Two words. That is all it took.
He did not hand them a curriculum. He did not present a seven-step programme. He did not ask them to pass an examination, produce a reference letter, or demonstrate a minimum level of spiritual competence. He simply looked at them, fishermen, tax collectors, ordinary men with ordinary lives, and said two words that would alter the entire course of their existence: Follow Me.
And they left everything and followed Him (Matthew 4:20).
I have read that verse dozens of times. And every time I read it, the same question rises in my heart: what is it about those two words that produces that kind of response? What is it about the invitation of Jesus that makes a man drop his nets, leave his livelihood, walk away from everything familiar, and step into the unknown?
I believe the answer tells us everything we need to know about what it truly means to follow Christ.
The Weight of the Invitation
In the first century, to be invited to follow a rabbi was one of the highest honours a young Jewish man could receive. Rabbis did not recruit students randomly. They carefully selected only those they believed had the capacity to become like them, to think like them, to live like them, to carry their teaching forward into the world.
Most young men were not chosen. They were sent home to learn their fathers trade. Fishing. Tax collecting. Carpentry. They were told, in effect, that they were not rabbi material. That they were not extraordinary enough to carry the torch of Torah.
And then Jesus came.
He did not go to the synagogue schools to find the brightest and the most polished. He went to the sea. He went to the tax booth. He went to the places where the ones who had already been passed over were living out their ordinary lives. And He looked at them, these ordinary, unschooled, unimpressive men, and He said: Follow Me.
The invitation of Jesus is not reserved for the qualified. It is extended to the willing.
What Following Actually Means
We have domesticated the call to follow Christ. We have made it comfortable, manageable, and convenient. We have turned it into a Sunday morning activity, a label we wear, a box we tick on a form. But when Jesus said “Follow Me,” He was not inviting people to a religion. He was inviting them into a relationship, one that would cost them everything and give them everything in return.
To follow Jesus in the first century meant to go where He went. To eat what He ate. To sleep where He slept. To learn by watching, by listening, by doing. It meant that your life was no longer your own agenda. You had given over the steering wheel entirely.
In Luke 9:23, Jesus makes this explicit: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Daily. Not once at an altar call. Not occasionally when life gets difficult. Daily. The cross is not a metaphor for minor inconvenience. It is the symbol of a life fully surrendered.
Following Jesus means your comfort is no longer the highest priority. Your reputation is no longer the highest priority. Your plans, your preferences, your timelines, none of these sit on the throne any longer. He does.
The Road He Leads You On
I will not pretend to you that the road of following Christ is easy. It is not. Jesus never promised it would be. What He promised was that He would be on it with you, and that where He leads, it is always worth going.
He led the disciples through storms on the sea, and then He walked on the water to meet them in their fear. He led them through confusion and doubt, and then He opened the Scriptures and made their hearts burn within them. He led them through the darkness of the cross, and then He rose on the third day and changed everything.
The road of following Jesus is not a road that avoids difficulty. It is a road that transforms you through it.
Consider the disciples at the beginning and at the end. At the beginning, they were arguing about who was the greatest among them. At the end, they were laying down their lives for the gospel without fear or hesitation. What happened in between? They followed Jesus. They watched how He lived. They listened to how He spoke. They saw how He loved. And slowly, over three years of walking with Him, they became like Him.
That is what following does. It transforms you into the image of the One you follow.
The Question He Is Still Asking
Two thousand years have passed. The sea of Galilee is still there. The nets are different. The tax booths look different. But the invitation is the same.
Jesus is still looking at ordinary people, people who have been told they are not enough, not qualified, not impressive enough, and He is still saying: Follow Me.
He is looking at the student buried under the weight of expectation and saying: Follow Me.
He is looking at the young professional whose career has become their identity and saying: Follow Me.
He is looking at the person whose life has been derailed by choices they regret, whose past feels like a sentence they cannot escape, and He is saying: Follow Me.
Not when you have it together. Not when you are more worthy. Not when you have resolved all your questions. Now. As you are. Where you are.
The only question that remains is the one Peter and Andrew faced standing at the waters edge that morning. The question is not whether Jesus is calling. He is. The question is whether you will leave the nets.
“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”
, Matthew 4:19
