Fishers of Men
On Sunday, the pastor of my church said something I’ve been thinking about ever since.
He said that when people go fishing, they use a fishing pole or rod and reel. This is not a little-known fact. But it’s the introduction to his main point. My son, for example, loves to fly-fish, and I like to watch the line whish out in a roll. (Here he is, doing it!) He catches one fish at a time, preferably a large rainbow trout or a brown trout.
When Jesus fished, he used a net. Nets catch whatever happens to be in the way. He cast it out and brought it back in with whatever it caught. He sought everyone--he was known (and criticized) for socializing with "sinners," tax collectors, lepers, prostitutes, people with terrible conditions of all kinds. Jesus taught some fishermen to be "fishers of men," and those people were the kind who fished with nets.
What does that mean for us? It means we should not be picky about who we try to share Christ with. We should not be concerned about who looks friendly or who smells good or who would fit in with the crowd in our church. We should cast out his love everywhere—send it abroad as a net. Let it bring in whoever it can.
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2 comments:
well, regardless of whether it's good bible exegesis or not, i really agree with your point. that's what the parable of the good samaritan was about ... we shouldn't love only those who are like us, but even those who we normally would hate!
That's right, TS. We're supposed to love "our neighbor as ourselves." And our neighbor is whoever is near us. We're charged with caring for the needy--not just the pleasant needy.
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