while still delivering the same basic message support their
being true? The evangelists Mark and
John wrote at least one and perhaps two generations after Jesus died. There is no sure evidence that they knew one
another or that one knew of the other’s writing. Both received Jesus’ story largely
by word of mouth as it was preached first by the Twelve and then by other apostles. Naturally some deviation occurred. But the similarities are so strong that we
can say with confidence that, yes, Jesus did call his disciples and, yes, they
did “follow” or learn from him.
