God Calls

As Jesus travels around and begins His ministry, the crowds start to get word of Him. His name starts to spread. Folks are showing up to hear Him speak, to listen to what He has to say, to see Him. 

At the beginning of His ministry, there were no disciples. This wasn't some kind of group that He formed in secret, pulling men aside to let them in on what He was about to do. No, He called these men from the crowds themselves as He was ministering. These were men who had the opportunity to hear Him first, then were invited to follow. 

The ministry of Jesus would not be fundamentally different without them. If He had continued His ministry by Himself, all the way to the Cross and the grave, it would have looked largely the same. The blind would still see. The lame would still walk. The demons would still be cast out. The broken would be healed. The captive would be set free. The bleeding woman would be clean. The religious elite would still be irrationally angry about all of it and conspiratorial unto death. 

But the story wouldn't be the same. And the impact certainly wouldn't be, either. 

We talk about this a lot, but it's true - God doesn't need you. He doesn't need me. He doesn't need human beings. But He wants us. This is what makes the Lord so fundamentally different from the other gods. He loves us. He loves us so much that He wants to be with us. 

In fact, that's why Mark said Jesus called the disciples in the first place - to draw them near to Him (3:14). And then, of course, to send them out. 

Try to imagine the story of Jesus without these twelve men (and more, and women). Try to imagine the story without the boat, without the fish, without the Upper Room, without the betrayals, without the questions, without the examples. It's hard to do. 

And it might end up being an okay story, even a good story, but it wouldn't be life-changing. Because God being God, completely removed from the lives we actually live, is cool and neat and stuff, but what does it mean for my Thursday? Not a whole lot. 

See, Jesus and the disciples, it's a small, living example of what God had in mind from the very beginning. In the beginning, He created man in His image and then walked with him. The whole point was for us to be together. Not because God needed us, but because He wanted us. 

There's a slight divergent sort of sect of Christian theism called deism, where God is basically a maker of sophisticated clocks who builds a clock, sets it in motion, and then has nothing else to do with it. It simply keeps running on its own because that is how He made it. 

But God is no clockmaker; He is Lord. He is Immanuel, and He's been so long before Jesus came to dwell with us. It is His story; it is our story. We have a God who wants to draw us close. 

And if Jesus hadn't called the disciples, we wouldn't have understood this the same way. If Jesus hadn't called Matthew, Peter, Andrew, James, John, and the others, we would not have understood that He is calling us. If He had not drawn them near, we would struggle to believe He could draw us near. 

Yet, that is all He ever wanted. From the very first moment that we - He and us - took a step in the Garden. Jesus is just the reminder of that with His imperfect band of brothers that He loved so very deeply, cared for so tenderly, taught so patiently, forgave so freely, and restored so wholly. 

He's doing the same for you.