Fishing

Our Gospel reading for January 25 (Mark 1:14-20) reports the beginnings of Jesus' ministry. Jesus begins to preach and recruit disciples. “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the good news.” He invites his hearers to repent – to turn their lives around to God’s way – and believe.

And then we get some examples of what this looks like. He encounters Simon Peter and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea. Jesus says, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” Scripture says that “immediately” they left their nets and followed. Then Jesus encountered James and John, the sons of Zebedee. Jesus called them, and they dropped everything, left their father in the boat with the hired men, and followed Jesus.

“Immediately” “Dropped everything” As we listen to this story, we wonder how we would have responded. I suspect that if someone came up to me and said, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people” I’d probably tell them to go away, to hit the bricks. I have a job and a life, thank you very much. Why would I want to uproot all that and follow someone I just met?

All true. But this doesn’t take into account God’s miraculous power to cut through our defenses, to grab us and shake us up and take us in directions we’d never expected to go. The response of Simon and Andrew and James and John didn’t come because Jesus’ words were especially eloquent, but because of the power of God working in the hearts of his listeners.

God seeks to touch our hearts as well. The Risen Christ has power to cut through the clutter and noise of our daily lives with the words, "Follow me." May God grant us ears to hear, and open our hearts to respond.