“As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ‘Come, follow me, Jesus said, and I will make you fishers of men.’ At once they left their nets and followed him.” Matthew 4:18-20.
This may be a familiar story, but I have been thinking recently about what just happened here. Jesus called these men to leave their livelihoods immediately and to physically and spiritually follow him. Jesus was a Rabbi- a Teacher- and for Him to ask them to follow him in His travels and learn from Him was an honour. But it cost them everything.
The most excellent rabbinical students would never have left school to take a trade job such as fishing or tax collector. So, for these men, it meant continuing their spiritual education with the Messiah himself! (Even if they weren’t exactly sure what that meant…)
When Andrew met Jesus for the first time, he spent the day with Him and then rushed home to tell his brother, “We have found the Messiah!” John 1:41
All these men left their jobs at once, and their old lives behind. They didn’t pepper Jesus with questions or hesitate indecisively. They were “all in” to follow their Teacher and Messiah and commit to His lifestyle and mission. From being fishers of fish, they would now be “fishers of men”, on a lifetime mission to be like Jesus and tell others about the kingdom of God.
We don’t escape either, in a similar way we are called to mission and immersed in mission. On the way we are radically changed and remade as “fishers of men” by Jesus.
