When I was a kid, there was a group of boys on our short, dead-end street who would play together. Among the many outdoor games we’d play was, of course, follow the leader. And Greg Smith was a master at it.
At the end of the street was a swimming pool and Greg would lead us through acrobatic dives and lung-crushing underwater swims. And then it’d be my turn and I’d panic. I lacked the creativity that seemed to come so naturally to Greg and so I’d take a very short turn and pass the leadership back to him.
But over time, I learned. By following a good leader, I learned how to lead others myself. I borrowed a lot of his moves, while improvising and trying some of my own.
I think this is what Paul is getting at in 1 Cor. 11:1 when he writes, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.”
Leadership isn’t so much about authority, it’s about one really big game of follow the leader, with Jesus at the head of the pack.
We learn all of our best moves from him.
The dozen men who became leaders of the early church all started out as disciples, as followers. They were a ragtag bunch of unschooled teenagers and young men who no other rabbi would want. There wasn’t a natural born leader among them.
But Jesus called them, chose them. And they responded. Immediately.
READ
Though the word “disciple” isn’t used in the passage, our pericope (narrative section) centers on the calling of the four of them by Jesus. Three of these four comprise the inner circle of Jesus’s disciples: Peter, James, and John. Here, Peter is referred to by his birth name, Simon (Shimon). The name Peter is the Greek equivalent of the Aramaic name Cephas, both meaning “rock,” a name Jesus will later give to Simon.
Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him (Mark 1:16-20).
Jesus is a master of using everyday images and turning them into imaginative signs pointing to deeper realities. Here, he takes the image of fishing, which these new disciples had taken part in almost every day of their lives and he bends it toward the kingdom of God. “Once you start following me,” Jesus is telling them, “you are no longer concerned with fishing for fish. You now fish for people.”
The beauty of such a metaphor is that Jesus doesn’t explain it (and neither does Mark). It’s left unadorned, left hanging. And just like his proclamation of the kingdom of God, “fishing for people” can have all kinds of meanings and misinterpretations. But Jesus is confident that if his disciples stick with him long enough, they’ll come to understand exactly what these ambiguous terms actually mean. And in the process of learning them, the images will only grow deeper inside of them (as opposed to quickly explained images which lose their power since they only mean what they’re explained to mean).
But the proximity of this new term “fishers of people” to the just-used term “kingdom of God” ties the two together. Fishing for people somehow draws them into the kingdom of God. And since Simon and friends were using nets and not hooks, there was a sense of drawing in crowds of people, not just individuals. (Please, get rid of rod and reel from your imagination here. That’s far too individualistic.) Masses will be gathered into the kingdom of God. And because of this vast vision, Simon and friends drop their nets and follow Jesus.
ENGAGE
To follow is to give up control, to give us any attempt to set the direction of your life. What about following Jesus scares you the most? Where are you trying to keep hold of control?
The disciples walk away from their nets and their families. What might Jesus be asking you to walk away from?
To follow Jesus is to follow Jesus. We don’t just walk away from something, we walk toward Someone. What is compelling about walking with Jesus, following him?
The disciples give up a good vocation and exchange it for a vast vocation, fishing for people. How does that call extend to you? How might you participate in hauling in nets full of people into the kingdom of God?
PRAY
Jesus, help me trust you enough to follow you, to give up trying to control of the stuff of my life and direction of my life. I want to get in on this vast work of fishing for people, of drawing others into the kingdom of God. I want to be a part of that kingdom and to see it grow. I’d gladly give up everything I’m doing now to get in on that. So, make me a follower and a fisher. In Jesus. Amen.
LIVE
Mark uses the word “immediately” (Greek: euthus or eutheos) a full ten times just in the first chapter. The Jesus movement gets going with a sprint, not a jog. And the response of the first disciples is just as quick. There’s an urgency here and they get caught up in it. The fact that they immediately left their nets to follow Jesus speaks to this urgency.
And what a powerful image. These young men who had bought in to their family business, something that had probably been handed down for centuries, was dropped in an instance. There’s wasn’t the fast-paced culture ours is. Decisions weren’t made in haste. But Jesus’s call didn’t allow for hesitation.
My Dad was a successful businessman when he was visited by follow-the-leader Greg’s father and asked to leave his work behind in order to teach at a small Bible school. With hardly any hesitation, beside some prayers with my Mom, he quit his job and followed Jesus into this new ministry. Likewise, my wife’s parents did something very similar, selling their home because they had a hunch God would be calling them to something new that would require immediate action. So, when they were asked to join Youth With a Mission (YWAM), they were ready to go. Immediately.
Where are you waiting for God’s call? And are you ready and willing to drop your “nets” and follow him? Immediately?