Mark 1:16-20
As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.
What would make you drop everything and pursue an entirely new life? A great job offer? A marriage proposal? The chance to make a huge difference in another part of the world? What do you think — what would prompt you to take off from everything you know for something entirely different? What if it was a former carpenter and itinerant preacher talking about the kingdom of God come near?
That’s essentially the scene that Mark describes and, truth be told, most of us have a hard time imagining doing what the future disciples do. The details of the scene are few. Mark tells us that after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee and started proclaiming the kingdom of God. We don’t know how long this is after his baptism and sojourn in the wilderness. And we don’t know if the connection to John’s arrest is a coincidence or if there is something deeper at stake. We do know that as he passes along the Sea of Galilee he calls out to several fishermen and bids them follow and, without any other prompting, they do.
Again, there aren’t a lot of details, so we don’t know much, if anything, about what might have prompted their decision. We don’t know, for instance, if they didn’t really like fishing and were eager for a chance to do something different. Or maybe they just really, really wanted to get away from home or from their parents. Or maybe, to go a different direction, Simon, Andrew, James and John were all good friends – that makes it easier to imagine that once one of them decided to follow Jesus the others were soon to follow. Or maybe one or more of them already knew Jesus – maybe they’d heard him preach and teach, even talked with him before and were already considering joining him. That would make the immediacy of their response more understandable to us.
But, the thing is, we don’t really know any of this. We just know that they followed. They were Jesus first followers and their act of faith or obedience or imagination or whatever we might name it helped changed the world.
So I’ll ask again: What would be compelling enough to draw you away from all you knew? A marriage proposal, the chance to start over, a fresh and exciting business opportunity, or the chance to follow and learn from someone who believed he could change the world and invited you to come long, fishing for the very lives of people?
Prayer: Dear God, call to us again and again until we listen to you with our heart, with our actions, with our words, and with our lives. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Post image: Duccio di Buoninsegna, The Calling of the Apostles Peter and Andrew, 1308-11
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