Daily Thoughts from Mark: Fishing for People (Mark 1:16-20)

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, ESV) 

Jesus is not content to simply preach his message.  He is planning for the future when he chooses men he wants to disciple.  He wants to train those who will carry on his work and imitate this process after him.

Up until this time Peter and Andrew, James and John, were Jesus’ declared disciples, after John the Baptist had introduced them to Jesus (they were John’s disciples until then, John 1:35-50).  They were not following Jesus full time but continued to work what appears to have been a lucrative fishing business (Luke 5:7,10; Mark 1:20).  But now Jesus is calling them to a new level of discipleship.

These men were not who a rabbi would normally seek as disciples.  They had not spent their early years learning the Scriptures like, for example, Paul had.  They had not set their course in life to be rabbis.  But Jesus saw something in them that he desired to work with, and I believe God had shown Jesus that these were the ones He wanted Jesus to train (John 17:6).

Jesus’ promise to these men is that he will make them fishers of people.  He will teach them how to catch people for the kingdom of God.  He will make them those who win or captures souls (Proverbs 11:30).  But it will take a devoted following.  Jesus is asking them to be walking, living, eating, doing with Jesus everything he does.  It will mean sharing his life and following his example.

This is Jesus’ strategy!  It is his strategy for training and his strategy for reaching the world.  We have perhaps erred in our discipleship strategy by making our discipleship too much about the classroom.  Jesus’ did classroom discipleship, but he also did hands on learning, showing his disciples how to do it and then employing them in the task with instruction and feedback (Luke 10:1-20).  Are you in that kind of discipleship relationship?  Are you offering that kind of discipleship to others?  Jesus has seen something in you that he desires to work with.  You are uniquely called to fish for people.