Hear this word, you cows of Bashan who are on |
There is an ominous shadow that hangs on Jesus’ promise to make us become fishers of men. As the presence of a fisherman is threatening to the fish and is the ill-omened potential for final judgment on the fishes’ very lives, so is Jesus’ call to become his fisher-follows. Not only are our lives turned-up-side-town when we heed Jesus’ call to follow him, our very presence as fisher-followers should turn everything around us on its head. Our presence as fishers should, by our lives, actions, and advocacy, bring judgment on the status quo of any anti-God cultural set of values and its systems of injustice—the very implications of the Old Testament background of Jesus’ phrase “fishers of men.” | Most likely Amos 4:1-2 is one of the underpinning Old Testament referents that would have given the disciples a frame, a rather menacing edge, for understanding the potency of Jesus’ call on their lives. |
“It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Most likely Amos 4:1-2 is one of the underpinning Old Testament referents that would have given the disciples a frame, a rather menacing edge, for understanding the potency of Jesus’ call on their lives. In view of the inclusion (contextually) of Amos 4:1, namely the “cows of Bashan” referent, I have become wary of the poorly distributed resources, talents, and wealth among the richer, more affluent churches at the expense of the poorer churches, neighborhoods, and urban mission fields. By “expense” I am thinking biblically, not culturally, socially or (heaven forbid) politically, nor through the lens of class, but by the very New Testament discipleship implications, namely that those with advantages (“privilege,” if I may) who are called by their association with Jesus to help those who are at a disadvantage. The assumption that it takes more money to reach the rich and affluent than the poor is turned on its head by the very presence of the Kingdom (cf. Mark 1:17 with Mark 1:14-15). A more gospel-centered and mature view of discipleship seem to argue that it takes far more resources to go into the poor urban fields to bring forth a harvest for the gospel of the kingdom. These are under-resourced communities in every imaginable aspect of life. |
I am reminded that in the same Gospel of Mark we soon see Jesus reclining at the table, where there were tax collectors and sinners dining with our master and his newly called fisher-followers. (Mark calls them his disciples.) The scene in Mark 2:15-17 is relevant to this discussion for the temple-keepers questioned why this radical rabbi would be eating and drinking with such tax collectors and sinners? Jesus overhears their grumbling and says to them, | “The assumption that it takes more money to reach the rich and affluent than the poor is turned on its head by the very presence of the Kingdom.” |
True fisher-followers of Jesus will not rationalize their standing in the community nor their affluence, but will count their privilege, their advantage, at the disposal of the “sick” who need a physician. Paul is not far from the same imagery when he describes how Jesus took his advantage (his privilege) and gave it all on behalf of all those with the greatest of disadvantage.
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Phil 2:5-8).
Michael Card prophetically reflects this Marken view of Jesus and the gospel in the words of his song, The Stranger:
You’re still a stranger |