“Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:19)
As a kid I did a lot of fishing. In the area I was raised in, a can of worms and a cheap pole could occupy a lot of free time and make for some tasty meals. I haven’t done a lot of fishing since the days of my youth. Oh, I do take a pole when I go to Isle Royal, and I usually do “bring home the bacon” on those occasions. But at best, this amounts to only a few weeks of fishing since 1966. A friend reminded me of this fact when he called several weeks ago to find out if I wanted to go fishing; I gratefully declined but his invitation got me thinking.
When I went fishing as a kid, I used either worms or spinners…preferably Meps. We used to call them the “French Spinner.” In any case, we went through a lot of both. The worms would get bent up on the rocks in the fast-running streams and the spinners often found a place to get lodged in, or a tree branch to get hung in. The long and the short of it is that if you were going to catch fish you had to be prepared to sacrifice your bait. And the only way to catch fish was to have some kind of bait to sacrifice.
So, when Jesus said, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men,” was He asking us to be BAIT for the big catch? No wonder He had such a hard time finding guys to follow Him. The problem still exists today. Truth is I am not fond of thinking of myself as bait. Jesus, on the other hand is not concerned so much about how comfortable my life is while here in this transitory place. Repeatedly He told folks not to worry what they should wear or what they should eat. He even sent them out to do mission work without resources; take no bag, no money, etc. I think that this call to follow Him is a call to be bait…bait for the Kingdom of God; to die if necessary…to be sacrificed to “bring home the bacon” for His Father. Not convinced? Read Psalm 22:6 and see if I am not right about us and about Jesus also. A worm…but a holy worm just the same. So, the next time you see someone walking to the edge of the stream with an old Folgers can of worms and a pole, know that the work is not yet done, and the method has not yet changed. Jesus is counting on us and though I can’t speak for you, I am hooked.
Father Bill Myrick
