Jesus Gives Us a Battle Worth Fighting

Today’s reading: Matthew 4:18-22

Today’s reading is tricky. Taken out of context of the rest of the Bible (particularly all the letters from Paul), it can leave the impression that Jesus was a sort of Pied Piper of his day, that just a wave or shout from him would put a person into a blissful trance and cause the subject to mindlessly follow the leader.

But if that were the case, of course, Jesus’s influence on the world would not have much out lived his earthly life. And, of course, Jesus never leads people to follow his human self but, rather, to follow God.

The truth is that we all have the power to do exactly as Jesus does in this passage. In fact, Jesus depends upon us all to become fishers of men.

And, for us, it’s not quite so easy as simply to calling to people from afar.

Today’s reading is calling me to renew my efforts toward witnessing. It’s not enough for me to simply wait for God to work sufficiently on the hearts of some of my friends and acquaintances. Jesus is waiting for me to work on those hearts too, with stories of how God has touched me, with Bible verses that relate directly to a person’s desperate situation and with just as much love as I can muster. (It’s not coincidental that I used a battle term like “muster” in that case. The act of witnessing can often seem like combat — especially when demons are well entrenched in their territory.) I must reach out to lost souls with words of encouragement from Christ, and I must  do all that I can to convince them to accept God’s blessed bait.

Experience tells me that I will not be successful with all of my casts. But that’s okay. The few that I reach will be eternally rewarded in the end. So it’s worth the effort.

The good news is that all I have to do is just reel in these glorious “fish,” and land them on dry land. Once there, God will take care of the rest in his beautiful and eternal way.

Thanks be to God for a battle worth fighting!