To this day I have a hard time wrapping my head around being a dad. After four kids and six years, one would expect a better grasp. One reason seems to be that for years I was the person running an individual race of trying to achieve, become educated, get a job, and so forth. But now I am overseeing a family and seeking to lead others in God’s will for their lives. It has been quite a change for me and one I’m still growing in. This week I looked out over Mission Bay and prayed for God’s help to better wrap my hands around fatherhood.

Sometimes we can be a Christian for years and still have a hard time wrapping our minds around our new reality. The good news is that God has given us metaphors that make the abstract very concrete. If I were to ask you to give a metaphor for a disciple of Jesus, what metaphor would you give? Fill in the blank, a disciple of Jesus is _____________. The metaphor we think of will likely have an impact on our living as a disciple of Jesus and our involvement in the disciple making process.

As a church, one of our goals is to make disciples. In order to do so we need to wrap our minds around being a disciple. One solution is to have biblical metaphors at the front of our minds. These metaphors inform us of who we are and what we do.

In Mark 1:14–18 Jesus offers one such metaphor.

¹⁴Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, ¹⁵and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

¹⁶And as He walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. ¹⁷Then Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” ¹⁸They immediately left their nets and followed Him.

¹⁹When He had gone a little farther from there, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the boat mending their nets. 20 And immediately He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went after Him.

What strikes us in this passage are Jesus’ initiative actions. Mark L. Strauss says,

“Discipleship was common among the rabbis of the first century, although Jesus’ manner of calling was unusual. Normally a student would seek out a particular rabbi and ask to follow him. Jesus instead approaches disciples and calls them.”¹

And Jesus calls these four men not just into the Kingdom of God (1:14–15), but to participate in the ministry of the kingdom of God with Him (1:17).

Jesus gives us a metaphor for discipleship here—fishers of men. Strauss informs us that,

“The image of fishing for people is found in the OT, though always in the context of impending judgment (Jer 16:16; Ezek 29:4–5; 38:4; Amos 4:2; Hab 1:14–17). Jesus reverses this image to one of salvation. To fish for people is to rescue them from sin and death by calling them into God’s kingdom.”²

To be a fisher of men (or people) helps us to wrap our minds around being a disciple of Jesus. As fishers we actively participate in extending the ministry of the kingdom of God to others. We see people swimming in a sea of danger ready to be devoured and cast our lines to them in hopes that they will bite. As Jesus’ disciples, we are always fishing, for He is always fishing through us! We are always ready to invite, to share, to pray, to converse, and to share our Lord with other people.

This is but one metaphor among others, but it is an important one that helps us to grasp following Jesus. May it be at the forefront of our minds as we prayerfully seek to make disciples together. May we always be fishing in the pond of our neighborhoods, the lakes of our cities, and the oceans of our world.

And for those interested in a metaphor to wrap our minds around fatherhood and motherhood, there are plenty to choose from. As parents, we are firefighters, doctors, nurses, generals, soldiers, teachers, coaches, servants, chauffer’s, maids, butlers, principals, fans, etc. But perhaps out of all of these, shepherd best describes them all.