Immediately

While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him.  And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them.  Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. Matthew 4:18-22

Jesus told Simon Peter and Andrew to follow him. He called to James and John.

And immediately they left nets, boat, father and followed Jesus.

Jesus called. And the response was immediate. They left what they were doing, who they were with. And followed Jesus.

They dropped everything. Didn’t ask any questions. And immediately followed Jesus.

What was it about Jesus that led to such a response? Is there information not revealed in the Gospels (or revealed in another Gospel) that would shed insight into this response? Did Jesus say more that’s not recorded here, like “hurry up?”

If I had time tonight (and I don’t), I’d check out the other Gospels to see if there’s more to the story. Something tells me that the fishermen had spent time with Jesus prior to this calling – and so the immediate repsonse isn’t as strange. They knew a bit about Jesus, knew his character, were already inclined to follow him.

But the more important question for me personally, is how would I respond? When Jesus calls me to do something, do I respond immediately? Leave what I’m doing? Follow him who knows where? I suspect there would be a lot of clarification required before I dropped everything to go where Jesus called. Or maybe something about his voice, his character, his commanding personality, his love, his call would make it easy to follow immediately, leaving everything behind.

It’s something to ponder. What about Jesus and what about me would lead me to respond like Peter, Andrew, James and John? I’d like to know.