and straightway he called them; and leaving their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, they went away after him.
Mark gives only the bare facts: a boat, a father, hired men, and two sons who walk away from it all at a word. Those few details show what the brothers gave up, and how much weight the voice that called them carried.
The hired workers tell us what kind of household James and John came from. They also tell us something about their father, who let his sons go without protest.
Zebedee was a man of some means, since he had hired servants working under him (Mark 1:20). Even so, he did the fishing work himself... Zebedee seems to have been quite content that they obeyed the call of Christ at once. We read no word of complaint or protest from him. He kept his job. He was not called to leave it as they were. Meanwhile his two sons began the career that will lead them to sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
A business with paid staff also corrects a common picture of these men. Their opponents later judged them by the schooling they had not had.
[Peter] and his brother were partners with Zebedee and his sons in what looks like a large fishing business. At any rate, they had "hired servants" (Mark 1:20). So we must not take Acts 4:13 to mean that these men were completely uneducated. "Unlearned and ignorant" would simply mean they had not had the professional training that their religious opponents had.
The Lord's choice of them was deliberate. He walked past the religious leaders of the day.
He passes by the official priests, the learned scribes, and the religious Pharisees, and takes up humble fishermen... Having no riches and no human learning is no barrier to being a companion of the Lord, or to being useful in His service. Still, however humble their job, the people the Lord takes into His service are not out of work. These simple men were busy at their trade as fishermen when the Lord called them to become fishers of men. His service is not for people who have nothing else to do.
Of everything named in the verse, the father is the hardest to leave. One writer sets the call to serve apart from simply believing, then weighs it against every other claim.
It is one thing for Christ to reveal Himself to a soul; it is another to make that soul a fisher of men... They had already believed in Him, and had everlasting life. But to make them the companions of His own service, the Lord must call them away. They have a father: what should they do? It makes no difference. The call of Christ outranks every other claim.
Yet the hired men stayed in the boat with him, and that changes how this leaving looks.
They left their father, for natural relationships must give place to the Lord's authority. Still, they did not leave him alone, without help, for there were also servants in the boat. When the Lord calls, He does not ignore the proper needs of one's relatives.
They did not summon the resolve out of themselves. The same grace that called them supplied what obedience cost.
The grace which called them gave them power to leave earthly things and to come after Him. They left behind boats and nets, their trade as fishermen, and even their father, Zebedee... Note the word "straightway" in verses 17 and 20.
(Older translations read "straightway" where the ESV has "immediately".)
What happened on that shore is not the rule for everyone who believes.
We may not be called to leave everything, as the disciples were when the Lord was here on earth. But we can serve Him only as He becomes, in spirit, the blessed Object before the soul. Not all are called to give up their daily work. That, in fact, is the path of only a few. Most of God's people are clearly told to stay in their ordinary work (1 Cor. 7:20). Still, the Lord has some service for everyone.
On the day it happened, this looked like two men throwing away a safe living. Seen from the end, the trade looks different.
Founders of world-empires there have been; great as the world counts greatness. But where are Egypt, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and their founders? But the names of Simon and Andrew, of James and John, are cut into the rock foundations of that church, and the gates of hell will never overcome it... we can see twelve names only (Rev. 21:14). They include these four — names once scratched on a couple of fishing boats on the Galilean lake to show who owned them.
- Boat — the hired servants show a real business. What James and John left had real value.
- Call — the Lord passed by priests, scribes and Pharisees and took working men. No lack of money or schooling shuts anyone out of His service.
- Cost — even a father's claim gives way to Christ's call. They went at once, because the grace that called also gave the power to go.
- Care — leaving Zebedee was not deserting him. The servants stayed, and the Lord does not ignore the needs of a servant's family.
- Crown — most of God's people are told to keep their daily job. Yet these four, who left the nets, have their names in foundations that outlast every empire.
And they go into Capernaum. And straightway on the sabbath he entered into the synagogue and taught.
Capernaum is where the Servant's public work begins, and He begins it with words. Three things in Mark's short sentence are worth weighing: His pace, the town, and why teaching came first.
Mark uses one short word again and again. A writer explains what it tells us about the Servant.
The first thing you find here is directness, speed, quickness, the absence of all delay. That is what marked Him as the great Servant of Jehovah. You find that word used again and again all through this Gospel of Mark — "straightway," "directly," "immediately," "quickly." In the original there is only one word, though translators render it in many ways. It all points to no lingering, no hesitation, no putting off. It points to the quickness and the directness of the true servant, whose whole thought and mind and heart is bent on the service to be done. And so we read here that immediately He enters the synagogue and teaches.
Mark does not tell us what happened just before, but another Gospel does — and the contrast shapes how we read this arrival.
Mark does not report His first preaching in Nazareth (Luke 4:16-30). It was after they thrust Him out of the city where He grew up that He went to Capernaum. The blessed Servant knew no discouragement nor self-pity. They laid their wicked hands on Him in Nazareth. Then He went on to Capernaum and taught there straightway.
This town heard His teaching first and saw His power first. That privilege stands behind the woes He later spoke over it.
It casts a very interesting light on the woes the Lord pronounced on some of these cities: "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!" and "you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven?" It is a very remarkable thing to find this place, Capernaum, tied so directly to His service. It was the place that first saw His wonder-working power go out, and heard His words too, the teaching of the great servant-prophet in this world. That is what made Capernaum's great exaltation. It was exalted to heaven — how? Because it witnessed His mightiest works.
Older translations read the words about Capernaum as a statement, not a question, and that is how this writer takes them.
One pronoun changes between verse 16 and this verse.
In verse 16, "He walked," but in verse 21, "they went." The men He had called were now with Him. They listened to His words and saw His works of power. Entering Capernaum, He taught "straightway" on the Sabbath, and authority marked His words. The scribes only passed on the thoughts and opinions of others. They fell back on the authority of great teachers of earlier times. So it was this note of authority which astonished the people.
Mark records that He taught, but not what He said. One writer notes what that teaching gave His hearers.
Mark simply states that He now began to explain the truth — He who had preached the fulfilment of ancient promise and the gospel of God. So those who were hungering and thirsting for righteousness might be filled. Many prophets and kings had longed to hear the things taught in Capernaum that day, but had not heard them.
The word for authority means more than we might assume. One writer traces the difference through the life of Moses.
This word implies the possession of the right or title to act, and not only the capacity or competence to do so. The word often translated "power" carries that capacity. Moses could be said to have had zeal and competence when he first set about putting right his people's wrongs in Egypt. But others challenged his authority — "Who made you a prince and a judge over us?" — and he fled in disgrace. Later, however, Jehovah said to him, "Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt." He then went as a messenger God Himself had sent. It is so that Mark presents Jesus. He had an indisputable right to speak.
One writer applies this to anyone who speaks for God today.
Some present teachings with all the arguments for and against, leaving hearers to judge whether it is truth or not. If we do that, we shall hardly be speaking with authority. We shall sound like people groping for the truth. We are to speak as those who by grace know the certainty of the truth they proclaim. This is not inconsistent with a lowly mind. It is the lowly who will know the mind of God, as we read, "He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way."
- Prompt — "Immediately" is the Servant's word in Mark. No lingering, no putting off.
- Undeterred — Nazareth threw Him out. He moved on to Capernaum and taught there, with no self-pity.
- Accompanied — "He walked" becomes "they went." The men He just called are now beside Him.
- Authoritative — He had the right and title to speak, not just the ability. The scribes passed on other men's opinions.
- Accountable — The town that heard first and saw most was raised to heaven in privilege. Over that same town the Lord later pronounced woe.