Mark
1:16-20
As
Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew
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.
When
he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John
in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left
their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
From
the time I first sensed God calling me into a life of ministry (when I was 22
years old) to my first job in full time ministry (just before I turned 30) took
about eight years all told. It took that long for me to wrestle with God’s call; to pursue graduate and
seminary study; to grow in personal and spiritual maturity; then find the place
of ministry God had prepared for me.
I
share that story because it seems to stand in sharp contrast to the story Mark
tells us of Jesus calling four fishermen into ministry.
As
Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew
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.
When
he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John
in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left
their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
It
all seems so abrupt! Why would these two sets of brothers, each of whom had
likely inherited fishing boats from their fathers and built their lives on
income produced from the Sea of Galilee, suddenly leave all that behind to
follow Jesus?
While
we can’t know with
certainty what was going on in each man’s heart and mind, I think we can make some reasonable
guesses when we understand something of the culture of the time.
In
Jesus’ time all young
boys (and girls up to a point) were exposed to rigorous religious education
from the time they were about 5 years old. At roughly the age of 12 a boy would
be deemed a “son of the commandments” and
would celebrate his first Passover feast (roughly the equivalent of the
bar-mitzvah today). At this time boys would also be learning a trade, usually
from their fathers. But the brightest students would also continue on in formal
education while the others would simply become carpenters or fishermen or
whatever trade they were learning.
The
very best students would eventually seek permission to become “talmidim”, or
disciples, of the local rabbi. The student would approach the rabbi with the
question, “May I follow you?” which
was a way of asking, “Do you think I have what it
takes to be like you?” At that point the rabbi
either accepted the student as a talmid or sent him away to pursue a trade.
We
also know from other New Testament accounts (especially in the first chapter of
John’s gospel) that
these fishermen likely already knew Jesus as a kind of rabbi who was developing
a significant local following and had also been rumored to have miraculous
powers.
So
now we have a bit of perspective that helps us understand what is happening in
this brief story. These four men, including John, were fishermen because at
some point in their growing-up years they were not invited to continue their
religious studies. Simply put, they didn’t make the cut. They never got to the point where they
could ask the rabbi if they could become talmidim.
So
even though they had worked hard to build their fishing businesses (notice that
they were successful enough to have “hired
men” working for them), when Jesus invited them to follow
him they left their nets behind because it meant the rabbi thought they had
what it took to be like him.
The
point is that Jesus doesn’t just call the “best
and the brightest,” Jesus calls us all to follow
him. Did you know that the rabbi thinks you can be like him?
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