Matthew 4:18-23

Here Jesus calls His first disciples.  There is no doubt that Jesus is assuming the role of rabbi, and there is no doubt that these men accepted Jesus in that role.  It would not have been unusual for a rabbi to gather a small following of disciples to teach and train.  It was incredibly unusual, however, for a rabbi to recruit disciples from the fishing villages along the Sea of Galilee.  All four of these first disciples were professional fishermen.  Men who make their livelihood from the sea have never been considered among the intellectually elite or the sophisticated of society.  These were the most common of common men.  They would never have even been considered for discipleship by other rabbis -that was unthinkable -a rabbi chooses disciples from among the educated.  But here Jesus, the rabbi, comes walking down the beach as they were mending their nets and He says, "Follow me."

Jesus, a rabbi, asked these professional fishermen to leave their nets and leave their family businesses and leave everything that they have become, everything they know, everything that they were going to be -leave life as they knew it, and become disciples.  Jesus was asking them to walk where He walked, eat what He ate, sleep where He slept, and learn what He taught.  This invitation required a serious decision.

I'm sure these fishermen understood the choice they were making.  They could stay with the lives they were already leading -or leave everything to follow Jesus.  It was an all or nothing decision.  There was no way to continue in what they were doing and at the same time be disciples of Jesus.  They could not hang on to the old and enter into the new.  It was an exchange -everything they were for who Jesus was going to teach them to be.

This is actually the same invitation that Jesus gives us today.  "Follow me."  Leave what you were thinking and how you were behaving and plans you have had for yourself -leave it all and follow Jesus.  Leave the old and enter into the new.  It's still an all or nothing exchange:  Old for New.