DAD IN THE BOAT AND MOM IN BED
Mark 1:19 When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20 Without delay he called them, and
they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
Mark 1:29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. 30 Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. 31 So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.
Introduction
Most Biblical scholars understand the Gospel of Mark as the “hurried up” version of the life and ministry of Jesus. With this in mind, if Mark stops and makes a longer observation, it may be worthwhile to pause, process what is being said, and ask some questions. The scope of this paper (message, sermon, small group discussion) is
Dad in the Boat
Mom in Bed.
Neither Dad (Zebedee) nor Mom (I will call her Ruth) is left with normal lives after their sons answer Jesus’ call to follow Him.
The setting in life is Capernaum, a town on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee.
All the major players in Mark’s gospel are in place, geographically, on a sea, economically, fishing is the main source of income, and religiously, the Jewish Synagogue is central.
The viewpoint of this paper is seen through Zebedee and Ruth’s eyes.
While these paragraphs stand-alone ( Zebedee is in para cape 12, while Ruth is in para cape 13) They are tied through these two parents.
The hope is that the reader will join these two parents as they meditate on the story’s development. I am writing from this view. As a Dad and Grandpa, I am compelled to ask myself to pause, process, and question as I see what Jesus’ call looks like in the lives of my adult children and later teen grandchildren.
WHY IS THIS MESSAGE CRUCIAL?
The “traditional” “evangelical” “charismatic” and “kingdom” church models are either dying or tying themselves to dangerous legalism/nationalism teaching. The “Christian Zionism” “American Exceptionalism” and “Word of Faith” movements attract a large following. Numbers and ‘prophetic’ teaching do not validate a true message. These teachings force traditions and teachings that promote fear of the stranger, white supremacy, fear of sexual differences, male-only leadership, and promoting America as God’s Nation.
Yet, there is a minority of Christian leaders who are seeking to identify the new movement of the Lord. The hope of these leaders?
The hope is discovered among those who reexamine their own lives, listen with new ears, see with fresh eyes, and enter into relationships with their children and grandchildren with soft and often broken hearts.
In my world, this message is crucial as the Lord proclaims:
Malachi 4: 5 “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents, or else I will come and strike the land with destruction.”
I am the dad in the boat. I am watching my children and grandchildren going a different way. I will continue to turn my heart to my generation and the children and grandchildren of the next. I hope those who interact with this message will allow Jesus to turn their lives upside down, as He calls, teaches, faces the forces of evil, and heals us and our children. As Jesus does all of this, may we encourage and enable them to truly hear, obey, and go in the name and power of the Creator God, Christ, and Holy Spirit.
WORLDS OVERTURNED
Zechariah and Ruth share much in common. They are working, catching fish, or cooking meals. Raising children. Training daughters and sons in the Synagogue. Life is normal in some ways, for people who are living under the tyranny of another nation.
DAY 1 QUESTIONS FROM THE BOAT
Mark 1:14–20
1:20 Immediately Jesus called James and John Zebedee was left in the boat.
A passing preacher of the Kingdom of God calls out
“Follow Me.”
Two young men leave their Dad in the boat.
As a parent what is my reaction?
What do I think about this new message of the Kingdom of God?
How do I respond to the Lord’s calling on my children and grandchildren’s lives?
Do I help fund my children’s new adventures?
Am I judgemental or afraid? Who is this Jesus that takes my sons away?
I am losing primary workers for the business. As time goes on I realize that this is not just a passing thing.
My children are becoming part of the core group, following this leader.
What life experiences have I had that bring this event home?
DAY 2 THE KINGDOM OF GOD SHOWS UP IN THE SYNAGOGUE
Mark 1:21–28
Jesus’ teaching and actions stir up even turned upside down the regular Synagogue service.
Song: When you walk into the room
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG10dda1dc8
When Jesus walked into the Synagogue everything changed. In fact the Synagogue experiences continued to bring stress and even hate in response to Jesus’ words and works.
Line-by-line response, as Mark in his shorthand way, quickly summarizes the Synagogue experience.
Jesus taught. How much can one say about that?
People respond: Jesus taught with authority, not just quoting other leaders of the day.
Man in their Synagogue. How many people are in our worship services with real deep needs? The scientific worldview may revolt at such an explanation of man’s problems. Whether it is scientific or not, the spiritual reality of life is here.
Questions:
1. Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are — the Holy One of God!” “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.
2.They were all amazed, so that they debated among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.”
Debated among themselves. Zebedee and his sons were there, at Synagogue. Not only did the Dad in the boat see his sons go with a stranger, but now this man was changing Zebedee’s Saturday ritual. Word, work, authority, amazement upside-down kingdom happening in Zebedee’s view.
As the parent in the boat, how do you respond?
One does not have to nor should one ever stop asking questions. The best response to Jesus’ walking into the room is to ask, to observe, to think. The next step is to respond. Some of the people in the Synagogues during Jesus’ ministry got angry others asked Jesus to their homes to minister to their loved ones. Others continued to follow and learn.
Both and, not either or, maybe the best response of the Dad in the boat.
DAY 3 MOM IS IN BED AND HER BOYS SHOW UP
Mark 1:29–31
Her son-in-law brings home a bunch of guys. They know she is sick. They saw what happened at the synagogue. They heard Jesus’ teaching. They saw Him interact with the demonic. As of yet, they have not seen Jesus healing anyone. Yet, they took Jesus home with them.
Processing the next events:
Peter and Andrew told Jesus about Ruth (for her to miss Synagogue was unheard of)
Jesus Heard Ruth lying
Came held Jesus hand
Raised Served
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKJ9hjw9nmw
In The Chosen, Ruth wakes up and says to Jesus “Who are you?”
Who is Jesus?
DAY 4 EVERYONE COMES TO RUTH’S HOUSE
Ruth’s life is turned upside down. She does what she knows, she serves her guests and family. What friends of our children and grandchildren are welcome in our homes? What would cause one to stumble as they receive people into their home?
Mark 1:32–33
When evening came, after the sun had set, they began bringing to Him all who were ill and those who were demon-possessed. And the whole city had gathered at the door. And He healed many who were ill with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He was not permitting the demons to speak, because they knew who He was.
When I was in the Philippines leading a missions trip we gathered in the village church for praise and prayer. A lady sat next to me, coughing and very sick. She had come for prayer. She was dying of TB. Next to me, a white man who had been trained how to pray for the sick. We prayed. We laid our hands on her. No noticeable change. Later that night many people of the village gathered at the local “healer’s” door. The healer was known to practice witchcraft. Something in my heart just broke that night. Here we were thousands of miles from home. Watching witchcraft after we did not seem to have any power for healing. A person from the Western worldview may scoff or set up all sorts of barriers in their theology for such an event. I do not scoff, and my theology rests upon the already and not yet of the realized Kingdom of God. Others have differing views, and all are welcome here. But until you stand at the intersection of the Kingdom of God and the world of darkness, please do not be too quick to judge.
Eugene Peterson penned the following prayer that guides my life.
Prevent, O God, the Herodian spirit from filtering into my life:
the spirit that uses religion to protect itself,
and jealous of any hint of rivalry,
responds to your Spirit only with suspicious fear.
Peterson comments on Herod and leads us to question:
“Herod, hearing the news, was full of dread. It is possible to fashion values and goals so defiant of God that any rumor of his reality shakes our foundation?”
Zebedee and Ruth could see that the foundations of their lives in Capernaum were being shaken. What would the neighbors think when Ruth’s courtyard was invaded by the sick the castoffs, the demonized? The news of Jesus’ calling young me to follow, teaching with authority, casting out demons, and healing Ruth went out like wildfire.
So, as we come to Ruth’s house, do we stand afar with debate and fear or do we enter into the work of the Kingdom?
Zebedee is no longer in his boat.
Ruth is not in her bed.
The entire city is in her courtyard and no doubt Zebedee is there.
Oh Lord of Healing, come and visit our homes and stir us up. May we ask hard questions knowing your Wisdom will lead us to a renewed faith.
DAY 5 RUTH AND ZEBEDEE ENTER INTO LAMENT
Matthew 2:16–18 Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the magi. Then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled:
“A voice was heard in Ramah,
Weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children;
And she refused to be comforted,
Because they were no more.”
Parents sending their children off to summer camp or college or missions trips believe that they will see them again. Yet, the parents hope that something will be different in the child as they return. But, maybe the child will have ‘lost their faith’ or ‘met the wrong crowd’ or even gotten pregnant. Or, the child may not return at all.
The other day I was talking to a couple who lamented the fact that the children of their church would go to college and lose their faith in the liberal teaching they received there. My nephew quietly shares with me the science he is studying (he is a Ph.D. student working with genetics) and the fact that he sees the Gospels as one would in the game telephone, where the sentence that was first said is not even close to one spoken by the 10th person who says it. Instead of being angry about the education he is receiving, I am frustrated that the church continues to spread a message that is supposedly the word of God is so messed up.
When our church foundations are built upon half-truths, our children are right to question the messages they hear.
I believe Zebedee and Ruth enter into lament every time they watch our children being misinformed about the living Jesus who according to the Bible, created the helix and genes that my nephew is working with. Jesus stands with him as he may one day unlock the code of MS or Lupis or other diseases.
Burton H. Throckmorton, Jr (ed), Gospel Parallels: A synopsis of the first three Gospels, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc.1967)p.
Munther Isaac, The Other Side of the Wall: A Palestinian Christian Narrative of Lament and Hope, (Downers Grove, Ill: Intervarsity Press, c2020) Isaac comments regarding Christian Zionism: “In many expressions of this movement, they have replaced the centrality of Jesus with that of Israel.” p. 95
John D, Wilsey, American Exceptionalism and Civil Religion: Reading the History of an Idea, (Downers Grove, Ill: Intervarsity Press, c2015)
Tri Robinson, Reform: Living the Advent-ure; the Decline of American Evangelism and a Path for the New Generation to Re: Form their Faith, (Sweet, ID: Timber Butte Publishing, c2017)
Eugene Peterson, A Year with Jesus; Daily Readings and Meditations, (harpers Collins Pub: SanFransico, 2006) p. 12
