“As Jesus was walking by Lake Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (called Peter) and his brother Andrew. They were throwing a net into the lake because they were fishermen. Jesus said, ‘Come follow me, and I will make you fish for people. So Simon and Andrew immediately left their nets and followed him.” (Matthew 4:18-20 NCV)

My wife made an interesting point about this passage. During the temptation of Jesus, Satan promised Jesus that God would send angels to protect Him if He made a spectacular entrance. Jesus refused that temptation, and when all the temptations were over, God sent angels to minister to His Son. It’s so tempting to make a big display and draw attention to yourself in ministry, but Jesus refused to give into that temptation, in any way it was offered. After going through the temptations, Jesus began a simple ministry of preaching the good news and healing people. For the ministry to continue, though, He needed disciples that He could teach to continue the ministry. Teachers in those days would choose a certain number of students. They would select the most promising young men to follow them and learn. As we look at the list of the disciples of Jesus, they were quite a diverse group of those least expected to become disciples of any teacher. When Jesus began choosing His disciples, He started off by choosing some fishermen. These were not your typical students of the Torah, but then, Jesus wasn’t a typical teacher.

Simon and Andrew gave up their profession immediately when Jesus called them. Perhaps they had sought training from another teacher and had been rejected. Perhaps they had dreamed of following a teacher, but never thought to act on that dream. Perhaps, they never imagined following an itinerant teacher. We don’t know whether Jesus knew their hearts and met their desire, or if the compelling nature of His personality and call drew them to Him. What we do know is that when Jesus calls, we need to answer. Later in the gospels there are stories of people that Jesus called who wanted to delay following Jesus. They missed out. I want to act when Jesus calls me. I don’t want to miss out.

Lord, keep me sensitive to Your call in my life. Help me to be ready to respond to You immediately.

cripture taken from the New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.