When Jesus Calls Mark 1:14–20; Jonah 3:1–5, 10; 1 Corinthians 7:29–31

Grace, mercy, and peace be with you, from God our Father, and our Lord, Jesus Christ, who calls us to follow Him.

Today we’re going to talk about when Jesus calls, taken from our Gospel: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

There are people I know who live for the weather to turn cold, so that the lakes will freeze over, and they can ice fish. 

Does anybody enjoy ice fishing?

For some the enjoyment might be more sitting in a heated fish house, drinking a certain beverage or two.

In our Gospel, Jesus tells us to live to fish; to live in order to share His Gospel with the world.

Mark reports that, after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand;repent and believe in the gospel.

John went away that Jesus might come, as John knew he must do. He was called to prepare the hearts and minds of the people to receive the Messiah. And so when the Messiah came, John told his disciples, “He must increase, and I must decrease.”.

John was humble in his spirit, and faithful to his calling to do that. 

Sadly, though, King Herod Antipas, took matters into his own hands for an evil purpose, and arrested John in order to silence him. 

But in silencing John, Herod was increasing the voice of Jesus, calling, “Repent, for the kingdom is at hand!” God’s Son is here to save the world.

Soon after His ministry started, Jesus, being the gifted organizer that He was, immediately began to arrange for what would happen when He would leave and go back to where He came from, that is, when he would die, and rise, and ascend back into Heaven.

So that the ministry of the Gospel would continue, Jesus chose some fishermen to become fishers OF Men. 

And so that the ministry of the Gospel would not just continue, but would flourish, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to enlighten them, and empower their ministry.

Jesus would teach them to fish for men, and give them the reason to do so: His redemption for the world. The Holy Spirit would equip them to fish, to share the Good News that God’s salvation has come into the world.

Many people who like to fish were taught how to do so by their father or parent, or grandparent, or someone. 

Jesus taught his disciples, who taught their disciples, and they taught others, and on and on all the way until today. 

We’ve been taught to know Christ, that we might make Him known to the world.

It’s nearly 2000 years since Jesus called His first disciples to follow Him, and through the ministry of the Gospel, He is still calling people to follow Him today.

Some ignore the Gospel call; some tepidly answer it; but as we repent, the Holy Spirit would embolden us to passionately answer Jesus when He calls us in Baptism and in His Word, that we might share His saving love and compassion for all.

In our Old Testament today, we heard how God had compassion on Nineveh, in Job 3:10: When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

God didn’t hold their evil against them, because they had a change of heart.

Through Jonah’s preaching, God called and they heard and answered with repentant hearts and godly deeds.

As for Jonah, He needed a little convincing to obey God’s call. 

He wasn’t real keen on being God’s prophet to the violent people of worldly Nineveh. So he hopped on the first boat in the other direction, hoping to outrun God’s call.

He found out there’s no place beyond God’s reach. To save the people of Nineveh from their sins, and to save Jonah from his fear, God intervened by sending a storm. 

To stop the storm, the crew threw Jonah overboard, but God rescued him and kept him safe 3 days in the belly of the great fish. 

Later, Jesus would refer to this as a sign that on the third day He would rise from the darkness of the tomb. 

So in this historic event, God was not just planning to save Nineveh through the prophet, Jonah, He was planning ahead to save the world through His Son, the Messiah.   

By a fish, God saved Jonah to be a fisher of men, of the people of Nineveh, and of all who would read his prophetic book in all the generations that would follow.

Jonah took awhile to come around, but he finally agreed to do what God asked of him. To his surprise, it worked. 

Jonah thought that even if the people didn’t hurt or kill him for telling them to either repent or perish, at best it would be a waste of time; they’d never repent; they were too far gone, or so he thought.

But Jonah thought wrong. He underestimated to the power of the Word to change hearts and minds. The great city repented, and the people lived.

From this we learn to trust in God’s power, and not give up on doing what Jesus calls us to do: to make disciples of all nations, to know Christ and make Him known to the world.

There’s no nation God doesn’t care about; no people He didn’t die for; no group He’s given up on. He still calls us to be fishers of men among all nations. 

If all the events of the past year in our world and our nation, remind us of one thing, it’s that God’s eternal Kingdom is near, and time is short; God is calling the  world to repent. Our mission is urgent.

As our Epistle reminds us, the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, 30 and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, 31 and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away. 

Paul isn’t saying that we should ignore our everyday responsibilities. God wants us to take care of them, but in such a way that we put them all into their proper perspective. 

The time will come when they will all end in a flash, a moment. Then where will we be if we’ve given all of our attention to worldly affairs, and put all of our hope in worldly goals and achievements?

We care about our world, and all its needs; so much so, that we call the world to repent, and be forgiven today, and be blessed forever.

We call the world to be real, and not pretend as if this life will last forever; not to get so desperately and dysfunctionally tied up with this world, as if to treat it as our end all and be all, our God. 

This world is not our God; its philosophies and theories and politics are not our Gospel. This world is our temporary home; we live here on our way to our true and lasting home. 

We serve God and love one another here, until we love and serve God and one another there, in glorious joy and holy love. 

So let us answer Christ’s call to repent, and believe, and fish; not for fish, although we can do some of that too if we like, but for people.

Watch for opportunities to share the good news in this world of bad news; to show the people that Jesus is the answer they’re looking for. He’ll bring the goodness and grace that our world needs; and He’ll bring us to that perfect and glorious world that we need most, and will rejoice in forever.

Until then, as you answer God’s call, be comforted to know that His peace, which passes understanding, will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus, our Lord, whom we joyfully follow. Amen.