Leave your nets!

And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him.  Mark 1:17-18 (ESV)

Jesus speaks to Simon (Peter) and Andrew as they are working their fishing business, casting nets and pulling them in for the day's catch. “Follow me” He says, and they go immediately, leaving their nets behind to follow Jesus. We are told in John (1:40) that Andrew had been a follower of John the Baptist and had heard him testify that Jesus was the Messiah, so we know that this was not some impulsive decision made in ignorance of the man for whom they were abandoning their boats.

Jesus’ call continues and it is directed to each of us. “Follow me” He says. As I’ve challenged myself to live as a Christ-follower rather than simply labeling myself “Christian”, I’ve realized how different the two really are. It is an abandonment of self, it is the release of religious affinities in favor of Biblical truth, it is relinquishment of personal preference in pursuit of Christ’s call. It is caring about what the Bible says more than what my friends or my family or my emotions dictate. It is not simply Jesus first, but Jesus ONLY.

Immediately…

 

In Luke 9 we are told of several other would-be disciples. One man declares his dedication “I will follow you anywhere!” but when Jesus tells him “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (v.57) we hear nothing further from this aspiring follower. Christ calls another man directly, but this man wants to wait until his father dies before he takes the plunge of discipleship. “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God” (v.60). A third wants to say goodbye to his family – a last “hurrah” if you will. Jesus says to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (v.62). There was no “immediately” from any of these three men. There was no following at all. Perhaps they were happy to fit Jesus into their lives in some way, but presented with the notion of Jesus above all else, Jesus ONLY, they were not willing to commit to THAT.

 

Are we so different?  

 

As a child raised in church I envisioned this scene, with me in the role of the biblical-era prospective disciple and I imagined Jesus' eyes meeting mine as He called “follow me.” My childhood devotion could visualize nothing less than tossing aside my Barbie dolls and Easy-Bake oven for a life clinging to the robes of Jesus, whatever the cost. How could anyone turn down an offer to walk side-by-side with the real, live, skin-on Savior? 

 

The beauty of child-like faith is not only its simplicity but its uncomplicated honesty.  Things are black and white and why would anyone, presented with the option of hanging out with Jesus, want to do anything else FIRST!  But for so many of us, somewhere in those growing up years, as we exchange our Barbie dolls and Easy-Bake ovens (and Legos and Tonka trucks) for careers, cars, homes and families, following Christ becomes little more than adding a bit of Jesus to our already jam-packed lives. Christianity is defined by an hour at church on Sunday listening to a good, uplifting message, and prayers before dinner. Perhaps we even go to a Bible study if it sounds interesting and we’ve got a friend who’ll go with us. But the notion of prioritizing our lives around our faith, as opposed to the other way around?  

That’s a little…well, much…right?

 

...they left their nets, and followed him.

 

How often in my own walk have I sought to follow Jesus, but I can’t quite bring myself to leave the nets of my own life - not my responsibilities to my home and my family, but my nets of preconceived notions and personal preferences, nets of expectations and attitudes, nets of comfortable rules and yes, sometimes even sin. I love Jesus, but I just don’t want to let go of those things, so I press on down the paths and trails of life, claiming faith but all the while dragging this “meshwork of me” that catches on every rock, weed and shrub, slowing me down.  

 

This is the case for many believers, isn’t it? We want it to be “us and Jesus”, side-by-side, but we are constantly distracted from the leading of our Savior by the tangled chaos of frustrations and crises and bad judgment and sin and sometimes even misguided religion.  Our nets are a mess of branches and dirt and weeds that we’ve caught up along the way, but we won't let them go - they are a mess, but the mess is so familiar we just can't seem to leave it behind..

 

Meanwhile, Jesus continues walking, leading, longing for us to drop those dirty, branch-catching nets in favor of an unhindered life of Him and Him only.

 

What would our walk of faith look like if we abandoned our "nets" of personal opinion, preference, attitude and feelings in favor of a life walking side by side with Jesus, focused only on Him?  What would our churches look like if we cast those nets aside and not only read the Word, but lived it and, perhaps even more so, loved  it simply because it is the Word of God?

 

...with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind

...“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”  Matthew 22:37-40 (ESV)

In this passage, Jesus himself declares that nothing else is more important than loving our God with all of our hearts, all of our souls and all of our minds. When the launching point for our lives is an overwhelming love for our heavenly Father, everything else finds its place. 

But when it comes to loving God, I think many of us are handicapped by the fact that we have absolutely NO idea how much God loves US - if we even grasp that He loves us at all.  We read verses like John 3:16 and Romans 5:8 and whether familiarity has robbed them of their impact or we have simply neglected to read them with a heart to understand, we miss the reality of a love so vast that it is only vaguely conceivable in light of the vastness of the One who loves. 

God loves me. 

God loves you. 

The Almighty Creator, Sovereign Lord of All, The Alpha and the Omega, the Everlasting God loves us.

He loves us through the pains of disappointment and the joys of success.  He loves us through our confident moves forward and through fearful uncertainty. He loves us when we chase after Him with reckless abandon and He loves us when we plod along dragging our dirty, tangled nets that represent our worldly expectations and human frailties and all the things that distract us from our singular purpose as believers: Following Christ.

It was only when I began to realize and meditate upon how immense (incomprehensible, really) God's love is for us that I was truly able to begin loving Him.  And the more I love God, the more grateful I am for Christ's work on the cross, the more I realize that there is a singular focus in my life.  A lens through which I view everything that I am and everything that I do: Following Jesus.

Let's just leave those nets and follow Jesus.,
 
May we leave our nets of pressured comparison to follow Him as we parent our precious children.

May we leave our nets of selfish expectation as we follow Him within our marriages. 

May we leave our nets of fear as we follow Him in our workplaces. 

May we leave our nets of personal preference and follow Him in our churches.

Immediately, may we leave our nets and simply follow Jesus!