One of the things I can tell you about myself with absolute certainty is that I am an extremely consistent fisherman. Whether it’s fly fishing on rivers and reservoirs or sea fishing from a boat, a jetty or from the beach makes no difference at all. Even fishing from the bank of a river produces the same results. In all my fishing expeditions I always catch the same number of fish on every occasion, none. Fortunately, my livelihood was not dependent upon catching fish otherwise I’d be in a lot worse shape than I am just now. But I have given up a career to follow Jesus and there, at least, I can empathise with the disciples in our reading today.

Jesus is walking along the shores of the Sea of Galilee when He comes across Simon and Andrew who are professional fishermen. They are dependent upon fishing for their livelihoods and use it as the sole means to support their families. Yet when Jesus tells them to leave their nets and follow Him, they do so without hesitation. They turn their backs on all they know, their only means of making a living, to follow this man. And as if to prove this isn’t a fluke, Jesus repeats the process with another two fishermen further along, James and John. They similarly drop everything and follow Jesus hook, line and sinker. What makes these men give up everything to follow this man Jesus?

I think they must have seen something of the divine in Jesus, some glimpse of life in the Kingdom of God, to convince them that following Jesus was the right thing to do. It’s the only way we can make sense of this strange pull Jesus has on them. Jesus continues to make the same simple request on all who have come after these original four. He simply asks us to follow Him; to go where He leads, to do as He did, that others may also see what life is meant to be like. If we don’t show people this glimpse of kingdom life in how we live, how can we expect others to heed His call? Sadly, we may have become keepers of the aquarium rather than fishers of people. May we be encouraged to go out into the world and live as Jesus calls us to live. Then others who hear His call might feel the same strong pull on their lives that we felt on ours.