By Rev. Gerry Weesner, Maples United Methodist Church
“As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were 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. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.” Matthew 4:18-22 (NIV).
What kind of men did Jesus summon to his cause? They were not impoverished: they were busy fishermen. They were average men. These four came from average homes and families. They had petty ambitions even when they had been with Jesus for many months. They quarreled. They were not outstandingly brave: at the Crucifixion they all forsook him and fled. They were individual men, not twelve copies. They were representative of all who would follow him. Each was needed to enrich the kingdom. Jesus did not obliterate their distinctiveness: he gathered their different gifts into a cohesive whole. They were friendly, honest, enthusiastic men. They were capable of leaving home and their accustomed life for a new cause. Better still, they responded to the purpose of God: they were reverent men. These Jesus chose in deliberate prayer, and counted them of such worth that he gave them the best of his time and thought. He set on them an ultimate trust. In Matthew 5:13&14, Jesus called them the “salt of the earth” and the “light of the world.” He challenged them to risk all for God’s kingdom in him. Jesus chose ordinary men to be his heralds and the builders of the new world.
Rev. Nancy E. Topolewski says, “Jesus calls four men, goes around the region of Galilee, teaches in the synagogues, proclaims the Good News of the Kingdom, cures people of their sicknesses and diseases. No heavenly trumpets sound. No unearthly voice booms from the clouds. No thunder or lightning punctuates the scene. It’s all so very deceptively simple: Jesus goes fishing and catches people, then tells them they will do the same.
…If Jesus can use uneducated laborers, smelling of fish and sweat, to be his disciples, then can he not use us as well? Does not the call of Jesus come to us, where we are, as we are, who we are, personally, by name, through baptism, in events that touch our hearts and challenge our minds?”
