"Fishers of Men" is Better Than "Fish for People"

Bonhoeffer, the Call to Discipleship, and Costly Grace

The lectionary Gospel passage for this Sunday of Epiphany is the God-who-is-human summoning the fishermen to follow him. The Word works what it says and they drop their nets with an immediacy that suggests they have no agency in the matter. Notice the repeated use of the word immediately in the passage:

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news." As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea--for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people."

And immediately they left their nets and followed him.

As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets.Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

— Mark 1:14-20

We live in a time when far too many people give their lives to things that are not worthy of our finitude, answer calls from leaders who are not of the Lord, and join movements that cannot make disciples. Too many of us are cultivating identities in relation to the wrong ends.

Identity is what is at stake in how we translate the verse above about fishing.

The Gospel for this Sunday of the season of Theophany recalls what is— for me— the strongest passage from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship. Most everyone has heard a version of Bonhoeffer’s line about cheap grace, but it’s only in the context of Bonhoeffer’s treatment of Christ’s powerful summons that Bonhoeffer’s distinction between costly grace and cheap grace becomes intelligible.