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“Then He said to them, ‘Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.’” Matthew 4: 19.
Such a simple verse…straightforward…uncomplicated. Yet, it has dimensions that take us past our surface understanding.
Jesus is just starting His ministry journey. He has lived 30 years being what God had called Him to be; now He is beginning to do what God had called Him to do. He’s on His way to the Cross; but before He ascends that final hill, He has people to heal…a message to proclaim…religiosity to rebuke…sin to expose…and leaders to raise up who will carry on His work. Peter and Andrew qualify.
He approaches them in the midst of their secular jobs: casting nets to catch fish. It’s their livelihood. But it’s also their life…their heritage. They are fishermen. Plain and simple. They’ve known nothing different…after all, they live in a seaside community, the town of Capernaum. From boyhood, they’ve been schooled in the art of fishing; and so, Jesus finds them doing what they do best: casting nets to catch fish that will feed their families and satisfy their sense of purpose.
Into the midst of that toil and routine, Jesus steps up with a clarion call: follow Me. He isn’t calling them to change vocations…though that will happen; He is calling them to become all that God had created them to be. Their secular profession was a reflection of a greater capacity. Peter and Andrew were men who labored for a catch; God’s destiny was that the “catch” be men…not fish. That was their capacity…their calling. The realization of that would come only as they left the secular and followed the One who saw their potential and called them to fulfill that.
I wonder if our secular vocations are more than ‘how we pay our bills and put food on the table’? They are that, indeed; but could it be they reflect a capacity in us that is greater than the secular? "Untapped potential" that is significant to God’s Kingdom? Skills in the secular which are transferrable to Kingdom purposes? Could it be that the professions we have chosen, the jobs we hold are mirror images of something more profound in us? Could it be, if we were to approach them from that viewpoint, we would discover our un-mined potential…our eternal significance?
The key is in the word “follow”. It is as we live under Jesus’ headship, we make profound discoveries: of Him and of ourselves. Peter and Andrew were called to leave the secular to follow Jesus. Others are called to follow Him in the midst of the secular. The issue is not the context of the following but the following.
I want to discover my significance; don’t you? So, how is the ‘following’ going?
Marcia
