After dispensing with the devil, and hearing about John the Baptist’s arrest, Jesus begins his ministry and calls out the 12 disciples. I remember thinking that that was supposed to be the model for all Christians, drop everything and follow Jesus. I think spiritually it holds true, but I guess way back when, as a 15-year-old thinking about what I wanted to do with my life, I just assumed that it was to just “live for God” and somehow live like the disciples. I mean, anything less would be to be “double-minded” or to have two “masters.” And I was most definitely of the “wear your spirituality on your sleeve” kind of person. Little wonder that friends who didn’t share my beliefs became scarce and eventually nonexistent. The thing is that this is a perfect example of the mistake I made looking at the bible and making the assumption that this was that way the all of life was supposed to be lived. Jesus has a real message here, but I don’t know that it’s that we have to all be full-time preachers. Anyway, I didn’t get that back then.

Actually there’s something interesting there about the brothers Zebedee (James and John) dropping their nets and leaving their father in a lurch to follow Jesus. I’m wondering if this didn’t go against some cultural edict about sons’ responsibilities to their fathers and families. I’m sure that someone’s written a doctoral thesis on that one verse in Matthew. I just found it interesting, given the importance of family unity that Matthew records the scene as he does. There’s always more here than one might expect. [to be continued]… JBB