Mark 1:14-20 (NRSV)
Read Mark 1:14-20 on biblegateway.com
Verse 14Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God,
Verse 15and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."
Devotion
Those of us who follow Jesus may find ourselves taken to strange places, often to venues we may not be prepared to go. The “ports of call” of Christ’s disciples will likely turn out to be places inhabited by the least, the last and the lost. In his book of the same title, German theologian Helmut Gollwitzer calls this itinerary an “unwilling journey,” describing his experience being transported to a Siberian gulag as a prisoner of war in WWII. It was not the place he wanted to be, but it was the place he discovered Christ’s presence in powerful ways.
A great deal of spiritual wisdom has come out of imprisonment: Paul incarcerated in Rome, Luther under protective custody in the Wartburg, Julian of Norwich in a monastic cell, Bonhoeffer in a Nazi prison, Nelson Mandela on Robben Island, Martin Luther King Jr. in a Birmingham jail. All of these people we see as leaders because they followed Jesus on an “unwilling journey.”
Prayer
Dear Lord, help us to follow you wherever you take us, even if it means leaving the security of the safe places we tend to choose for the vulnerable locations where you want us to be as your disciples. Amen.