Fishers of Men

“Now as He walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.  And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after Me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.  And straight way they forsook their nets, and followed Him.”  Mark 1:16-18

I can picture in my mind’s eye Simon Peter and Andrew on their boat trying to catch fish with nets.  This makes me think of the scene in the movie Forrest Gump when Forrest pulled in the net on his boat and caught everything but fish.  Most fishermen and fisherwomen that I know use a rod and reel.  When I was a child and went fishing with my grandparents, we used fishing poles made from cane.  I remember putting a worm down on a bench and then sticking the hook through it before casting my line into the lake.  I don’t think that I could do that now.  Actually I haven’t been fishing in a long time.  But it was fishing that made many of the folks of Jesus’ day a living.  They may have been healthier back then because they ate a lot of fish and probably very little red meat.

Simon Peter and Andrew were likely dirty, smelly, and without formal education.  They were probably just “good old boys” of that day.  I suppose their mannerisms were rather crude, kind of like a bull in a china shop.  However, their appearance and their way of making a living had nothing to do with their potential.  Jesus stood on the shore and called out to them.  They had already met Him earlier right after John the Baptist had introduced Jesus to the folks in Galilee (John 1:41).  I suppose that these two fishermen wondered why Jesus was calling out to them.

I have wondered why they were so quick to lay aside their occupation and join up with Jesus.  Perhaps they were looking for adventure.  The daily toil of fishing probably became very monotonous so they jumped at the chance to do something “out of the box”. (By the way, their journey with Jesus was quite an adventure!)  In Luke 5:1-10, Jesus had performed a miracle for them by telling them to cast their nets again in deeper waters (there’s a message in this, also), and they caught so many fish that they called for help to haul them into their boat.

Being involved in a miracle such as this would certainly attract Simon Peter and Andrew to Jesus, but I believe the main reason was the gentle and compelling voice of Jesus which drew them into a relationship with Him.  They could toil the rest of their lives at catching fish, but they had a greater destiny to fulfill, that of catching men and women for Christ.  Fishing is a fun sport for many folks, but the joy of a good catch soon vanishes.  The joy of believers at “reeling in” men and women for the kingdom of God never gets old.