Jesus Chooses His Disciples: Would I Have Been Chosen for This Job?

7th in a series on Men and Women in the Bible dealing with waiting, disappointment and unemployment.

Scripture: Matthew 4:18-22

Would I Have Been Chosen for This Job?

Jesus chose his disciples.  That doesn’t sound so unusual except that 2,000 years ago, potential disciples applied with certain Rabbis hoping to be accepted as their students.  Not too different from today’s employment picture.  Also, the ones Jesus chose: Simon, Peter, Andrew, James and John, were not looking for a career change.  They were fishermen, working in the open sea, mending nets, dealing daily with weather and selling their catch to retail merchants.

Jesus used a play on words in order to draw the men in.   “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”  Pretty catchy huh?  I wonder if Jesus worked with a branding expert before he went out and tried it on people.  Maybe, being a carpenter himself he thought about going after fellow wood crafters.  ‘Come follow me and we’ll hammer the truth home’.  Or farmers….’Come follow me and plant seeds for the harvest.’  Okay, he actually used that later.  

We do not have in writing if these men struggled with the decision, if James and John argued with their father or if there was any deliberation at all.  Were they so convinced of Jesus’ reputation that they were willing to leave a successful career for one of uncertainty?  If so, they were in good company.  Abraham left his home at the age of 75.  Noah became a carpenter at the age of 500.  Other prophets spoke God’s Word at great risk to their reputation.  

If our faith is of primary importance to us, what does that imply regarding the choice of a career?  Of course God needs people in all professions, but who will we be while selling widgets, representing insurance or financial institutions or working with our hands?  The men Jesus chose must have demonstrated diligence in their current calling for him to trust them with a new one.  What is our reputation currently?  Are we men and women of integrity who can be trusted with greater responsibility?

I also like the fact that Jesus chose men of common reputation.  He didn’t go to the palace looking for the privileged and educated.  Nor did he choose the current religious leaders of the day.  Wouldn’t that have been easier?  Aside from the education they got at home, what did they know about the deeper truths of their faith?  The well-educated should have been the better candidates.  By reading the Gospels we actually learn that the Teachers of the Law had gotten off message.  So much so, that in their life-long quest for the Messiah, they missed him when he was standing there in the flesh.  

Sometimes we make too much of our experience and education when the most important aspect of a life of wisdom is the ability to be teachable.  It appears that the fishermen were the best qualified for the job.

Many of my friends are in the market for a new job.  Some voluntarily and others by the choice of others.  It’s an opportune time to examine our lives and not only decide the kind of job we want, but also to determine what kind of people we will be.  The topics we talk about in our job seekers group, Career Prospectors, are not only for the benefit of ourselves but also to the betterment of society.  We learn that when we help others, we become better people.

I can imagine that the customers and even the families of the fishermen were detrimentally affected in the short run by their apparently rash decision to follow this new Rabbi.  But long term…OH MY!  Because they followed Jesus, the church is the most successful venture in world history.  The message of Jesus Christ has gone out into all the world.  Their choice that day to stop fishing for Tilapia and to take the message of the Messiah to all homo adoratus(men and women) radically transformed the world.

Transferable principles:

1. What am I doing today to make myself attractive to future employers?
2. What life skills do I have that go beyond simple employability?
3. The unemployed have faced hardship which makes them even more valuable because their worldview now includes a world previously unknown.
4. Faith in God will lead you into places that you never imagined.   
5. Are we men and women of integrity who can be trusted with greater responsibility?

I thank my God every time I remember you.  In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy  because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now,  being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

                                                         Philippians 1:3-6