Fishin’
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
Matthew 4:12-23
January 23, 2011
By Rev. Mark E. Zender
Father, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts and minds gathered here this morning
be acceptable to you, O Lord our Rock and our Redeemer. In our Gospel reading today we hear about the call
of the very first disciple‟s right at the beginning of Jesus‟ ministry—first Simon Peter and Andrew then James
and John.
Here they are going about their business, Jesus sees these fisherman fishing and he says they follow me and I‟ll
teach you to be “fishers of men” and they do just that…
It seems to me this was somewhat of an unwise decision on their part. We know from what we‟ve read the last
few weeks these guys knew a little bit about this man Jesus. They were introduced to him briefly by disciples of
John the Baptist. Who by the way is about to be arrested, imprisoned and beheaded for preaching the same kind
of message that Jesus is starting to preach. “Repent, the Kingdom of God is at hand. So here they at least know
this about this man and yet they drop everything and follow him.
So here we are at the very beginning of Jesus‟ ministry and the very first thing he does is recruit people to fish
for other people, to catch others so they can be caught up in this so-called Good News as the Gospels put it.
Isn‟t it interesting Jesus doesn‟t call these men and promise them peace and security and bliss and blessedness
rather he says; “Follow me and I‟ll teach you to be fishers of men.”
Now where Jesus decides to start fishing for people is interesting too. He starts not from his hometown of
Nazareth but instead he goes to Capernaum. Capernaum I guess could be compared to like the wild, wild, west.
Lawless, like many seaports, it was a seedy or shady place. History tells us that citizens of Capernaum were the
most violent in all of Galilee.
The plus was though that Capernaum sat on a heavily traveled trading route. Merchants from Syria and
Phoenicia stayed there as they headed south. Traders from Egypt and other African countries would do the same
as they headed north. So Jesus starts his ministry where there‟s lots and lots of “fish” you might say. Lots of
folks who would listen to this good news about God and then carry it back to where they came from…
In these few short verses we have the very beginnings of the Church and what we as the church are called to do
through this invitation of Peter and Andrew, James and John. Jesus calls, they follow. To be fishers of people…
Also today we see how Jesus picks up where John the Baptist left off. How He‟s come to fulfill the scriptures,
that he‟ll bring light to the people, how he goes on to perform all kinds of healings and how folks come to hear
him preach and teach.
Our Scripture this morning says that Jesus came to bring light to those who live in darkness. Those who are in
the dark about what God plans for the world will be enlightened. They will, through Jesus‟ preaching, discover
that God loves them and brings them salvation in the very fullest sense. Their eyes will be opened and they will
see things now from God‟s point of view.
You know, all of the commentaries, all of the stuff that I‟ve read about these particular passages about why
these first disciples where caught up by Jesus calling them. Why they dropped everything and joined up
suggests that they had no idea what they were getting into. They had no idea they were joining this huge
movement that‟s lasted now for ages. Jesus had somehow touched something deep within these men that they
must have knew or felt intuitively that Jesus was the one who knew the answers to all their questions, who gave
them a whole new perspective on life. Doesn‟t tell us how he did that in this calling story but that this must have
been why they left everything and followed. They suddenly understand that Jesus and only Jesus can give them
the only thing worth having—knowledge of God.
Anyway, I think than the same goes for all of us, doesn„t it? This realization that the only real answers to all the
real deep questions of life are found in Jesus. That the only truly valuable thing worth having when push comes
to shove is knowledge of God…
My message today is that I think God has worked this same sort of thing in all of our lives, just like those first
disciples. Something drew us all here, there‟s a reason why we come here week after week. In other words
something “hooked” you to Jesus. Something got you to bite, something “lured” you, be it the Word preached
in a sermon, a phrase, a song, an invitation perhaps. Whatever, or even whoever it was we‟ve all been given the
insight to see that Jesus really is the way, the truth and the life, just as he claimed to be. Light was shed on our
darkness, someway, somehow wasn‟t it?
And so we fish…for people. To bring them too from darkness. Through how we live our lives. Maybe just
maybe they might see a bit of God‟s Kingdom working there. By the way we live our lives, and raise our
children, and take care our parents and those in need. By the way we feed the hungry and clothe the needy. By
encouraging and building up and including rather than tearing down. By acts of love and kindness, by being
compassionate and forgiving. By shining that little light of ours on all those ordinary, everyday occurrences
that somehow someone might be caught up in that great net of grace that caught all of us!
GOD BLESS AND AMEN