besquared.org Blog

Today’s Text

Have you seen the show Mythbusters. It is a fun show. It has just the right mix of science and juvenile foolishness. Each week they analyze some myth of popular culture to see if it is possible. My favorite so far is their test to see if a little kid really kid float away if they happened to grab the entire bunch of balloons from the clown at the fair. This myth was busted. They kept inflating balloons until they lifted a 20 pound weight. It took hundreds.

Sometimes teaching scripture is a bit like that. I don’t mean that I have to inflate hundreds of balloons, but rather that I find in necessary to destroy cherished myths. I used to enjoy this, but I enjoy it no longer. Many times these myths have become so intertwined with peoples faith that to undermine the myth also threatens their faith. (Learning about the writing and transmission of scripture can do this to some people.) So today when I know that I will be shaking myths I try to do so with great caution. (This is one of the many reasons that Revelation is so hard to teach.)
Today I get to start by busting a myth. I doubt it will shake anyones faith but it is a pretty common myth and it is a hard one to shake. Even though I know better, I find myself letting the myth impact my reading of this story. The myth goes something like this.

One day, Jesus saw some Fisherman and he called them to follow him and they dropped their nets and followed him.

You might be thinking to yourself, “That is no myth. That just happened. I just read that.” I suppose that you are half right. But it becomes a myth because we have separated this event out of its context. I have had many people describe this event as the first meeting between Peter and Jesus. Even when people don’t make that factual error, this story is often related in both art and preaching as happening out of the blue, with little context in the life of Peter.

That is simply not the case. Peter is not meeting Jesus for the first time. There is no reason to think that he is surprised to be asked. He is not swayed by the mystical power of Jesus’ command apart from other influences. If you take the time time to look at other gospels you can find out more, but even from Luke alone we find that Peter does not encounter Jesus with no background. Rather it is the case that Jesus has been preaching in the region for some time. He is well-known and apparently easy to recognize. (If Peter had heard the upside down sermon he would have liked it. Fishermen were pretty low on the social ladder.) He has recently miraculously healed Peter’s mother-in-law. Jesus has already involved Peter in ministry by using his boat for his sermon, and he has demonstrated his power again by a fishing miracle.

We can be sure of at least four significant interactions before the call to join him as a disciple. Three of these involved miracles and two involved sermons. And it is very reasonable to assume that Peter has heard more of Jesus in other places. So the myth that Jesus just called some guy and that guy just responded on little evidence and even less explanation is busted. (Some of you may have never believed the myth, but it is common enough that I expect it has affected your reading of this text.)

So without the myth what do we have.  Jesus is in the region of Galilee and is preaching.  He is preaching from Simon’s (who will be Peter) boat.  So far this in keeping with his ministry strategy.  Preach, heal and then move on. However in this story two things change.  We get a new kind of miracle and he asks someone to follow him.  This new kind of miracle shows that Jesus not only has command over illness but that he has command over nature.  For Peter, this particular miracle has economic implications.  If Jesus had made hundreds of pigeons appear that would have been a good trick, but this is worth something. Peter and his buddies must find themselves thinking, “If Jesus worked for us we could really make some money.”  But if that thought is in the back of their minds it is overwhelmed by the realization that they are not worthy.  That seems to me to be an appropriate reaction.  I am too quick to feel worthy when I am used by God.  Peter gets it, I think.
But Jesus isn’t working for them which brings us to the next new thing that happens.  Jesus calls them to follow him.  I find myself imagining this response.  “That is a good idea Jesus but first why don’t you do that trick with the fish a few times and lets make a little money.”  Their response is more fitting.

We noticed earlier that John the Baptist called people to stay in their current lives and live them better.  Jesus has not broken from that model as far as we know, until now.  Here he does so in a dramatic way.  First he shows that if he backed Simon’s agenda they could catch more fish then Simon has ever seen.  Then he calls Simon away from that agenda.  Just when Simon’s current job is at its best, he calls him to something new.  Jesus miracle both emboldens Simon as his friends and puts them in a situation where they have something to lose. Someone else will sell those fish.  Someone else will use those boats.

I suppose that someone could right a book based on this theory – “Called away from Success.”  It wouldn’t sell very well, but that is okay.  It certainly isn’t always true either.  But it is worth noticing, that in this situation, they were called into the missionfield at the top of their game, on their best day of business ever.

-Ethan