Bible Study - Thoughts on "Fishers of Men"

In Mark 1:14-20, we hear of Jesus going into the region of Galilee, in Northern Israel. He passes alongside the Sea of Galilee and sees Simon (Peter) and Andrew, casting a net into the sea. He calls them to discipleship saying, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men” (v.17-18). This picture image makes sense, because these were fishermen, by occupation, and Jesus was now calling them “to proclaim the gospel of God,” as he was already doing (v.14-15), and calling people to “repent” of their sins and “believe in the Gospel,” thus capturing them for the “Kingdom of God,” in Christ.

This was an unusual picture image, though, because in the Old Testament “fishing for people with a hook or a net” was used for capturing enemies of God’s people and getting rid of them. See for example Jeremiah 16:16-18. The Lord says He will “send many fishers” and “hunters” after people because of their “iniquity” and “repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted My land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled My inheritance with their abominations.” In Amos 4:2, the Lord God warns people in Israel, who were doing evil and worshiping false gods, that “the days are coming upon you when they will take you away with hooks, even the last of you with fishhooks,” into captivity. See also Ezekiel 29:1-5, Habakkuk 1:14-17, and Ecclesiastes 9:12 and an “evil net.”

Jesus came, though, to bring life and hope to people through what He would do as their Savior, paying the penalty for and forgiving their sins, by His death on the cross and resurrection. We hear in John 3:17: “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned.” Paul also says in Romans 10:14-17 that everyone needs to hear this Good News of Christ. “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing comes through the Word of Christ” (v.17). That’s why Jesus began to call “fishers of men” to share that Good News! (You can hear this same story in Matthew 4:18-22.)

Jesus reinforced this message again in Luke 5:1-11, when He was preaching and borrowed Simon Peter’s boat as a place from which to speak. Then He told Peter to let down the nets for a catch. Peter objected. He was a trained fisherman and he and others had fished all night, the best time for fishing, and caught nothing. But, Peter said, “At Your Word, Jesus, I will let down the nets.” They caught so many fish that they needed a second boat and both boats were about to sink. Peter knew, as a fisherman, what a miracle this was and “fell down at Jesus’ knees and said, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.’” He knew he was not adequate to be what Jesus wanted. Jesus simply said, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” Jesus used a word that meant Peter and the others would be “catching men alive” for the eternal Kingdom of God. The word Jesus used for “men,” here and in the other passages, meant not just males but all human beings - men, women, children, Jews, and non-Jews.

Remember that Jesus had also said, in Mark 1:17, “I will make you become fishers of men.” The disciples did not immediately know what to do. Jesus taught them during His three years of public ministry with them, and then even after His resurrection and then through the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. Even then, they were not perfect in what they did as disciples.

Ultimately, the Scriptures teach that they were instruments through whom God shared His Good News in Christ, but that the Lord Himself and Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit actually “caught people alive” and brought them to faith through His Word and through water and Word, connected in Baptism, and strengthened through the Lord’s Supper. Using another image, that of sowing the seed of God’s Word, Paul wrote, in 1 Corinthians 3:5-7: “What then is Apollos (another called preacher)? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who gives the growth.” To God alone is the glory if anyone comes to faith in Jesus. (Hear more about this in a sermon I will preach Saturday evening, the Lord willing, and will put up on the podcast, sometime next week.) We still need “fishers of men” today. These Scriptures give great encouragement to pastors and teachers and other church workers, and to all of us as witnesses for our Lord in everyday life. The Lord’s continued blessings.