Embarking on the Journey

Christ called Peter to follow Him. It wasn’t something Peter could have aspired to or planned on. He probably felt like he had already reached cruising altitude in life. Peter had a family and a job. He thought he knew where he would be and what he would be doing for the rest of his life. But one conversation with Jesus changed it all, putting his entire existence in a drastically new light and giving his life a decisive new direction. Simon would no longer be a mere fisherman. He would be Peter—the “Rock”—a fisher of men. He and his brother Andrew would leave their fishing business and take off on a journey. They did not know where they were going. And they were just beginning to know Whom they were following.

It is hard for us to even fathom, in retrospect, just how much Jesus turned Peter’s life upside down. On the one hand, Jesus brought healing into Peter’s family, ministering to his mother-in-law (Mark 1:29–31). Peter witnessed the remarkable power of Jesus to cast out demons, stop storms, forgive sins, and even raise people from the dead. On the other hand, Jesus brought Peter into contact with an odd crowd, including tax collectors and sinners (Mark 2:15–17). Jesus was willing to break with expectations, leading His disciples in a way that was markedly different from how the Pharisees and John the Baptist led their followers (Mark 2:18–28).

Over the first three weeks of A Disciple’s Journey, we will focus our weekday readings on the Gospel of Mark. Mark is a great place to start if we want to understand Peter and what it meant for him to follow Jesus. We know from several reliable sources in the early church that Mark (who also went by John, or John Mark; see Acts 12:12 and 15:37) was Peter’s associate and interpreter. Mark probably composed his Gospel by taking down Peter’s sermons. This opens up some interesting horizons for reading Mark and thinking about Simon Peter:

• We should notice that Peter is not the main character or the hero of the story—Jesus is. This fits well with what a mature apostle would have wanted the church to know about the gospel story. Instead of thinking of Mark as a story about Peter, we should read it as the gospel of Jesus Christ seen through Peter’s eyes and told in his voice.
• Knowing Peter’s involvement explains a few of the key features of Mark’s Gospel and its distinctive shape. Peter was a passionate, somewhat impatient man. Mark’s Gospel starts with a bang. He skips right over the birth of Jesus and his family’s genealogy (compare with Matthew and Luke’s opening chapters), almost like he simply couldn’t wait to get straight to Jesus and His ministry. Even the style has this character. Mark uses the term “immediately” 41 times. It is only used 10 times by all of the other authors in the New Testament combined.
• If we think of the Gospel of Mark as Peter’s Gospel, this also explains why it offers such an unvarnished and almost brutally honest picture of Peter. We see a few of his highlights, but it is his massive failures in key moments that steal the show. In a way, this confirms Peter’s involvement in telling the story. Only he would be so hard on himself. Revealing his own faults served to magnify His faultless Lord.

When we think of Peter now, we probably think first of the apostle, the pillar of the church. Rightly so. God did extraordinary things through him. Empowered by the Spirit, He preached sermons. He planted churches. He trained pastors. He evangelized unreached peoples. He did the work of the ministry and served his Lord well. He routinely saw miracles happen. But for the next five weeks, we should consider the question of how this came to be. How did this unlikely man come to be used in such a mighty way by God? What turned the fisherman into an apostle?

Peter’s life was completely transformed by the journey he took with Jesus. Just as Christ called Simon to follow Him, He is also calling each of us. Will we drop our nets and follow Him, too?

Prayer Priorities For the Week

Prayer is how we make our requests known to God. It is also how He aligns our hearts with His will. Determine at least three things that you want to pray for this week, then pray for these requests daily.

• I am praising and thanking God for:
• I am asking God for myself:
• I am asking God on behalf of others:

Key Verse for the Week

Memorize and write down the key verses for the week: Mark 1:17–18.