And he said to them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. The call is a promise as much as a command: I will make you. The disciples are not recruited for their existing skills or spiritual attainments but for what Jesus will form them into. Fishers of men is not a job description but an image of mission — the gathering in of people, the expansive net of the kingdom's reach. Ezekiel 47:9–10 uses fishermen as a metaphor for the abundance of life in the coming kingdom. Jeremiah 16:16 speaks of God sending for many fishermen to gather Israel. The image of fishing is already loaded with eschatological significance; Jesus is applying it to human beings gathered into the coming kingdom.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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