Fishers of Men and Their Mysterious Sage

Why did Jesus specifically choose fishermen?

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n the first century, Jews were not fond of any open space of water, seeing it as the abyss, the place where spirits dwell. That’s why the disciples thought Jesus was a ghost when he came walking on the water (see Matthew 14:26), and why Jesus sent demons into pigs that immediately went into the water and drowned (see Matthew 8:28-32). 

There were not too many fishermen at this time due to the fact that the water was not considered a safe place to work. This meant that fishermen were at least a brave group of people.

The most compelling reason that Jesus chose fishermen, and the one that first century Jews would have recognized as being a sign that Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, has to do with a prophesy in Jeremiah.

“‘…the days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when men will no longer say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’ but they will say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them to.’ For I will restore them to the land I gave their forefathers. ‘But now I will send for many fishermen,’ declares the Lord, ‘and they will catch them’” (Jeremiah 16:14-16) NIV.

Jesus sent his disciples (a large percentage being fishermen) to fish for the lost sheep of Israel who had been spread out among the lands.

“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’” (Matthew 4:18-19). 

“These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: ‘Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel…’” (Matthew 10:5-6).

To see a rabbi with disciples would have been no reason to take notice of Jesus and his group in first century Israel. But to see him gathering fishermen as disciples was one more reason why the Romans and the Jews took notice of this mysterious sage from Galilee.

In His dust,

Johnny

Writer: Capt. Jonathan Gainey was born in Jacksonville, FL in June, 1969. He has been married to Staci, the daughter of retired Salvation Army officers, for twenty years and they have four children ages 18, 16, 12, and 4. Jonathan was commissioned as an officer in June of 2002, and is currently serving in his third appointment in New Bern, NC, USA. He is working on a Masters of Divinity from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and is the creator and manager of the Flocks Diner website, where his passion for learning and teaching is expressed and shared through writing and a weekly podcast.

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