From Fishermen To Fishers Of Men

Mark 1:14-20

In years past, I have gone fishing.  I’m by no means a great fisherman, but I have caught an occasional fish.  What I enjoyed more was being outside along the banks of one of the many small, little lakes in the southwest suburbs of Chicago.  It was a good thing I didn’t need to depend on my fishing skills to survive!  In our Gospel reading today we have two sets of brothers, Andrew and Simon Peter, along with James and John.  All four men were professional fishermen, going out fishing with nets everyday, and they needed to be pretty good in order to make a living.  As we read today, that all completely changed when Jesus came by and called them.

John the Baptist’s preaching ministry ended quite abruptly when he was put in prison.  In the meantime Jesus was just starting up His ministry.  After His temptation in the wilderness, He went into the northern part of Israel called Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God (vs. 14-15).  The word “gospel” means good news. Jesus the Messiah came to break the power of sin. That’s good news! Most people who heard and listened to Jesus’s message were poor and oppressed.  Many of them were without much, if any, hope in life. Sometimes circumstances in our life today may lead us to believe that there is no hope, either.  Jesus’s words are good news, and if accepted, they will give us hope.

On this day in our reading, Jesus is walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee where our four fishermen brothers are hard at work trying to make a living catching and selling fish.  All four men had already spent some time with Jesus, as we read in John 1:35-42. Now Jesus was calling for them to permanently follow Him (vs. 16-20).

Let’s look closely at the call Jesus gave to Peter and Andrew, to John and James.  “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”  They had spent several years, at least, catching fish for a living.  That was hard work, as every time you throw out the net you don’t always catch something.  They were rather good at it, though, as verse 20 indicates that at least the brothers James and John, and their father had a business successful enough to hire servants or employees.  Now here comes the preacher they had heard before down by John the Baptist calling for them to quit their jobs and follow Him!

Fishers of men!?  What did that mean, they must have wondered. They had caught fish for a living, so that people could buy them and have something to eat.  That made sense.  Fishing for men, what’s that?  As mentioned, they had heard Jesus preach some before, and had heard the testimony of John the Baptist about Him, so they knew and believed He was from God.  As they spent the next three years with Jesus, they would come to know that they were to devote their lives to bringing people to find salvation through Him, and into the Kingdom of God.  Catching people for God!  Evangelism is the primary purpose for which Jesus called the apostles.  It is still the central mission for believers, as the Great Commission declares (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8).

What was their response?  As we read in both verses 18 and 20, they left everything and immediately followed Jesus.  And when it says that they left their fishing, it wasn’t just for that afternoon, coming back later the next day. No, they left that job for good, they quit.  We know that at least Simon Peter had a wife and family (Mark 1:30). The Bible doesn’t say anything about families for the others, but James and John left their father with only the hired hands.  What did Zebedee think when his sons walked out on the family business? Their commitment was total.

That is the type of commitment that Jesus wants of us today.  He isn’t looking for half-hearted disciples (Luke 9:62).  Just as fishermen don’t always bring home a tremendous catch, our witnessing won’t always bring results.  There will be days of discouragement, which even the disciples had.  They weren’t instantaneously super-spiritual.  Their faith sometimes faltered, and they had times when they questioned, but they continued to follow Jesus.  No matter what, never stop following Jesus!