One day, as Jesus was walking along the shore of the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers - Simon, also called Peter and Andrew - throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living.
Jesus called out to them, 'Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!'
They left their nets at once and followed him.
I always thought this was crazy. Why would these men leave their careers in a moment to accept a vague invitation?
I mean, he's Jesus, so maybe there was such a magnetism about him that they couldn't help but to follow him...but based on Isaiah 53:2 ("There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him"), it seems that was probably not the case.
So what could lead to their actions?
I was in Nashville for a music conference once, and after a session one evening, I walked to a convenience store to grab a snack.
While I was there, a fairly famous musician came into the store - Steven Curtis Chapman.
Because I understand that celebrities are just human, I have no interest in requesting autographs. I don't have any dislike for the man, I just know that we're not going to spark a long term friendship in a convenience store, so I didn't bother him as he was just trying to buy some food and keep moving even though I was the only other person in the store in addition to his agent/manager guy.
But even though I didn't interact with him, I knew who he was. If he had suddenly turned to me and offered to hire me at $100K per year, I would have immediately accepted, knowing he had the resources to do it.
Back to Galilee - word of this Jesus must have swept through the vicinity. People must have talked about how this great Rabbi was in the area of the seashore today. But with work to do, and a likely less than perfect religious record, the fisherman surely never expected Jesus to pay them any attention. There was no point in going up to him because there was no chance of some long term relationship starting.
But when he suddenly started walked among the boats of workers, they must've known who he was.
To their shock, Jesus doesn't just walk by, but turns to talk to them. Not to condemn them, but to invite them.
In light of this, we could understand their reaction.
They knew before he ever asked that he was worth following, they simply never expected they would be allowed to do so, much less to be invited to do so by Jesus himself.