And walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon, and Andrew, [Simon's] brother, casting out a net in the sea, for they were fishers.
Jesus has just stepped out into public service, and here He walks by a lake and sees two brothers at the trade that fed them. Why does the One who needs no help call anyone at all, and why these men?
He did not call these men because He needed help.
Not that there was need on His part for such, or for any associates. Weak and fallible man tries to cover his own built-in defects. He does it as a careful, even necessary step: by the strength of "big battalions," or by the wisdom of many advisers. But this Servant had no limitations, except the ones He placed on Himself. He was fully able to carry out all that He was given to do. And yet Mark invites us to notice this. As soon as He stepped out into the path of public service, He called some fishermen to follow Him on that path.
Simon and Andrew had already met Jesus once before.
It is not a personal call here; that is elsewhere; here it is the call to service. I earnestly ask you to notice that. It is not the call of people to find their part in Christ and to find Christ everything; it is the call to service. You find the personal call in John 1, and the call to service is here in Mark.
Galilee had its religious professionals. He walked past them.
We then learn the grace of the Lord that identifies others with Himself in service. He passes by the official priests, the learned scribes and the religious Pharisees. He takes up humble fishermen. Simon is one who can say, "I have no silver and gold," and of whom the world said he was an "uneducated, common man" (Acts 3:6; Acts 4:13). The lack of riches and human learning is no hindrance to being a companion of the Lord, or to being used in His service. Still, their work may be humble, but the people the Lord takes into His service are not out of work. These simple men were busy as fishermen when the Lord called them to become fishers of men. The Lord's service is not to be taken up by those who have nothing else to do.
The word for the net points to one particular tool.
The word amphiblestron occurs only in Matthew 4:18. It is implied in Mark 1:16 too, where the oldest manuscripts leave the noun out. It means a casting net, thrown round the object, and that is where the term came from. The more usual word is diktuon… But the sagene (in Matthew 13:47 only), from sattein, to pack or load, was a dragnet, on a larger scale.
The trade itself pictures the work they were about to be given.
Their trade was a picture of the work they were called to. Casting the net into the sea surely speaks of the work of the gospel, the drawing of souls to the Lord. He showed this by His own words: "Follow Me, and I will make you to become fishers of men." His Word had a precious effect. They left their nets at once — their very means of living — and followed Him… It appears that Andrew's work was personal evangelism, and Peter's public.
Does serving Christ mean giving up your job?
His servants need to be made fit for service, and this training can only happen in His company… We may not be called to leave everything behind, as the disciples did while the Lord was here on earth. But we can serve Him only as He becomes, in spirit, the blessed Object before the soul. Not everyone is called to give up their daily work. That, in fact, is the path of only a few. Most of God's people are plainly told to stay in the work they already have (1 Cor. 7:20). Still, the Lord has some service for all.
What does this call ask of a reader now?
Many today claim to have received the gospel. But how few follow the Lord in the path of faith, in that humility and obedience which marked His steps in this world!… The Lord here calls men in order to make them fishers of others. Let us also seek others, so that they too may enjoy the glorious happiness the Holy Spirit gives, a happiness beyond words. We may not be apostles, but whoever is full of Christ will give testimony to Christ.
- Chosen — He needed no helpers, yet the first thing He did in public service was call some fishermen to walk it with Him.
- Called twice — John 1 records the personal call; this shoreline word is the call to service. Meeting Christ and being sent by Him are two distinct moments.
- Common — He walked past priests, scribes and Pharisees and took up men with no money and no schooling. Poverty and lack of learning are no barrier.
- Occupied — He called men mid-work. Service is not a job for those with nothing else to do, and their nets already pictured the gospel work ahead.
- Company — "I will make you" means training, and the training is His nearness. Most stay in their daily work, but every believer has some service.
And Jesus said to them, Come after me, and I will make you become fishers of men;
By the Sea of Galilee, Jesus walks up to four men at work. One sentence ends their old career and starts a new one. It raises three questions: why these men, what "Follow me" asks before any preaching, and who does the making.
One writer notes whom the Lord passed by to reach these men.
Here we learn the grace of the Lord that joins others to Himself in service. He passes by the official priests, the learned scribes and the religious Pharisees. He takes up humble fishermen. Simon is one who can say, "I have no silver and gold," and of whom the world said he was an "uneducated, common man" (Acts 3:6; Acts 4:13). The lack of riches and human learning is no hindrance to being a companion of the Lord, or to being used in His service. These simple men were busy at their fishing when the Lord called them to become fishers of men. His service is not for people who have nothing else to do.
Notice what the Lord does not say first. His opening word — "Follow me" (older translations: "Come after Me") — points to Himself.
Is it, "Go out and preach"? Not a word of it. "Come after Me." Oh, the sweetness of that! Fellow servants of Christ, that must come before all service to others. It must be first to Him in our own souls — "Come after Me." This is the school. This is the college. This is the training-house. This is where everything is adjusted. Don't we often leave the impression on those who hear us that we have not been much with the Master? And notice what follows: "I will make you become fishers of men." That is to say, I will train you. There is only one Master of the art of catching men, and that is Jesus.
The promise is not that they will manage it, but that He will make them into it. That shifts the weight of the work off the disciple.
He chose simple, unlearned fishermen with just what they had and called them to follow Him, promising that He would make them into instruments He could use in the wonderful work of saving the souls of men. Their preparation and training for this work was to be gained by following Him each day, by being in His company and learning from Him. He would teach them all that was necessary and would make them real soul winners for Himself.
Fishing is a learned skill. That picture carries a warning about how we handle people.
I am sure you know the pains, the care, the patience, and everything else needed to make a man a really skilful angler. And don't you know how difficult a thing it is to win people? Isn't it too often the case that we try to drive them instead? It is very easy to wound, to repel, to knock down. But to win — and may I add, to warm, and to catch — these are the words here in the gospel.
Another writer asks how those men actually fished.
When they caught fish, did they wait for the fish to swim into their net? Or did they cast it where the fish were and close it round them? Or when the net was full, did they say, we will not throw it again into deeper and untried waters? And shall they act less wisely or energetically when serving a divine Master, and fishing for men? Most certainly not.
One commentator draws out how wide the phrase "fishers of men" is.
From being fishermen in the ordinary sense of the word, He could make them fishers of men. They were Galilean fishermen, with none of the learning that the scribes and other educated men of the nation would recognise (Acts 4:13). He called them to a work that no member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council, and no great teacher of the law had ever entered. "Fishers of men" is a very wide term, for it could include work among Gentiles as well as among Jews.
One writer traces that leaving back to its source, and notes that even family ties gave way.
The grace which called them gave them power to leave earthly things behind and to come after Him. They left behind boats and nets, their trade as fishermen, and even their father Zebedee. What a blessed place — to serve the Lord Christ and give obedience to His call. We must own Him as Lord and follow Him in His own path of faith, obedience and humility. To seek others and bring them to Himself is the service He still calls us to.
Another writer applies the call to readers who cannot leave everything behind.
Perhaps we cannot literally leave everything, as the first disciples did. But we can walk in the spirit in which they walked, and value Christ as everything for our souls. The Lord here calls men to make them fishers of others. Let us also seek others, so that they too may enjoy the glorious happiness the Holy Spirit gives. We may not be apostles. But whoever is full of Christ will bear witness to Christ. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
- Chosen — He passed by priests, scribes and Pharisees and took up fishermen. No money and no education ruled them out. But they were not idle men with time on their hands.
- Company — "Follow me" comes before any commission. His company is the school, and hearers can tell when a servant has not been much with the Master.
- Craft — "I will make you" puts the training in His hands. Only He knows the art. He teaches us to win people rather than drive them, and to cast the net where the fish are.
- Cost — The grace that called them also gave them power to leave boats, nets, trade and father behind.
- Continuation — "Fishers of men" was wide enough to reach Gentiles as well as Jews. Not everyone leaves all, but whoever is full of Christ will speak of Christ.
and straightway leaving their trawl-nets they followed him.
Mark's Gospel presents Jesus as the Servant of God. Here that Servant walks by the sea and calls working men away from their trade. One word rules the verse — immediately. Why these men? What did it cost them? Does the same call still reach people at work today?
The speed in this verse belongs first to Christ and only then to the two pairs of brothers by the sea:
He Himself was the great Fisher of men, as the two incidents in verses 16 to 20 show. He knew whom He would call to His service. Seeing the sons of Zebedee, He called them "immediately." Of the sons of Jonas we read that when He called them, "immediately they left their nets and followed Him." As the great Servant of God, He was prompt in issuing His call: as under-servants they were prompt to obey.
That word keeps coming back through this Gospel, and on purpose:
Speed or diligence marks this service at once, and that on purpose. A servant should be known by his diligence. So we find the word "at once," or "immediately," so common in the first chapter.
Notice whom He passed over, whom He picked, and what these men were doing when the call came:
He passes by the official priests, the learned scribes, and the religious Pharisees, and takes up humble fishermen. Simon is one who can say, "I have no silver and gold," and of whom the world said he was an "uneducated, common man" (Acts 3:6; Acts 4:13). Having no riches and no learning is no barrier to walking with the Lord or serving Him. Still, however humble their trade, the people the Lord takes into His service are not out of work. These simple men were working as fishermen when He called them to become fishers of men. His service is not for people who have nothing else to do.
These four already believed in Him. This call goes further:
It is one thing for Christ to reveal Himself to a soul; it is another to make that soul a fisher of men. It takes a special faith to act on the souls of others. Simple saving faith takes Christ for one's own soul. That is not at all the same thing as understanding the call of Christ, which summons a person away from all the natural objects of this life to do His work… They had already believed in Him and had eternal life. But even with eternal life a man may be following a good deal of the world. Taken up with what makes his own life comfortable here below, he stays one more member of the society of men.
Their obedience was not grim resolve. It came from what they had seen and heard:
Boats, nets, fish, natural ties — all given up without hesitation and without reserve. This was not cold duty or legal service. It was the grand and necessary result of having seen the glory and heard the voice of the Son of God.
So must every believer walk away from a job? One writer answers directly:
We may not be called to leave everything in a literal way, as the disciples did when the Lord was here on earth. Yet we can serve Him only as He becomes, in spirit, the blessed Object before the soul. Not all are called to give up their daily work. That, in fact, is the path of only a few. Most of God's people are plainly told to stay in their earthly calling (1 Cor. 7:20). Still, the Lord has some service for all… That service will mean giving up everything that would entangle us in the affairs of this life, and we can carry it out only as we keep near to Him.
One writer sets these four names beside the founders of the great empires:
Founders of world-empires there have been; great as the world counts greatness. But where are Egypt, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and their founders? The names of Simon and Andrew, of James and John, however, are cut into the rock foundations of that church which the very gates of hades shall not overcome… In the dazzling vision of the prophet on Patmos we see twelve names only (Rev. 21:14). They include these four, once scratched as proof of ownership on a couple of fishing boats on the Galilean lake.
- Immediately. The Servant issues His call without delay, and His under-servants answer without delay; the same word marks both.
- Grace calls. He passed over priests, scribes and Pharisees and took up fishermen — no money and no learning stood in the way.
- Grace moves. They dropped the nets without hesitation. It was not cold duty. They had seen the glory and heard the voice of the Son of God.
- Grace claims. They already believed. This call summoned them away from the natural objects of life. Most believers are told to stay in their trade, and to drop whatever entangles them.
- Grace crowns. Egypt, Babylon and Rome are gone. Names once scratched on fishing boats stand among the twelve in the vision of the holy city.
And going on thence a little, he saw James the [son] of Zebedee, and John his brother, and these [were] in the ship repairing the trawl-nets;
The Lord has just called Simon and Andrew from their nets. He walks a little further along the shore and finds two more brothers at work in a boat. The scene looks ordinary. Yet commentators find in it a picture of the men He chooses, and a hint of the work He gives them.
Scripture says little about Zebedee, the father in the boat. One writer gathers up that little:
He worked as a fisherman on the lake of Galilee... He was a man of some means, since he had hired servants under him (Mark 1:20). Even so, he took part in the fishing himself. The Lord walked on the shore of the lake and spoke the words no one could resist. Those words made his two sons give up their ordinary trade. Zebedee was in the boat with them, and they were all busy mending their nets. The words of Christ were few and simple, and they carried no promise of earthly reward. Yet they were enough.
The Lord passed by the religious leaders and chose working men. He found them busy at their trade.
We then learn the grace of the Lord that identifies others with Himself in service. He passes by the official priests, the learned scribes, and the religious Pharisees, and takes up humble fishermen... Having no riches and no human learning does not stop a man from being a companion of the Lord, or from serving Him. Still, however humble the daily work of those the Lord takes into His service, they are not out of work. These simple men were pursuing their occupation of fishermen, when the Lord called them to become fishers of men. The Lord's service is not for people who have nothing else to do.
The word behind "mending" is katartizo. It appears again in the New Testament, with a spiritual sense:
We find the word in Galatians 6:1. Believers who are spiritual are told to restore, in a spirit of gentleness, a man who is caught in some offence. They are to bring him back into fellowship with God, and into happy working with the saints. I take this to be the force of the word (katartizo) used there. It is a word applied to mending nets (Matt. 4:21). The broken ends are joined and restored to their proper place and function in the whole.
One writer reads the mending as a hint about the service these two brothers were called into:
The Lord went a little further and called James and John while they were in the boat mending (or "restoring") their nets. This also points to the work He called them into. Nets must be kept in good repair if they are to be useful in catching fish. Does this not speak of pastoral work, of restoring souls so that they might continue to be useful in the Lord's work? They left their father, because natural ties must give place to the Lord's authority. Yet they did not leave him without help, for there were servants in the boat as well. When the Lord calls, He does not ignore the proper needs of a person's relatives.
The Gospels show four things done with nets. One writer, commenting on a parable in which a net is drawn in, sets them in order for anyone who carries the gospel:
Both here and in Mark 1:16, we read of them casting a net; in Mark 1:19, we read they were mending their nets; in Luke 5:2 we read they were washing their nets; and in this parable they drew the net. Regarding this as a picture of the going out of the gospel, I would put mending first; be sure the gospel you preach is capable of catching men for Christ. Then in regard to the washing, keep the gospel clean from worldly sayings and worldly influences. Further, no matter how good a net may be or how clean, if it is not cast we cannot hope to catch men.
The account gives no background and no credentials for these two men. One writer explains why:
God does not choose His workers because they are uniquely fit in themselves. He chooses them because He sees material that He can make fit for His purpose... We have only this: the Lord walking by the sea; the fishermen at their work; His call, holding out no attractive prospects; their immediate response. Such simplicity was a deathblow to the pride of the Jew... poor and simple as they were, we can only glory in the Lord (1 Cor. 1:26-31).
- Mending. The word means restoring: broken ends joined and put back to their proper use. Scripture uses the same word for restoring a believer who has fallen.
- Mending first. A net must be sound before anyone washes, casts or draws it. Make sure the gospel you carry can catch men.
- Mending hands. The Lord found James and John repairing nets. Repair work — pastoral care, restoring souls — marked the service He called them into.
- Mending men. He passed by priests, scribes and Pharisees and took up fishermen. A man needs no riches or learning — only material the Lord can make fit.
- Mending while working. They were busy at their trade when the call came; His service is not for those with nothing else to do.
and straightway he called them; and leaving their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, they went away after him.
Mark gives only the bare facts: a boat, a father, hired men, and two sons who walk away from it all at a word. Those few details show what the brothers gave up, and how much weight the voice that called them carried.
The hired workers tell us what kind of household James and John came from. They also tell us something about their father, who let his sons go without protest.
Zebedee was a man of some means, since he had hired servants working under him (Mark 1:20). Even so, he did the fishing work himself... Zebedee seems to have been quite content that they obeyed the call of Christ at once. We read no word of complaint or protest from him. He kept his job. He was not called to leave it as they were. Meanwhile his two sons began the career that will lead them to sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
A business with paid staff also corrects a common picture of these men. Their opponents later judged them by the schooling they had not had.
[Peter] and his brother were partners with Zebedee and his sons in what looks like a large fishing business. At any rate, they had "hired servants" (Mark 1:20). So we must not take Acts 4:13 to mean that these men were completely uneducated. "Unlearned and ignorant" would simply mean they had not had the professional training that their religious opponents had.
The Lord's choice of them was deliberate. He walked past the religious leaders of the day.
He passes by the official priests, the learned scribes, and the religious Pharisees, and takes up humble fishermen... Having no riches and no human learning is no barrier to being a companion of the Lord, or to being useful in His service. Still, however humble their job, the people the Lord takes into His service are not out of work. These simple men were busy at their trade as fishermen when the Lord called them to become fishers of men. His service is not for people who have nothing else to do.
Of everything named in the verse, the father is the hardest to leave. One writer sets the call to serve apart from simply believing, then weighs it against every other claim.
It is one thing for Christ to reveal Himself to a soul; it is another to make that soul a fisher of men... They had already believed in Him, and had everlasting life. But to make them the companions of His own service, the Lord must call them away. They have a father: what should they do? It makes no difference. The call of Christ outranks every other claim.
Yet the hired men stayed in the boat with him, and that changes how this leaving looks.
They left their father, for natural relationships must give place to the Lord's authority. Still, they did not leave him alone, without help, for there were also servants in the boat. When the Lord calls, He does not ignore the proper needs of one's relatives.
They did not summon the resolve out of themselves. The same grace that called them supplied what obedience cost.
The grace which called them gave them power to leave earthly things and to come after Him. They left behind boats and nets, their trade as fishermen, and even their father, Zebedee... Note the word "straightway" in verses 17 and 20.
(Older translations read "straightway" where the ESV has "immediately".)
What happened on that shore is not the rule for everyone who believes.
We may not be called to leave everything, as the disciples were when the Lord was here on earth. But we can serve Him only as He becomes, in spirit, the blessed Object before the soul. Not all are called to give up their daily work. That, in fact, is the path of only a few. Most of God's people are clearly told to stay in their ordinary work (1 Cor. 7:20). Still, the Lord has some service for everyone.
On the day it happened, this looked like two men throwing away a safe living. Seen from the end, the trade looks different.
Founders of world-empires there have been; great as the world counts greatness. But where are Egypt, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and their founders? But the names of Simon and Andrew, of James and John, are cut into the rock foundations of that church, and the gates of hell will never overcome it... we can see twelve names only (Rev. 21:14). They include these four — names once scratched on a couple of fishing boats on the Galilean lake to show who owned them.
- Boat — the hired servants show a real business. What James and John left had real value.
- Call — the Lord passed by priests, scribes and Pharisees and took working men. No lack of money or schooling shuts anyone out of His service.
- Cost — even a father's claim gives way to Christ's call. They went at once, because the grace that called also gave the power to go.
- Care — leaving Zebedee was not deserting him. The servants stayed, and the Lord does not ignore the needs of a servant's family.
- Crown — most of God's people are told to keep their daily job. Yet these four, who left the nets, have their names in foundations that outlast every empire.