FISHERMEN, MEET MEN-FISHERS

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While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
Matthew 4:18‭-‬22 ESV

¶Peter and Andrew, James and John were not the only ones fishing along the shore that day. Jesus was there, already fishing, fishing for men, to bring them out of their humdrum world, and into a world of possibility, and not only them, but men like them, simple men, comfortable with the simple tasks before them, and making of them men like Himself. There is no evidence in the text that these men felt like "a people living in darkness", who had "seen a great light", and who were searching for great answers. They were just mending their nets, trying to get things back to the way they were. But Jesus was doing a parallel work, working to restore all creation to its original glory. Before we become too exalted in our memories of what initially drew us to the Savior, let us remember how these men started with Jesus. He came to men struggling just to keep up. He transformed their lives from the tedious to the transcendent. They were living in chronos time, the meaningless eating away at the length of our lives, shortening our telomeres day by day. They went into cairos time, time imbued with meaning and opportunity, the Kingdom of God made imminent.

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