Mark 1:14-20
In a sermon that I wrote for Preaching magazine, I said that as Jesus came preaching, he needed disciples around him who would be able to finish the work he would start. Jesus saw something in the ragtag group that surrounded him. Christ spots the value in each person, even if others can’t. I wonder if Jesus knew Peter before his wilderness experience. As I reach verse 16, I sense that it was not the first time Jesus and Peter had an encounter. He may have walked by the lake several times and seen Peter, and possibly even chatted with him about fishing. Peter probably knew something about Jesus as well. After all, John’s gospel records the account of Andrew coming and telling Peter that he had found the Messiah. The gospel writer John records that Andrew had initiated a conversation with Jesus and was one of John the Baptist’s disciples. The Baptist had spoken his heart and mind and had gotten himself thrown into prison. It may have been with a sense of bewilderment and the question in his mind “Where do I turn now?” that Andrew went back to the fishing business. Jesus said to both Simon and Andrew, “Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”
Jesus went seeking after such people to follow him. When the disciples attached themselves to a rabbi, they would study the law of God. Jesus was the fulfillment of that law. He did not say that the law was unimportant. He said, “Come, follow me and we will join in going after people and lift them up out of their circumstances and show them God.” That idea was appealing enough to Simon and Andrew that they immediately left their nets and followed after Jesus.
Jesus called them to be fishermen of people. Churches can be like some fishing clubs. They learn about all the ins and outs of fishing but never actually get around to fishing. We are all witnesses. For all of us who know Christ, there was a time in our life when he issued his call to us and we took him up on it; and when we signed on as his disciples, he promised to make us fishers of people. What we need is to have an experience with Jesus that is real and sensitive to opportune moments to tell people what Jesus means to us.
After Jesus called Simon and Andrew, he saw James and John and called them as well. They left the family business to follow Jesus.
A survey was taken of Americans over 90 years of age. They were asked: “If you had your life to live over again, what would you do differently?” Their answers were “I would reflect more, I would risk more, and I would invest in more things that would outlive me.” Peter, Andrew, James, and John all invested in a cause that would outlive them on this earth, and found it was eternally worth it.
Derl K.