The Good News: Mark Part 3

In Mark 1:16-20 we find Jesus as He calls His first disciples. This is where we get to the heart of the Good News. Now you may be thinking, "Brad isn't this early to be calling it the 'heart of the Good News'?" Just bear with me.

In Jewish society, the greatest thing that could happen was that a rabbi would pick you to be a disciple of his. Jewish education worked like this:

First one would have to go through Bet Sefer, meaning the house of the book. As a boy at the age of 6 you would begin your training in the torah, the first 5 books of the Bible. You would study in bet Sefer for about four year in which you would memorize the entire text, word for word.

Now if you were the best student, at age 10 you would move into Bet Talmud, the house of learning. It was here that a young man would memorize the rest of the scriptures. The Idea was that by the age of 13 or 14 a young man in Bet Talmud would have memorized the entirety of the Hebrew scriptures.

Once you completed Bet Talmud if you were the best of the best you could then go to well, known and respected rabbi to apply for Bet Midrash, the house of Study. During this stage a rabbi would ask questions, if he thought you were good enough. Then based on the answers to you questions, the rabbi would either answer, "Lech Acharai" – Come, follow me. or "Go, home to your village. Make babies. Pray that they become rabbis. Go home and learn the family business - fishing, farming, carpentry. Because you won’t be studying to be a rabbi."

What is so great about Jesus' disciples are the fact that they had returned to their homes and were working in the trade of their fathers. They were not good enough.

The Good News:
You and I are not good enough to be a disciple of Jesus, but He bids us to come and follow Him. Jesus wants you and me even though we don't have it all together to be His disciples. When Jesus says, "come follow me" what it means is that He believes that you and I can do the things He is doing.

May you delight in the fact that the greatest Rabbi ever has called to you, "come, Follow me." That He sees so much potential in you that He has decided to make you His own. May you be covered in the dust of your rabbi, Jesus, in such a way that people do not know where He stops and you start.