Follow Me

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

FOLLOW ME

Matt 4:18-22

18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men."  20 At once they left their nets and followed him. 21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

NIV

We do wonder who were the disciples of Jesus that were baptizing which caused that dispute with the disciples of John. The reason of this wonder is here we are seeing the calling of Simon, Andrew, and the sons of Zebedee, James, and John. At some point we will be told of the twelve that Jesus picks which are referred to as his Apostles. Nevertheless, as we do not know the names of those who were already considered disciples of Jesus, we should start to focus on those we are told he called. It is interesting that these two fishermen, perhaps just common folk trying to make their living, certainly Jews, certainly aware of the prophets, most likely attending temple, or synagogue every Sabbath, were aware of the coming of the Messiah. Perhaps, even word had reached them about what had happened at the Jordan when John baptized Jesus. It is even possible one or all of them were there on that day. We also do not know where, exactly along the Sea of Galilee they were. It is possible they were near Capernaum, living in the same area where Jesus lived and maybe had seen him before. Nevertheless, the point here is when Jesus called them, they left whatever they were doing and followed him. It is interesting that most of us post-modern Christians do not leave everything to follow Jesus. We do not leave our jobs, our homes, or whatever to follow Jesus. We just simply continue to live the same as we always live and say that we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Sure, we might start attending a church, which could be something different for some. Some may already be church attender when they accept Jesus, but the point is we do not leave everything to literally follow him. There is a following in a metaphorical sense. We may leave something behind, again in a metaphorical sense, such as we leave smoking behind or drinking, or gambling, or wild parties, or what used to be considering following Jesus, such as no dancing, or going to movies, or woman leaving their pant suits behind. Over the years we have thought of many different ways in which we considered what needed to be left behind to follow Jesus, but as the culture changes, so do those things, which means they were meaningless in the long haul, when we decide to answer His call, to follow Him. From what we know about Peter, Andrew, James and John, is that there boats and nets were still there and still within their families possessions, for sometime after Peter said he was going fishing. This is when Jesus made breakfast for them on the shore, as well as when he told them to cast their nets on the other side. So, in some sense, they did not leave everything behind for good, but they did stop what they were doing to follow Him, when he called. This is our story, we simply picked up and followed him because we heard his call upon us. Some of us have moved because he called us to, some of us have done things we normally would not have, because of his call. Some of us have not changed much about our normal daily lives, but we have changed our minds, our way of thinking, as we considered that Greek word translated as repent. The point is that when Jesus calls our name, telling us to follow him, we leave something behind and followed Him.