16 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. 17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and
I will send you out to fish for people.” 18 At once they left their nets and followed
him.
19 When he had gone
a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat,
preparing their nets. 20 Without delay he called them, and they left their
father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
From this passage (and other supporting teachings, we concluded that:
- Following begins by making an informed decision to accept Jesus as Lord
At first glance, this sounds very
disturbing--like Jesus walked up to total strangers and mesmerized them and/or
they were gullible cult candidates. But this was not their
initial encounter with Jesus, but rather an important juncture in their
relationships with him that had been developing for some time
For about a year, they developed a relationship with
Jesus while still working at their jobs. (NOTE: Many young Jewish men did this
with rabbis of that time.) They watched him turn water into wine, clear the
Temple, converse with Nicodemus, reach out to the Samaritan woman, etc.
Sometime during this period, they each entrusted themselves to him as the
Messiah.
- Following demands living in vital community with other followers.
There are a host of metaphors in the New
Testament to emphasize this feature of discipleship. We are the family of God,
brothers and sisters who have the same Father and Teacher. We are the Temple of
God--each of us living stones indwelt by God’s Spirit, but being built together
by him into a living building that manifests his presence. We are the Body of
Christ--each of us like different members of our physical bodies, but
interdependent upon one another as dependent on Jesus as the Head.
The bottom line is this. When you respond
to Jesus’ call to be his disciple, he calls you into real community with other
Christians. There are no exceptions to this rule. It is not possible for you to
develop as a healthy and productive disciple of Jesus with only minimal interaction with other followers. To say “I want to follow Jesus,
but I can do this alone/with my spouse” is simply wrong. A huge amount
of Jesus’ personal guidance, correction, encouragement, and character
development is designed to come to you through the network of close Christian
friendships he calls you to form.
- Following leads to embracing Jesus’ call to influence others for his kingdom.
Jesus
called his disciples into community with one another, but he also called them
to influence others for him (re-read Mk. 1:17). The phrase “fish for people”
does not mean that he would teach them how to manipulate people, or to treat
them as sub-human objects, etc. It means that he would teach them how to what
he was doing--reaching out beyond himself to gather more people into God’s
kingdom, to build them up in God’s kingdom.
Jesus called them to himself to be with him
together--but he also sent them out to tell others (Mk. 3:14). He called them
into community to be him and with one another. But always his eye was on those
outside
- Following results in allowing Jesus to continually change your life.
Responding to Jesus’ call had immediate
practical implications for these four men. In their case, it meant walking away
from their vocations so Jesus could train them full-time. It also meant a
change in family relationships. And this was only the first of many times that
Jesus “rocked their worlds.” For the next three years, he introduced all kinds
of changes into their lives--geographical mobility, multi-ethnic exposure,
conflict with the religious authorities, ministry situations way beyond their
human abilities, Following was always strictly voluntary, but Jesus
never apologized for the challenges and changes.
