The Life and Mission of Jesus Christ: Episode 13

Rev. Sun Myung Moon: The Life and Mission of Jesus Christ
Chapter 2: Jesus’ Early Ministry, Summoning the Fishermen, Page 37-39

Summoning the Fishermen

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him.

Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. (Matthew 4:18-24)

When God sent his only Son to this world to establish his kingdom on earth, don’t you think he wanted to be followed by the most able people of his age? Do you think that God wanted only the outcasts of society to follow Jesus? Not at all! The failure of John the Baptist broke the link between the Son of God and the people. As a result, only fishermen, tax collectors, harlots, and lepers followed Jesus Christ. This brought great grief to the heart of God.

If the Lord is returning to the world today, is it not most logical that all the leadership of Christianity—the bishops, the cardinals, the pope, and all the evangelists and great ministers of the world—should become the first group to welcome the Christ? If they followed the Lord and became his first disciples, the establishment of his kingdom would be infinitely easier.

You may say, “Reverend Moon, by what authority are you speaking? What makes you so sure?” I do have the authority to say these things. God showed me the truth. I met Jesus. Jesus himself showed me these truths. And I met John the Baptist, too, in the spirit world. He himself bore witness to the truth of this testimony. After these extraordinary spiritual experiences, when I returned to the reality of this world, the same Bible I had been reading took on a whole new meaning.

The Future of Christianity
October 28, 1973

Even today in Korea, fishermen are poor and lowly people and not well respected. You can imagine how Jesus may have felt when he had to seek out ignorant fishermen 2,000 years ago.

Rejected by the prepared people, Jesus came as a laborer and as a friend of the fishermen. He shared his life, heart, and desires with them. He fought on with the determination that he would help satisfy their hearts’ desires, even at the cost of his life. The reason fishermen such as Peter could follow him was because Jesus testified and fought with this kind of heart and mind-set. What did Jesus do for three years after picking these uneducated disciples? In the same way that God had served and toiled for 4,000 years to raise the Israelites, Jesus chose them and served them.

Jesus had great hopes for the twelve disciples he had chosen. It was Jesus whom God had sent to influence Judaism and guide the priests and officials. His ideology was grand, his hopes were great, and his heartistic level was high. What did Jesus do while looking at these people? Through the three years of his ministry, Jesus passed through the same course as God, who had walked the path of sacrifice and service for the sake of raising the people. Therefore, Jesus searched for disciples, forgetting food and drink. When he had something to wear, he gave it to his disciples, disregarding his rags. If there was some comfortable place to sleep, he let his disciples sleep there and sat in an uncomfortable place.

The Incarnation of Jesus, a Pioneer
February 1, 1959