Recently the director of a fishing tournament in Ohio found something fishy at a fishing tournament. Two men were disqualified after their fish were found to be stuffed with lead weights. The director of the tournament estimated the five walleye to be about 20 pounds total and became suspicious when they weighed in at 34 pounds. The two competitors would have won close to $30,000. Instead, they will go through life labeled as “the fishy fishermen.”
When I read that account in the news, I thought of another fish story. The first chapter of The Gospel Mark gives the account of Jesus calling four disciples…all fishermen. This intrigues me and is important to note: the first disciples of Jesus were simple folk. They did not come from the schools and the colleges. They were not leaders in the synagogue, or a part of the aristocracy. They were neither learned nor wealthy. They were fishermen, ordinary people.
Lincoln took his cue from Jesus when he said, “God must love the common people – he made so many of them.” It was as if Jesus said, “Give me 12 ordinary men, and with them, if they will give themselves to me, I will change the world.”
As we look at these folks whom Jesus called to be his disciples, two signal truths stand out.
One, anybody can be a follower of Jesus.
What a heartening fact for the person who feels incapable or unworthy. Isn’t it great that being a Christian disciple is dependent neither upon our ability or our worthiness. Anybody can be a follower of Jesus.
The second signal truth that stands out in the fact that Jesus first called simple folk is this: The Kingdom’s advance is not dependent upon our normal perceptions of power.
Zachariah, in the Old Testament, sounded this truth prophetically. The word came to him in a vision when the angel of the Lord spoke to him: “Not by might, nor by power but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts.”
Paul gave us the best picture of it when he reminded the Corinthians to think of the Gospel in terms of who they were when Jesus called them.
For consider your call, brethren; not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were born of noble birth; but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. (I Corinthians 1:26-19)
God’s Kingdom advance is not dependent upon our normal perceptions of power. God uses our weakness our limitation, even our failure to bring about his good.
Ponder this: Anyone can be a follower of Jesus, and the Kingdom’s advance is not dependent upon our normal perceptions of power.