GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
MARK 1:16
Too Heavenly Minded
The English phrase, “he’s so heavenly minded that he’s no earthly good,” is meant to denigrate a mindset that focuses on spiritual or idealistic matters to the neglect of practical and compassionate engagement in everyday affairs. Johnny Cash captured that mindset in his song “No Earthly Good,” which has the line “You’re shinin’ your light, and shine it you should, but you’re so heavenly minded, you’re no earthly good.”
St. Mark wrote about Jesus calling his first disciples: “And as he was going along beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net in the sea, for they were fishermen.” (1:16) There is another Markan collapse of time between verses 15 and 16. St. John, for example, tells about Jesus’ ministry after his baptism and wilderness testing. Some Jews ask John the Baptizer if he is the Christ, and he says that he is not, but there was one coming after him, and he introduced Jesus. Two of John’s disciples, Andrew and Simon, then went to follow Jesus; however, the time was not right for their calling, so they went back to their work; they were fishermen. One writer thinks that there was about a year between Jesus’ baptism and the events Mark describes in this instance.
Jesus’ work grew and people came to hear his message. He needed help. He did not need dreamy academics or meditative souls; he needed people who could bear up under the workload, so he called ordinary, hard-working laborers. It is possible that Jesus, who moved from Nazareth to Capernaum, had stayed in Peter’s house. Thus his call to Simon and Andrew was not a shot in the dark, hit-or-miss. These were people he knew; he knew their character and their values. Jesus’ call to these two disciples was not a random or off-the-cuff selection. These men had been followers of John the Baptist, yet they were diligent workers. They were heavenly minded, true, but they put themselves to hard work. They were the people Jesus needed to help carry on his ministry. True then; true today.
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