Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Immediately they left their nets and followed him.”
NL Daily Devotion for Friday, January 20, 2023
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
I don’t know that I could drop everything and just follow Jesus. I could claim that my life is way more complicated than that of those first disciples, and maybe it’s true. But Peter was married—the gospels mention his mother-in-law. He might have been widowed though we don’t know as his wife is never once mentioned. So at the very least he walked away from his means of financial support and his entire family except his brother, who followed Jesus with him. James and John left their father with the whole fishing operation and one wonders if that left Zebedee in a lurch. There are likely a whole host of factors that played in to the decisions of these men to “immediately” follow Jesus.
The one factor in common was, of course, Jesus. Clearly the man had something going for him if he could simply walk by and say “follow me” and people would. What I’m left wondering is not why these men left everything on the spot to follow Jesus, but what Jesus chose these particular men in the first place. Did Jesus know they were available in some way? Did he see in them some potential that was being wasted in a life of fishing? So many stories in the gospels show that these people were pretty obtuse, yet other demonstrate incredible faith, insight, and wonder.
I think Jesus chose them for the same reason he chooses us. They were beloved children of God and they were willing to follow. We are no different than Peter, Andrew, James, and John. We’re all imperfect yet complex, capable of being completely obtuse one minute and profoundly insightful the next. And while I don’t think Jesus expects us to drop everything and go into a monastic community (which honestly sounds tempting to me sometimes) he does give us opportunity after opportunity to put following him first on our agenda. And when we do that, we receive far more than we invest.
Have I ever thought about why Jesus chose the followers he did?
