Place the passages in Mark in the first century Jewish Rabbinical practice and many of these things that are mysterious to our western gentile minds are immediately explained. From John's arrest as the trigger for Jesus to begin His rabbinical ministry, to the calling of the disciples and their willingness to "immediately" follow Christ. All of these actions and events were common practice for rabbis of the Pharisee school to build and conduct their ministry. All this seems confusing and mysterious to us, would have been just another day to the participants. I think none of this makes the story any less compelling for us. If anything it makes it more as we discover what was really going on here.
To misquote something I heard the other day:"Jesus didn't go to the cross to die for you. He went to the cross to show you how it's done, and lead you there."
Place the passages in Mark in the first century Jewish Rabbinical practice and many of these things that are mysterious to our western gentile minds are immediately explained. From John's arrest as the trigger for Jesus to begin His rabbinical ministry, to the calling of the disciples and their willingness to "immediately" follow Christ. All of these actions and events were common practice for rabbis of the Pharisee school to build and conduct their ministry. All this seems confusing and mysterious to us, would have been just another day to the participants. I think none of this makes the story any less compelling for us. If anything it makes it more as we discover what was really going on here.
To misquote something I heard the other day:"Jesus didn't go to the cross to die for you. He went to the cross to show you how it's done, and lead you there."