There are four people in today’s Gospel with Jesus. Simon and Andrew who were fishermen. Plus, the sons of Zebedee, James and John who were also fishermen. They had spent their whole lives studying and practicing the fishing business. They knew about fishing: when to fish, where to fish, and what types of nets, poles, or hooks to use. They knew which types of fish were best for eating and which were best or easiest to sell. They knew how to clean and maintain all the equipment. Look how the Gospel says Jesus met them while they were cleaning their nets. They also knew all about the weather: the best time of day and the best weather for fishing. Of course, they knew about boats: how to sail boats and how to maintain and paint boats. They knew how to sell their fish. So, they had to know how to add, subtract, multiply and divide and where to sell their fish for the best profit. They knew about scales and balances, so that no one could cheat them with tricky scales. They were Jewish, so they would have known how to read and write so that they would be able to read the Bible.
Fishing is a difficult and dangerous trade. So, we can assume they learned how to be diligent, brave, and physically strong. They learned to trust in God through the many storms and dry seasons. They learned to adapt to the changing of the seasons. They learned how to work with others in a team, how to share resources, and how to help move their business forward.
They had to learn and study a lot of different things to manage their families and business. Even when they had finished school they had to continue to learn about fishing and they had to learn how to improve themselves. Normally we think that all our formal schooling and personal improvement is for our own selves. We study so that we can be rich and famous someday. Today’s Gospel shows us a different way.
Everything that Peter, Andrew, James and John studied and learned through their whole lives served as a foundation for their encounter with Jesus that day. First of all, they had learned to trust in God and to be obedient to the Word of God. All their other skills, traits, knowledge – everything that they had learned – was not so much for being better fishers as it was to be applied to being good apostles. God had been guiding and preparing them for that encounter with Jesus and their conversion into the first apostles. Look at their initial response: they immediately dropped everything to follow Jesus and refocus their lives on him. All their studies and knowledge were applied to sharing the joy they experienced from meeting Jesus and later from being part of the resurrection.
For a true Christian everything about you – your skills, your habits, your personality, your studies, your trade or profession – is focused on announcing your joy of being part of Jesus’ life in the resurrection. Everything we learn and do is to be better able to announce Jesus to others. “Come with me” is Jesus’ invitation to use all of ourselves, our knowledge, and our resources to announce our joy.
I will teach you to bring in people instead of fish.
Image: https://pastorsamwise.com/2015/01/25/mark-114-20-repent-believe/