To Follow Jesus Means Leaving Something Behind
January 4th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
via Matthew 4:18-22 – ESVBible.org.
Simon, Andrew, James and John were all much braver than I am. When Jesus called them, they all walked away from their livelihoods to follow him. Simon Peter was married and had a wife to support. I don’t specifically know if the others were married but there is a pretty good chance that they were. I’m not sure that I would want to tell my wife “Gee Honey, I quit my job so I can follow this carpenter from Nazareth around. No, there’s no money in it but he says we’ll get to fish for men.”
I guess I’d like to think that if I saw Jesus in the flesh I’d know he was the Son of God and that it would be ok to leave everything and follow him. But so many others around Jesus didn’t recognize him for who he really was. Even the disciples didn’t really figure it out until after Jesus died and was resurrected. But still, for whatever reason they walked away from their jobs to follow him.
I wonder if there was a fisherman named Bart that Jesus also asked but was too afraid to follow him? If there was, did he regret his decision later?
