What sort of leader do we look for in church? Some of us look for a leader who can speak well or have good eloquence or has as some may say, the gift of the gab. Some of us may look for someone who could be a good organiser or a capable peacemaker. Some of us may look for someone who is charismatic and able to rile up the crowd into action. But how did Jesus choose leaders? Did he look for leaders the way some of us do?
In today’s Gospel, Jesus simply saw and called out to Simon and his brother Andrew, as well as James and John, the sons of Zebedee. Jesus did not make any grand or elaborate speech about following Him, but merely said: “Follow me and I will make you into fishers of men.” We do not have much details about whether these men had previously encountered Jesus, since the Gospel does not tell us everything, but Jesus must have been quite an extraordinary person in the minds and hearts of these men to enable them to just leave everything and follow Him.
An interesting observation we could gather from today’s Gospel is this: When other leaders rein in their supporters, they are actually gathering supporters and followers for their own benefit. They call on people to follow them so that they would have the support or clout to accomplish their goals. But what we see here in Jesus is different. He called these men to follow Him so that He could form them and make them into fishers of men. By doing so, Jesus was preparing these men not for his own political or personal benefit, but for mission for the greater glory of God.
As Christians, some of us may be called into certain leadership positions in church. Let us follow the example of Jesus, and help our fellow brothers and sisters to become fishers of men, so that we as a people of God could grow in relationship with Him and help others do the same.