JESUS CALLS HIS FIRST DISCIPLES

Christ calling St. Peter and St. Andrew, 1681 Diego Quispe Tito

Matthew 4:18-22, Mark1:16-20, Luke 5:1-11

By the Sea of Galilee (AKA Lake of Gennesaret and Lake Tiberias)

The town of Gennesaret was not far to the west of Capernaum. Both sat on the shores of the Sea of Galilee and this body of water was also called Lake of Gennesaret. In this instance, Matthew and Mark refer to it as the Sea of Galilee, while Luke uses the name Lake of Gennesaret. So there is no contradiction here. There is a statement some, who like to do the “gotcha moments”, may claim is a contradiction, if a minor one. This is that Luke says Jesus saw the fishermen on shore washing their nets while Matthew and Mark say Simon and Andrew were casting a net into the sea, and James and John were in a ship mending a net. Actually all these observations are true, not contradictory at all, when you know the whole story.

This passage is titled, “Jesus Calls His First Disciples” in many Bibles. In popular culture portrayals of this instance we never get the entire action and so we have a common misunderstanding about this Calling.

The image we may have from films is Jesus comes walking along the seashore and sees these fishermen at work. He calls to them, “Follow me” and they immediately drop everything and go with this charismatic stranger. Jesus was hardly a stranger to these men and this was far from some impulsive spur of the moment behavior.

And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret and saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets.

And Jesus, now as he walked by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brethren. Walking he saw Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.

Jesus had settled in Capernaum after those in Nazareth tried to kill him. Here he began to preach and gained fame. We are not told how much time passed since he first began this preaching, but by now he had become known enough that people were “pressed upon him to hear the Word”. So Jesus isn’t strolling along the shore alone at all. He is standing by the lake and he is looking about for some space between him and those mobbing him. We see him do this in other passages of scripture.

He sees a couple ships anchored by the lake and some fishermen washing their nets, after a hard night of fishing. The fishermen are at the waters edge, tossing the nets in the water to clean them. See, just because Matthew said Peter and Andrew were “casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers” didn’t mean they were standing on the deck of the ship fishing. They were standing at the shore washing the nets.

And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship.

These are not strangers to Jesus. He knows these men very well. So Jesus goes up the plank onto Simon’s boat and asked Simon to take him a bit offshore. Why? As we said, Jesus wanted some space between himself and all those people who had been pressing up against him. Simon and Andrew grab their nets and clamber aboard and row out a bit.

Jesus sits down and finishes teaching the crowd.

Now when he had left speaking, he said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.”

(A British definition of “draught” is “the drawing in of a fishing net; the fish taken in one draft). Jesus has finished teaching and now he tells Simon to go out to deeper water and he’ll catch a bunch of fish. Perhaps Jesus is rewarding Simon for his loan of the boat and his time.

And Simon answering said to him, “Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at your word I will let down the net.”

Simon doesn’t see much reason to do this. He moans they have worked all night and caught nothing. He’s just finished washing the nets. He is probably tired and wants to pack up and go home, but he does it anyway. Why? Note he calls Jesus “Master”. Maybe he would call him this out of respect having heard about Jesus’ preaching and considers him something of a rabbi, yet he does what is asked because it is “nevertheless” Jesus’ word. Would he really go to a lot of useless bother for some itinerant rabbi? You see Simon knows Jesus and has certain opinions about him that compel him to do what Jesus says.

And when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. And they beckoned to their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink.

When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord,” for he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes, which they had taken.

And he, Jesus, said to them, Come you after me, Follow me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.

And they straightway left, forsook their nets, and followed him.

A miraculous catch happens. Where before they caught nothing, now so many fish fill their nets that the nets are breaking. They can’t handle it all themselves, so they call their business partners, Zebedee and his sons, James and John, to help. The other boat is rowed over to them and the two teams of fishermen upload the bounty, so much so both boats are in danger of sinking.

As they have filled the holds of the boats and started to the shore, Simon falls on his knees, telling Jesus to go away because he, Simon, is too sinful to be in his presence. He addresses Jesus as Lord.

It is at this point Jesus says to Simon and Andrew, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”

Notice the difference here than the portrayal of this scene in The History Channel’s, “The Bible.” Jesus did not wade out to Peter’s boat to be pulled aboard where he was alone with Peter and he does not tell Peter to come with him because they will “change the world.” They are not going off to change the world; they going out to save people from it.

And going on from thence, when he had gone a little farther, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and straightway he called them.

And they immediately left the ship and their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after and followed him.

They debark Simon’s boat; leaving everything behind. Simon and Andrew follow Jesus a short distance down the beach. Jesus stops as he looks out at Zebedee’s crew mending their nets aboard their boat. They are mending their nets because that huge catch of fish had torn the nets up. Jesus calls to James and John. The two brothers now stop mending, come to shore and follow Jesus, leaving behind father, servants and their occupation.

Let’s ask a couple questions. Why did Jesus only call these four guys from those on the boats? Why didn’t he include Zebedee or any of the servants? Why did Simon, Andrew, James and John follow so quickly?

I don’t think there was anything spur of the moment about this. It wasn’t a sudden impulse. The four men were probably waiting for this call. Although this is titled, “Jesus Calls His first Disciples”, that title is a bit deceiving. This isn’t where he made his first Disciples, simply where he has called them to action.

These four fishermen were devout Jews and seekers of the Messiah even before they ever heard of Jesus. Remember, we met them about a year before this calling. They had been following John the Baptist in Bethany. It was there they first saw, followed and spent a day with Jesus. Phillip and Nathanael Bartholomew also joined them there. These men were from the same area as Jesus. They traveled back home in his company and stopped at a wedding in the town where Nathanael lived. There at Cana they had witnessed his changing of water to wine during a wedding celebration. Later they had traveled with Jesus to a Passover Feast in Jerusalem where he turned over the tables and chased the moneychangers from the Temple. They had been in the desert with him, baptized others with him, traveled through Samaria with him and lived near him in Capernaum. They had probably heard him preach many times by now, spend evenings with him listening to his lessons and so awaited him to bid them to be missionaries. Now that moment had come. Of course they immediately followed.

Duccio di Buoninsegna, The Calling of the Apostles Peter and Andrew, 1809-11