And going on thence he saw other two brothers, James the [son] of Zebedee and John his brother, in the ship with Zebedee their father, mending their trawl-nets, and he called them;
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Matthew 4:21 records the moment the Lord, walking by the sea of Galilee after calling Peter and Andrew, sees two more brethren — James and John, the sons of Zebedee — sitting in the ship with their father, mending their nets, and calls them. Several writers draw out what is hidden beneath this brief verse.
Not their first meeting with Christ
F. B. Hole insists that this was not a call to strangers:
F. B. HoleThis being so, the calling of Peter, Andrew, James and John was not the beginning of their acquaintance with Him. That came earlier, and is recorded in John 1. Evidently also there were times when they or other disciples went about with Him before they were definitely called to leave their secular occupations and give all their time to Him. Following Him, He would make these fishermen to be fishers of men. By diligence and study men may make themselves into good preachers, but fishers of men are only made by Him.
William Kelly makes the same distinction, and turns it into a doctrinal point about a second, deeper work of Christ in a soul already saved:
William KellyIt would be a mistake to suppose that this was our Lord's first acquaintance with them. They knew the Lord long before. How do we know this? John tells us. If you examine the point, you will find that all the incidents in the first four chapters of John's Gospel occurred before this scene… In order to call for a special line of service, there is a second work of Christ necessary.
It is one thing for Christ to reveal Himself to a soul; it is another to make that soul a fisher of men. There is a special faith needed in order to act upon the souls of others. The simple saving faith that appropriates Christ for one's own soul is not at all the same thing as understanding the call of Christ summoning one away from all the natural objects of this life to do His work.
Leaving the nets — and the father
The force of verse 21 lies in what they left behind. Peter and Andrew had only their nets to forsake; James and John had to leave their father, Zebedee, in the ship. Kelly is very tender on this point:
No doubt it was a struggle. They were mending their nets with their father when the Lord called them; but they immediately left their nets and their father, and followed Him. And for this reason: they knew who Christ was; that He was the Messiah, the blessed object of hope that God had from the beginning promised to the fathers; and now the children had it. He called them. Could they not trust all they had in His hands, and confide in His care for their father? Surely they could. The very same faith which gave them to follow Jesus, not alone as a giver of everlasting life, but as One to whom they now belonged as servants, could enable them to confide all that they had pertaining to them in this world into His keeping. Surely, if the Lord called them, His call must be superior to their natural obligations.
He then marks it as an extraordinary call, not to be pressed into a universal rule:
This was an extraordinary case. We do not find that persons in general are called to such a work as this; but it may be there are occasions where the Lord has those that He summons to serve Him in this special way. How could one be of use to the souls of others unless he have known somewhat of this trial for his own soul? The Lord is presented here as thus forming this godly remnant for Himself from the very beginning. "Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel."
The forming of a remnant around a rejected Messiah
J. N. Darby, in his Synopsis, sets the calling in its Matthew-specific frame: John the Baptist has been silenced, the Lord is moving out of Judea into despised Galilee, and He now draws around Himself those who will share His path of rejection:
J. N. DarbyHe then gathers around Him those who were definitively to follow Him in His ministry and His temptations; and, at His call, to link their portion and their lot with His, forsaking all beside.
The strong man was bound, so that Jesus could spoil his goods, and proclaim the kingdom with proofs of that power which were able to establish it.
Kelly reinforces the same setting — that the call of James and John belongs to the moment when the Lord is forming the representatives of a godly remnant in Israel:
This is not Matthew's point. There it is the rejected Messiah, now that His forerunner is cast into prison, who will Himself soon find that there is worse than a prison in store for him. But for all that, the Lord will accomplish the prophecies… Now He wants to have persons who are suited to be the representatives of this godly remnant in Israel. Therefore He calls first two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother.
The detail of "mending their nets"
One writer even presses into the participle itself. J. Wilson, comparing the nets of Luke 5 and John 21, picks up the parallel action in Mark 1:19 (and so Matthew 4:21):
J. WilsonIn Mark 1:19, they were mending their nets which would relate more to soundness…
The picture, then, is not of idle men but of diligent fishermen at the careful work of repair — caught in the middle of their labour when the Master's voice breaks in.
Synthesis
Matthew 4:21 is short, but its depth is real. The sons of Zebedee were no strangers to Jesus; they had already believed in Him through the scenes of John 1. What happens here is a second call — not from unbelief to life, but from private faith to public service. The Lord, rejected at Nazareth and now moving among the despised of Galilee, is deliberately gathering a little company whose lot will be bound up with His own rejection. The cost is sharper for James and John than for Peter and Andrew, because they must leave not only their nets but their father in the boat; and the power that enables them is the same trust that first brought them to Christ — confidence that the One whose call is paramount will also care for what they forsake to obey it. The small detail that they were mending their nets, caught in the middle of honest work, only heightens the point: the call of Christ is sovereign, it interrupts, and it carries with it grace enough both to obey and to leave the rest in His hands.