Aug 20| When Jesus Ruins Your Perfectly Good Business: The Radical Call to Discipleship
The Most Expensive "Yes" You'll Ever Say
What's the most you've ever risked on a gut feeling? A career change that made your family nervous? An investment that could go either way? Now imagine risking not just your job, but your entire family legacy, your community standing, and every bit of financial security you've built - all because a stranger walked up to you and said two words: "Follow me."
This isn't the beginning of a Netflix thriller. It's exactly what happened on an ordinary morning by the Sea of Galilee, when Jesus Christ approached four successful businessmen and asked them to trade everything they knew for everything they didn't. And remarkably, impossibly, they said yes.
The Real Story Behind the Fishermen
These Weren't Unemployed Drifters
For years, Sunday school pictures have given us the wrong impression of Jesus' first disciples. We imagine simple, perhaps poor fishermen - maybe even grateful for any opportunity to escape their mundane lives. The reality Mark's Gospel presents is far more challenging.
Simon (later called Peter), Andrew, James, and John weren't holding fishing poles on a lazy afternoon. They were running commercial fishing operations. Mark specifically mentions they had boats (expensive capital investments), nets (specialized equipment that cost a fortune), and hired servants (they were employers, not employees). This wasn't subsistence fishing - this was business.
Think less "Andy Griffith Show" and more "Deadliest Catch." These men woke up before dawn, managed crews, negotiated prices at market, maintained expensive equipment, and built their entire identities around a trade passed down through generations. When Jesus approached them, they weren't looking for a job - they had jobs. Good ones.
The Generational Weight of Their Decision
In first-century Jewish culture, your trade wasn't just your job - it was your identity, your social security, and your children's inheritance. James and John were literally working alongside their father Zebedee when Jesus called them. They didn't just leave a boss; they left their dad standing in the boat, probably slack-jawed, watching his sons walk away from everything he'd built for them.
Can you imagine that conversation at the next family dinner? "So, boys, how's the family business?" "Well, Dad, funny story..."
The Catastrophic Call of Christ
"Follow Me" - Two Words That Demand Everything
When Jesus said "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men," He wasn't offering them a side hustle. He wasn't suggesting they could follow Him on weekends and keep fishing Monday through Friday. The grammar in the original Greek is emphatic - this is a complete career change, a total life reorientation.
Notice Jesus doesn't promise them wealth, comfort, or even clarity about where they're going. He simply says, "Follow me." No five-year plan. No benefits package. No clear job description beyond a clever metaphor about fishing for people instead of fish. From a human resources perspective, this is the worst job offer in history.
The Insanity of Immediate Obedience
Here's where the story gets almost unbelievable. Mark tells us they followed "immediately." The Greek word is "euthus" - it means at once, without delay, without deliberation. There's no "Let me pray about it," no "Can I have a few days to wrap things up?" They simply dropped their nets and walked away.
These nets weren't just tools - they were their livelihood, their security, their Plan A, B, and C. In one moment of radical obedience, they burned every bridge back to their old life. There would be no returning to fishing if this Jesus thing didn't work out.
What This Means for Modern Disciples
Your Nets Look Different, But They're Just as Heavy
You probably don't own a fishing boat. But you have nets - things that provide security, identity, and control. Maybe it's:
The Career Net: That job that pays well but slowly kills your soul. The position that gives you status but demands compromises you know aren't right. The career path that makes perfect sense to everyone except the Holy Spirit stirring in your heart.
The Relationship Net: The comfortable but spiritually stagnant relationship. The friend group that subtly pulls you away from godly pursuits. The romantic relationship you know isn't God's best but feels too scary to leave.
The Reputation Net: The carefully curated image you've built. The need to be seen as successful, put-together, or respectable. The fear of what people will think if you actually live out radical faith.
The Security Net: The savings account that's become your real savior. The backup plans that reveal you don't really trust God's provision. The insurance policies against actually having to live by faith.
Following Jesus Is Not an Add-On
Here's what we need to understand: Christianity in its truest form is not an app you download to enhance your existing operating system. It's a complete system replacement. Jesus doesn't want to be part of your life - He wants to be your life.
This is why so many people experience a "crisis of faith" a few years into following Jesus. They thought they were adding something spiritual to their existing life, but Jesus keeps demanding more. He's not content to be a Sunday morning activity or a moral compass for big decisions. He wants Monday through Saturday. He wants your career choices, your relationship decisions, your financial priorities, your parenting philosophy, your entertainment choices - everything.
The Grace That Enables Radical Obedience
But here's the beautiful paradox: When Jesus calls you to leave your nets, He's not asking you to jump into emptiness. He's asking you to jump into His arms. The same grace that forgives your past empowers your future. The same Jesus who calls you to radical obedience enables it.
Those fishermen didn't know they would witness miracles, hear the greatest teaching ever spoken, or become foundational leaders in a movement that would change the world. They just knew Jesus was worth following. And somehow, mysteriously, that was enough.
The Promise Hidden in the Price
"Fishers of Men" - A Clever Promise of Greater Purpose
When Jesus told these commercial fishermen He would make them "fishers of men," He was speaking their language. He was promising that their skills wouldn't be wasted - they'd be transformed. The patience, persistence, and strategy required for successful fishing would transfer to an infinitely more important catch.
But notice the verb - "I will make you become." This is a process, not an instant transformation. Following Jesus doesn't immediately make you a spiritual superhero. It begins a journey of becoming who God created you to be. The disciples would spend three years being shaped, challenged, corrected, and equipped. The call to follow was just the beginning.
Trading Temporary for Eternal
What looks like loss from an earthly perspective is investment from an eternal one. Those nets they left on the shore? They were going to rot eventually anyway. The fishing business? It would have provided a comfortable life for maybe 40 more years. But the souls they would reach, the churches they would plant, the words they would write that we still read today? That's an investment that's still paying dividends 2,000 years later.
The Modern Application: What Net Is Jesus Asking You to Drop?
The Comfortable Christian Myth
Many of us have believed a lie that we can follow Jesus without leaving anything behind. We want discipleship without discipline, crown without cross, resurrection without crucifixion. But Jesus hasn't changed His terms. Following Him still means leaving nets on the shore.
This doesn't mean every Christian needs to quit their job tomorrow. But it does mean every Christian needs to hold their job loosely, ready to leave if Jesus calls. It means your career serves your calling, not the other way around. It means you're a Christian who happens to be a teacher, lawyer, or plumber - not a teacher, lawyer, or plumber who happens to be a Christian.
Practical Steps for Net-Dropping Faith
Identify Your Nets: What are you holding onto for security that might be holding you back from full obedience? Be specific. Write them down.
Count the Cost: Jesus actually encourages us to count the cost of following Him. What would it look like to truly surrender that area of your life? What's the worst that could happen? What's the best that could happen?
Start Small, But Start: Maybe you can't quit your job today, but you can start using your lunch break to minister to coworkers. Maybe you can't leave that relationship today, but you can start setting boundaries that honor God.
Find Your Fishing Crew: The disciples left their nets together. Find others who are serious about following Jesus. Radical obedience is easier when you're not alone.
Focus on the Caller, Not the Call: The disciples didn't follow a philosophy or a program - they followed a Person. The more you know Jesus, the easier it becomes to trust Him with everything.
The Question That Changes Everything
Two thousand years ago, Jesus walked along a beach and ruined four perfectly good businesses with two simple words: "Follow me." Those men had no idea they were saying yes to becoming world-changers, history-makers, and spiritual fathers to billions of believers who would come after them. They just knew Jesus was worth following.
The same Jesus is walking the shores of your life today. He sees you mending your nets, planning your future, managing your careful life. And He's extending the same invitation: "Follow me."
The question isn't whether following Jesus will cost you something - it absolutely will. The question is whether what you gain is worth what you lose. Those first disciples would tell you it's the best trade you'll ever make. You give up nets that will rot and receive a purpose that's eternal. You give up control and receive adventure. You give up your small story and become part of His grand story.
What net is Jesus asking you to leave on the shore today? Whatever it is, remember this: The Caller is always worth more than what He's calling you to leave. Those disciples left successful fishing businesses. But they gained Jesus. Two thousand years later, we don't remember them for the fish they caught. We remember them for the Savior they followed.
The invitation stands. The question remains. Will you follow immediately, or will you keep mending your nets?
An Invitation to go Deeper….
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