"As Jesus was walking..." (v. 18). Jesus was doing the simplest and most ordinary thing: walking. He wasn't meandering aimlessly, gazing off into the sky. He wasn't running. He was simply walking.
"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men" (v.19). Jesus calls to Simon Peter and Andrew and invites them into what he is already doing: walking. Jesus always invites us into what he is already doing; and usually, he is walking in the daily routine, the mundane and the ordinary. But Jesus also makes them a promise that, as they follow, he will make them fishers of men. He did not command them to be fishers of men; he simply said "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men". So, how do we become fishers of men? We follow Jesus. That's all. Following precedes becoming.
"At once they left their nets and followed him" (v. 20). When Jesus called Peter and Andrew, they obeyed "at once". When he later called James and John, "immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him" (v.22). All of them obeyed instantly. But what really strikes me is this: they obeyed the simplest meaning of Jesus's words first. In other words, they didn't sit there and discuss whether following meant symbolically or actually - they followed literally, physically. They walked away from family, livelihood, all they had known - literally. They didn't consult the notes and interpretations in their study bibles nor talk to theologians about "what Jesus really meant". They didn't seek out some less radical definition of Jesus's words. No, they obeyed literally. By obeying the surface meaning of following Jesus literally and physically, it lead them ultimately into the deeper meaning of following him literally and spiritually, i.e., by the Holy Spirit.
Do I follow literally, obeying the simplest meaning first? Or do I want to only want the deeper meaning? Am I content to obey in walking with Jesus in the ordinary? Or do I only seek the fame and greatness of the extraordinary? Do I want following Christ to be something tame and less radical? Or do I follow in order to become what he has called me to be?
Can anything less than this truly be called "following", much less "radical"?
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