Leaving everything and following Him...

In Luke 5, we receive a more full account of the call of James, John and Peter. Unlike what has often been portrayed out of Matthew Chapter 4 as an isolated call of Jesus and immediate response by the disciples, there is background to that call which is given more fully in the accounts of Luke and John. But to me, the issue is that they were once employed in a honest hardworking profession, and were called from that position to something very different. We are told they left everything!

We know from the book of Acts and other extra-Biblical accounts that except for a short period of time after the death of Jesus, they did in fact leave their profession of fishing and devoted themselves completely to following Jesus and His ministry. In fact, both Peter and James were killed as a result of their ministry, and John was imprisoned for a period of time on the island of Patmos. In other words....they suffered greatly! The concept of following Jesus and suffering for Him is not often talked about is Western Christianity. In fact, usually the opposite is proposed. Follow Jesus and you will be blessed! While this is certainly true, as the life of Paul makes clear, these blessings are usually non-material and eternal. Here in the West, we have assumed the blessings are material and present today.

We need to return to that thinking. We need to remember that our life in this world is fleeting and temporary. We need to remember that what truly matters is how we impact eternity by bearing eternal fruit in the form of new disciples who are themselves getting ready to follow Jesus. We need to take our eyes off of the present distractions of our materialistic world, and keep them focused on Jesus...who for our sake, endured the pain and suffering of the cross.