Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 1 verses 14 and 15:
14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’
When the time comes we all have to stand up and be counted.
“John was arrested,” is a simple phrase in this Lesson and we can easily pass it by. But consider the meaning: John had just been arrested and now Jesus came preaching. Jesus picked up John’s mantle and came preaching the very same words John had proclaimed: “The kingdom has come.”
Jesus knew what happened to John. He knew the stakes. Yet, he also knew that now his own time had come. And when our time comes; we too have to stand up say where we stand.
Today is the 90th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday and there’s a powerful story from the week of the funeral of his mother, Alberta King, who like her son, was killed in service to God. Dr. King was of course assassinated in Memphis in 1968 and his mother was later killed by crazed gunman while playing on the organ bench at Ebenezer Baptist in Atlanta six years later.
The story goes that on the week of Mrs. King’s funeral her husband, Daddy King, told Dr. Gardner Taylor who had come down from New York to preach the funeral that a young grandson and nephew of Dr. King’s had just announced to the family that he was being called to ministry. Then Dr. Taylor said Daddy King looked at him defiantly and said strongly, “They can’t kill us all.”
When Jesus came preaching, he knew what had happened to John. Yet, he felt called to the ministry. For the time had come and the Kingdom of God was drawing near . . .
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