So far we’ve seen that we the Church are fundamentally a sent people. The Church does not exist for itself, rather it exists for the world. And we’ve also seen that this thing called the Church is Jesus’: He started it, He’s sustained it, He is building it. What’s more: a gathered, called-out people was His intension from the very beginning of His ministry. At the start He gathered people and set them apart to send on mission.

And in so forming this called-out community, Jesus calls us out from a previous community and identity.

Look at the Matthew (4:18-22) version:

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him.

Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Jesus literally says, “Come hither! Fall in behind me!” There is a calling out from where they were and who they were into an apprenticeship of His mission. No longer were they to be who they were before that calling. They would a different people, a part of a different mission.

From what communities and identities did Jesus call these guys out? What did they leave behind?

Obviously they left there jobs as fishermen; they abandon their nets and boats. These were young men (16-20?) who were a part of a culture that did not provide upward mobility like America. No American Dream for them! They were in a fishing family and would be fishermen for the rest of their lives. And contrary to what people have said, fishing was a fairly lucrative job. Since fish was a staple of the Judean diet, they would have lived a fairly comfortable life. So their identity as men was marked by nets and boats, an identity that would have been made them a fair-wage living.

But they abandon that identity to follow Jesus. In fact the dramatic language used indicates an immediate abandonment of their previous identity as fishermen. “At once they left their nests and followed Him.” While they didn’t exactly know what they were signing up for or even who this Jesus person really was, they knew enough that this was what they wanted to devote themselves to. This person and this mission was better than their lives as fishermen, and they wanted in.

But what’s interesting is they not only abandon their very livelihoods and identities, but also their families. James and John leave their father Zebedee to follow Jesus and into His mission. They “immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him,” which I find as a funny visual!

Here are James and John, still under the household, protection and authority of their father, fishing away with their papa and along comes Jesus. He beckons them to “come hither” and follow him into His mission and they want in. Whatever “in” is they want it. And they jump out, leave the boat, and abandon their father. Poor Zebedee!

But then I think about myself. I think about the Church, this ragamuffin group of broken, normal, ordinary, crazy people who have been called out from who they were before and set apart for mission. I wonder:

What do we need to leave behind as individuals to more passionately and deliberately follow Jesus and His mission?

What do we as a community need to leave behind to fully embrace our identity as a sent people, to fully participate in Jesus’ mission?

When we “become a Christian” or choose to enter into relationship with God through Christ, we are not simply signing-up to something like a bowling league. No, no. We are in large ways leaving and stepping away from an identity and a way of life, we are giving up everything to follow Jesus and step into His way and His mission. I love this episode, because portrays a sudden and complete change of lifestyle, involving leaving both work and family behind to follow behind Jesus and into His mission of “catching people.”

So in understanding our inherent identity as a called-out and sent people, we need to recapture the notion that we are called-out from a previous identity and rhythm of life. But the beauty is that we are not simply called-out from something to sit in a nebulous called-out state. Rather, we are called out and sent into, which is the topic of the next post…