Four Fishermen Called as Disciples - Bible Reflections - Selecting the Pillars of Christianity

By Tony Joe:

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 4:18-22:

As Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen.

He said to them, "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men."

At once they left their nets and followed him.

He walked along from there and saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. 

He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him. 

Four Fishermen Called as Disciples - Bible Reflections:

Selecting the Pillars of Christianity: 

Chapter 4 of the Gospel According to St. Matthew starts with satan tempting Jesus after He had fasted for fourty days. Soon after He emerges victorious in the devil's three tests, Jesus hears the arrest of John the Baptist, and withdraws into Galilee to start His ministry.

The core message of His Galilean ministry is recorded by St. Matthew as "“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Soon, it is time to choose His first disciples, and Jesus does it while walking one day by the Sea of Galilee.

What must have attracted Him to look among fishermen? Why not among young Pharisees who had great learning, or some young Essenes who were passionate about leading pure and ascetic lives?

As someone who debated His community's elders at the mighty Jerusalem Temple, while He was still a child, there is no doubt that Jesus could have easily impressed some Pharisees, Essenes, or Zealots.

Christ, indeed, would have such disciples later, as exemplified by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, both members of the influential Governing Council, Sanhedrin, and as such, likely to be highly learned Pharisees. But like all rich people, they preferred to be silent disciples until Jesus was crucified.

Jesus would also later enlist Simon the Zealot as one of His Apostles. But now He was looking for the four pillars on which He would build His Church.

Or, if Jesus didn't want any white-collars like Nicodemus and Joseph to be among His 12 Apostles, why not select from His own trade? Why not carpenters?

Some mystically oriented Bible commentators have opined that fishermen were chosen as the first and the closest four disciples because of the nature of their work - out at the sea on log boats, against the vagaries of nature, and with only God and nothing else to rely on or trust!

It is quite unlike any other profession that is done on land. Every day they risk their lives and goes out to the sea, and come back riding on not just the waves, but on God's protection.

If we too contemplate, this would appear to be a great spiritual basis on which to select four pivotal companions who would accompany Jesus even during special occasions, when the other eight were asked to stay back.

But there is more to the selection of these four fishermen. One obvious factor was their sheer courage that made them take up this risky work of fishing in the seas. 

Another obvious reason was their level of physical fitness, as their heavy work of rowing and operating the fishing nets would have made them physically and even mentally strong, which made them capable of undertaking the back-breaking Gospel work - that also involved crossing seas - after Christ's ascension into Heaven.

Still another reason must have been their poverty. Even carpenters can be wealthy, but rarely do we meet fishermen who are wealthy. To grasp and convey the essence of the Gospel, it was essential that its four pillars were not only poor, but didn't care themselves that they were poor!

God and His Son also wanted to prove to posterity that together they could make anyone into anyone.

Today, when we clamor to be contemporary disciples of Jesus, it would pay to check whether we have these qualities - trust in God, courage, and poverty or at least a spirit of poverty.

The spirit or attitude of poverty means that we won't amass excess wealth, we won't splurge on expensive stuff, and that we would share wealth until it pains.

A further mystical reason for the fishermen to be selected seems to be a peculiar nature of their daily rewards. Unlike in any similar work, like cattle-rearing or shepherding or farming, here there was nothing to cultivate or rear; they just had to venture out and collect what God had multiplied in the seas - variety of fishes - and come back! 

Similarly, one day they would understand that God had prepared from time immemorial those who would accept His Son as the Saviour of Mankind, and the Apostles just had to reach the message to them and baptize them! It was not a work of logic or convincing, but a work of harvest on what God had sown.  

That is why Jesus said in the language they understood - "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men."

Until yesterday they worked for material benefits, from today onward they could start harvesting souls.

All of them, Peter, Andrew, James, and John, instantly accepted Christ's calling, and accompanied Him after leaving their livelihood and even their families, setting an eternal example for all of us about what it would take to be counted among His dearest disciples.

They would follow Him even unto intense torture or martyrdom, but stay steadfast in their faith, thereby ensuring that the four pillars of early Christianity was stronger than the mighty Roman Empire that tried to crush it for almost three centuries.