It recently struck me that I had overlooked or perhaps never grasped the significance of the scenes described below.
Matthew 4:18
Now walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he says to them, “Come follow after Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” And immediately having left the nets, they followed Him. And having gone on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. And He called them, and immediately having left the boat and their father they followed Him.
I was drawn to the phrases, ‘And immediately having left the nets’, and ‘immediately having left the boat and their father’.
We are not told anything about the men considering the request. We are not given anything to entertain the notion of them asking about this new direction for their immediate futures or who this Jesus fellow is! Neither is there any hesitancy in honouring Jesus’ request…immediately!
And then, ‘they followed him’.
What held my attention and my wandering thoughts from this simple, yet informative record was the comparison to every calling since. My calling to follow; yes, I did, but it was after a wavering and hesitant response. It was not immediate and has almost never been since.
They left everything behind – the nets, the boat, their father and family, business and responsibilities, and they did it ‘immediately’! What goes through our hearts and minds when we sense God’s calling to correct our course, to change priorities and refocus on ‘seeking first the kingdom’?
Do we think, “Yes, I’ll get around to that…”? Do we hesitate and count the cost of humble obedience? Do we wonder if we can trust God with our required sacrifice of worldly treasures we’ve worked so hard for – the new boat, the new nets, the new contract at the fish mongers, our lofty status in the community of overachievers? What about the relationships of many years that will wither if we start abandoning the normal pastimes of self-serving pleasures and worldly pursuits?
Are we willing yet to abandon our worldly treasures for eternal treasures? Granted, God is gracious and patient, He is wanting all to be saved and through His beloved Son, He can and will draw all men to Himself…but He expects a genuine response to His gracious offer. A genuine and persistent response!
Jesus is no stranger to weighing up making the right decision and the concern for his own well-being while doing so:
Matthew 26:39
“My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
Let’s not minimise Jesus’ earnest appeal! Clearly, his will is not the same as the Father’s (Luke 22:42). He knew why he was born, what he was called to accomplish and how it would be done. Yet he also wanted to avoid this impending anguish – extreme as he knew it would be.
John 12:27
“Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.
Only by the Father’s provision could Jesus humble himself. Again and again, he did so – learning ever deeper obedience by the things he suffered (Heb. 5:8) until this final terrible test up to and through the cross. It’s the same for all of us. Only by the Father’s provision – His spirit guiding, urging, encouraging, admonishing – can we be the obedient children the Father desires. Our reckless, selfish spirit inherited from the world is being transformed to align with the Father’s gracious and loving spirit. Yet we participate in this process – just as Jesus and the disciples did. We hear and obey. No, not usually immediately like the disciples; often it’s a case of we gradually submit and finally get on board.
What is it that holds us back from the disciples’ ‘immediately’? What holds us back from ‘dropping the nets’ and following to wherever Jesus may lead? Have we still to make an accurate comparison of worldly treasures versus heavenly treasures? Do we doubt that the heavenly treasures far outweigh the earthly ones? So far in fact, there is no comparison!
Before we get all ‘doom and gloom’ on ourselves, let’s check in on the disciples again:
Matthew 8:23-26
When He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was engulfed by the waves; but Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” “You of little faith,” Jesus replied, “why are you so afraid?”
Here we see people more like ourselves – troubled, anxious, doubting, even fearful!
There’s a simple truth that undergirds the Christian faith. Jesus depended on it every moment of his struggle to do God’s will. He understood it perfectly, but even so, he too had a measure of anxiousness and trepidation when the stakes were high – “Father, save me from this hour!”.
Jesus knew, with no shred of doubt, that he and his God were in this together.
We too understand that we are in this life, this fight, this struggle together with Jesus and his Father. Broken and frail, troubled and trembling, we stand by grace and the love that Jesus expressed for all. For he is always with us, and we must think and pray on these words, so we too can be confident to say: “The Lord is my helper, and I will not be afraid; what shall man do to me?” (Heb. 13:6). We can be like those fearful and doubtful disciples who, when filled with God’s spirit, became the ones to live out those words with passion and faith – “I will not be afraid”.
Matthew 8:26
Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it was perfectly calm.
Jesus taught them firsthand that they were in good hands – his, because he was in the Father’s hands.
John 6:39-40
And this is the will of Him who sent me, that of everything that He has given me I will lose nothing, but will raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up on the last day.”
1 John 4:4
You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because the One in you is greater than the one in the world.
We have come to know that God is. When we take up the call to follow, we begin to know who God is. Slowly, sometimes it seems very slowly, we grow into the new life of faith and deeper belief. Like Jesus who learned obedience from the things he suffered, we too learn and grow as the disciples did. They started with a rush as God moved in them to follow and follow immediately, yet over the longer time they responded to God’s spirit working in them, forming deeper faith and a surer trust and belief of their place in God’s plan.
We read in several passages that we are to, ‘make ourselves ready’. While the only way we will be ready is in Christ – he is our only righteousness – we are introduced to and included in a new life, a new kingdom. We are expected to participate in this new way of living.
- Put on the clothes of righteousness
- Put on the armour
- Wash ourselves
- Noah had to make his own ark, David and Moses selected their own stones
- We have to paint the door with the blood
- Till the field and plant the crop
- Take up your bed and walk
- Put on the new man
- Run the race
- Be overcomers
How or why are we are waiting to respond to God’s call on our lives – for they are not our own anymore but bought with a great price! Sometimes, looking at the list above, immediately is an important aspect to the response!
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought for a price: therefore, glorify God in your body.
Let’s all pray about and consider how we can be more immediate and committed followers.
