Imagine for a moment that we are walking with Jesus during his early ministry. We pass through the villages and observe the fishermen at their nets by the seashore. We notice that Jesus doesn’t approach everyone, but quickly discerns a readiness in certain ones to follow him. It would be obvious that this is not an ordinary man because the life of everyone he meets is changed in one way or another.
As Jesus walks by the sea, he calls out to two fishermen, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets, and followed him” (Matthew 4:19, 20). Becoming “fishers of men” must have inspired questions and possibilities in those Galilean fishermen when Jesus called them to leave all. If Jesus had pursued his mission without taking a student, Christianity would have disappeared with him. It was as natural for him to instruct and illustrate his understanding of God as it was for him to heal.
Christ Jesus’ words and works were evidence of his own commitment, his own character, setting the standards for discipleship. Each time the devil tempted him in the wilderness, he triumphed through his understanding of Scripture. “It is written,” he replied to each temptation. His Sermon on the Mount requires obedience to the Ten Commandments, with humility, purity, a high sense of spiritual priorities, forgiveness, love one to another, trust, and temperance. The Beatitudes express clear examples for attitudes of being and doing.
Now, lest we become discouraged by these requirements on us as Jesus’ followers, let us examine the characteristics of some of the disciples. They were certainly not perfect from the beginning, when Jesus called them, but grew in moral stature through trials and victories. Their lives were set in new directions through changed ways and motives, and Jesus’ guiding love for them.
Simon Peter was impetuous, over-confident, and a natural leader. Recognizing Simon’s potential, Jesus patiently taught, waiting for him to awake to his true nature. When he acknowledged Jesus as the Christ, he was renamed Peter. He denied Jesus before the crucifixion, as Jesus had predicted, then wept bitterly. After the resurrection, when Jesus said to him repeatedly, “Feed my sheep” (see John 21:15–17), Peter was being called to a higher sense of purpose. He went on to become a principal speaker of the apostles, performing the first recorded healing work after Jesus’ ascension.
Jesus named James and John the “sons of thunder,” no doubt because they had a fervent and impetuous spirit. We know from Mark 10:35–37 that they were ambitious for position. Of the two, John was the more prominent, later being called the apostle of love. According to Christian tradition, John was the one who received the revelation on the island of Patmos (see Revelation 1:9).
The disciples embraced the Christliness of their own being, and so can we.
Thomas was slow to believe that Jesus had risen from the grave, saying that only material evidence would convince him. However, beholding his Master after the resurrection instantly removed his doubts, and he declared, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28).
Matthew was a tax collector, but his dedication to Jesus was unquestioned. Little is known of the character of the other faithful disciples—Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew (also known as Nathanael), James (son of Alphaeus), Thaddaeus (or Jude), and Simon the Canaanite.
Judas Iscariot was chosen to manage the business affairs of the disciples. But covetousness, unfaithfulness, and ambition apparently ruled him, far outweighing what he should have been learning at the Master’s feet. After his betrayal of Jesus, he realized what sin he had committed and took his own life.
Saul, converted on the road to Damascus, was proud, pious, and zealous, the son of a Roman-Jewish family, and a scholar. He persecuted the Christians with self-righteous fervor, and after his conversion—being humbled and renamed Paul—carried that same fervor into his missionary work with the Gentiles. The light from heaven, what he perceived as Jesus’ voice speaking to him, and his healing of blindness changed his convictions and direction in life. He said, “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13, 14). He might have meant that we should not waste a single precious moment looking backward. After all, not looking or knowing where we are going can cause us to stumble and fall.
If some of these human failings sound uncomfortably familiar, we can take heart and realize that through the disciples’ humbling experiences, they learned to follow their Master’s word and do his works, the true meaning of discipleship. They embraced the Christliness of their own being, and so can we, because it is the Christ within us that remains as an active presence to guide our footsteps.
Are we as eager as those men of old to respond to the Master’s call? Does ambition rule our lives? Can we unhesitatingly relinquish our old ways and follow him, or does looking backward blind us to our true value as God’s loved and loving child? The disciples, who took backward steps and returned to their fishing at the sea of Tiberias after the crucifixion, caught nothing until the Master instructed them to “Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find” (John 21:6). They were obedient, changed their methods, and not only caught fish, but also became “fishers of men” as Jesus had instructed them.
If we become discouraged through testing times, let us remember that our failings and human history are mortal dreams that must eventually give way to truth. The only real history we have is our oneness with God. We have ample time and opportunity to grow Spiritward and change. If we are slow to grasp what we need to know, and make mistakes, we need not complain nor return to our old ways. We can press on, knowing that others before us with similar challenges have been victorious and left us encouragement through their examples. God’s love shines on us with uplifting light, making all things new as He did with the Apostle Paul.
In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy reassures us: “The purpose and motive to live aright can be gained now.… Working and praying with true motives, your Father will open the way. ‘Who did hinder you, that ye should not obey the truth?’ ” (p. 326).
In my work as a volunteer prison chaplain, I witnessed how the light of Christ changes lives. One man I visited was serving 12 years, both federal and state sentences. He had been a heavy drug user, quick to fight, and suffered from many physical ills. One day while reading about the three young Hebrew men thrown bound into the fiery furnace, he looked up at me and in a soft voice said, “You know, the very thing that was supposed to destroy them protected them, burned only their bonds and set them free. Kind of like me, here in this fiery furnace prison.” In time, his sentence was reduced, he was released, and he returned home to his family a new man (see “There is hope” by Marci Martin, February 2011 Journal).
No matter what our path may be, we can take comfort in the words of Paul, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (II Corinthians 5:17).
