We’ve domesticated Jesus’ call to discipleship. When Jesus told James and John, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people,” we’ve turned it into gentle evangelism—inviting folks to church, growing congregations, saving souls. Comfortable. Safe. Manageable.
But those Galilean fishermen heard something far more dangerous.
They knew their scriptures. When Jesus spoke of fishing for people, they immediately thought of Jeremiah’s promise that God would send fishermen to bring the nation back to God’s ways. They remembered Ezekiel’s prophecy against Pharaoh: God would put hooks in the jaws of empire, drag the mighty from their thrones, and scatter their enablers and sycophants. They recalled Amos condemning the “cows of Bashan”, the wealthy elite who oppress the poor while demanding luxury and service, promising they’d be dragged away with fishhooks.
This wasn’t evangelism. This was prophetic judgment.
These working-class men with callused hands understood immediately: Jesus was recruiting for a movement that would challenge exploitative power, confront those who devour widows’ houses, and overturn systems where the powerful accumulate while others starve. They caught a vision of the world made new where they wouldn’t be subject to the whims of whichever psychopath was most violent and most destructive, where the mighty would be scattered and the hungry filled.
No wonder they dropped their nets immediately.
The cross confirms this revolutionary vision. God’s power doesn’t operate through domination but through self-giving love. The crucified Christ unmasks every regime that promises security through oppression, every system that concentrates wealth while crushing the poor. Rome executed Jesus because his way fundamentally opposed their world, and ours.
The resurrection vindicates this mission and empowers ours.
We’re still called to be fishers of people. Still called to confront injustice and gather community. Still called to expose oppression and liberate the oppressed. Wesley understood this too. His emphasis on social holiness wasn’t optional piety but essential discipleship.
What if Jesus is calling us back to this radical mission? What if he’s saying: leave your settled expectations, your comfortable Christianity, and follow me into a movement that transforms the world from below through sacrificial love?
Perhaps there’s nothing more urgent.
Perhaps it’s time to drop our nets.