The shape of Jesus’ ministry

One sometimes hears the comment from a person who professes to be a Christian and follower of Jesus that they want nothing to do with the church. This may be because they think the church is corrupt and only interested in propping up the institution, or that the church is pretty much irrelevant in our day, or that they’ve had a bad experience with someone in the church previously. Whatever the reason, it seems unlikely to me that Jesus would ever encourage a person to be a solo Christian in the world.

Why do I say this? Based on the reading from Mark’s Gospel this week that the first act in Jesus’ public ministry is to call four people to follow him. These four are ordinary folk, fishermen, and have no particular qualifications or experience to make them stand out from others. As we soon discover they are also quite fallible and make mistakes and get confused. So they are quite like us! Jesus will be their mentor and teacher, but pretty soon they will be extending the ministry of Jesus based on what they have seen and heard from him. These four are soon joined by others – both women and men – so that there is a growing community of people who follow Jesus.

So it has always been, right from the beginning. This was clearly Jesus’ intention rather than being a Plan B if things did not go well. Jesus deliberately formed a new community who followed his ways and taught others to do the same. Certainly the church over the years has shown itself to be fallible, to make mistakes and to get confused – just like the people who make it up – but the shape of Jesus’ ministry is clear – follow me and be part of the movement that I am establishing.

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