Words'nTone

The call to become fishers of men
Mark moves from his programmatic Gospel summary (1:1-3) and the inaugurated presence of the Kingdom (i.e., John the Baptist’s preaching, vv 4-8 and the coming of the Spirit, vv 9-13) to a call for followers: “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men” (Mark 1:17).  Although Christians differ over the application of fishers of men, there is a reasonable correlation to an Old Testament theme: The use of fish, fishers, fishermen, and fishing yield evidence of an antecedent background that fits the Marken context.  The concept of fishing carries an Old Testament denotation of God’s judgment—fishers of men are God’s agents of judgment.  Mark blends this Old Testament thread, which draws on the twin themes relevant to this paper, namely idolatry and the poor (Jer 16:16; Amos 4:1-2; cf. Hab 1:14-15; Ez 29:4-5; 38:4; Isa 37:29).

The concentration of judgment throughout these texts draws the reader/hearer back to covenantal obedience and to the economically vulnerable.  Jeremiah announces:

“Behold, I am going to send for many fishermen,” declares the LORD, “and they will fish for them; and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain and every hill and from the clefts of the rocks” (Jer 16:16).

The obvious reason for God’s fishermen agents of judgment, the people had become idolatrous:

“Then you are to say to them, ‘It is because your forefathers have forsaken Me,’ declares the LORD, ‘and have followed other gods and served them and bowed down to them; but Me they have forsaken and have not kept My law. You too have done evil, even more than your forefathers; for behold, you are each one walking according to the stubbornness of his own evil heart., without listening to Me. So I will hurl you out of this land into the land which you have not known’” (Jer 16:11-13).

The flow of thought in Jeremiah, where the prophet is the initial agent of judgment (Jer 15-19), contain numerous references to idolatry (including God vs. the gods tauntalogies) as a cause/effect for God’s judgment:

“I will first doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable idols and with their abominations.”
   O LORD, my strength and my stronghold,
      And my refuge in the day of distress,
      To You the nations will come
      From the ends of the earth and say,
       “Our fathers have inherited nothing but falsehood,
      Futility and things of no profit.”
   Can man make gods for himself?
      Yet they are not gods!
   “Therefore behold, I am going to make them know--
      This time I will make them know
      My power and My might;
      And they shall know that My name
            is the LORD” (Jer 16:18-21).

“Yet they did not listen or incline their ears, but stiffened their necks in order not to listen or take correction” (Jer 17:23).

“For My people have forgotten Me,
   They burn incense to worthless gods
   And they have stumbled from their ways,
   From the ancient paths,
   To walk in bypaths,
   Not on a highway” (Jer 18:15).

Similar language is used in Amos 4, Habakkuk 1, Ezekiel 29, where the imagery of fishing is a tool of judgment.  This, too, has an apologetic nature:  Ultimately this judgment activity of God will reveal that He alone is the LORD (cf. Jer 16:21) and, through it, God will make Himself known in the sight of many nations (cf. Ez 29: 23). In Habakkuk it is through the fishing activity that the ungodly, the unrighteous, and those who oppose God are gathered together for judgment (cf. Hab 1:14-15).  The judgment passages utilizing fishing imagery also promise a future remnant (through God’s agents of judgment, fishing or the fishers), offering a reasonable application by Mark in calling for followers as fishers of men (i.e., disciples and evangelizers).

In the midst of the references to idolatry are reminders—direct and indirect—of the covenant stipulations concerning the poor.  In Jeremiah 16-18, those who refuse to provide and advocate for the economically vulnerable will become subject to sword and famine, becoming childlessness, that is widows and orphans (Ex 22:24; cf. Ps 109).

“They will die of deadly diseases, they will not be lamented or buried; they will be as dung on the surface of the ground and come to an end by sword and famine, and their carcasses will become food for the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth” (Jer 16:4)

Therefore, give their children over to famine
     And deliver them up to the power of the sword;
     And let their wives become childless and widowed
     Let their men also be smitten to death,
     Their young men struck down by the sword in battle.
  May an outcry be heard from their houses,
     When You suddenly bring raiders upon them;
       For they have dug a pit to capture me
     And hidden snares for my feet (Jer 18:21-22).

These consequences are reminiscent of covenant promises and expectations:

You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.  You shall not afflict any widow or orphan.  If you afflict him at all, and if he does cry out to Me, I will surely hear his cry; and My anger will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless (Ex 22:21-24).

Your carcasses will be food to all birds of the sky and to the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away.  The LORD will smite you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors and with the scab and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. The LORD will smite you with madness and with blindness and with bewilderment of heart (Dt 28:26-28).

Cursed is he who distorts the justice due an alien, orphan, and widow.  And all the people shall say, “Amen” (Dt 27:19).

The identification of fishers as a means of judgment is also found in Amos 4:1-2, narrowing the focus of judgment specifically to oppressing the economically vulnerable:

Hear this word, you cows of Bashan who are on the
            mountain of Samaria,
   Who oppress the poor, who crush the needy,
   Who say to your husbands, “Bring now, that we
            may drink!”
The Lord GOD has sworn by His holiness,
   “Behold, the days are coming upon you
   When they will take you away with meat hooks,
   And the last of you with fish hooks (Amos 4:1-2).

The reference here draws upon the cause of God’s judgment, namely affluent ladies of the Northern Kingdom are oppressing the poor.  The mention of cows of Bashan could be a pun related to idolatry (cow draws us back to the original idol-calves) and pin-points the idolatry to wanton wealth accumulation without concern for its affect (as implied in the exuberant, sarcastic comment “to bring on the drinks!”), specifically implying covenant breaking in oppressing/defrauding the poor.  Amos 4:1-2 is part of a thread that links covenantal unfaithfulness, misshapen values of wealth accumulation, and oppression of the poor:

   Thus says the LORD,
      “For three transgressions of Israel and for four
        I will not revoke its punishment,
        Because they sell the righteous for money
        And the needy for a pair of sandals.
         “These who pant after the very dust of the earth
                  on the head of the helpless
        Also turn aside the way of the humble;
        And a man and his father resort to the same girl
        In order to profane My holy name (Amos 2:6-7).

Therefore because you impose heavy rent on the poor
       And exact a tribute of grain from them,
      Though you have built houses of well-hewn stone,
      Yet you will not live in them;
      You have planted pleasant vineyards, yet you will
                  not drink their wine.
     For I know your transgressions are many and your
                  sins are great,
      You who distress the righteous and accept bribes
      And turn aside the poor in the gate. (Amos 5:11-12).

Hear this, you who trample the needy, to do away with the humble of the land, saying,
       “When will the new moon be over,
      So that we may sell grain,
      And the sabbath, that we may open the wheat market,
      To make the bushel smaller and the shekel bigger,
      And to cheat with dishonest scales,
   So as to buy the helpless for money
      And the needy for a pair of sandals,
      And that we may sell the refuse
                  of the wheat?” (Amos 8:4-6).

This thread points to “haves” who prevent “have nots” from escape out of prolonged poverty.  The call to follow Jesus implies a discipleship that is associated with covenant expectations toward the poor and the consequences of idolatrous patterns of social life.

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