Switching back to Matthew from John this week, we once again dealing with John the Baptist and the calling of the disciples. John is finally exiting the stage and our attention is squarely where we like it: on Jesus and his disciples.
While the jump to John was seamless, the jump back to Matthew is less so.
The calling narrative in John involves the first two disciples coming to Jesus from John the Baptist. And neither one was Peter.
But this little hiccup is probably not something anyone truly cares about. Not really. In part because this story is way more captivating.
I’m drawn into two really difficult ideas in this passage.
- Fishing: The metaphor of fishing for people falls apart when we realize that we eat the fish. Which also means we also may have a complicated relationship with evangelism.
- Dropping Nets: Jesus invites people to abandon everything. Which, from the faith perspective, is amazing. But when we realize that includes families, we’re suddenly not so stoked.
This is an exciting story, for sure. And one, given a little bit of thought, we’re likely to find at least a little uncomfortable.