Bible verse wall art
Matthew 4: the wilderness, then the call by the lake
Matthew 4 is the hinge between the private preparation of Jesus and his public ministry. It opens with forty days alone in the desert and ends with crowds following him from every corner of the region.
Matthew 4 print
Matthew 4 · King James Version
19 Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men
Forty days in the wilderness
Straight after his baptism in the Jordan, Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness and fasts forty days and forty nights. The tempter comes three times: turn stones into bread, throw yourself from the pinnacle of the temple, bow down in exchange for all the kingdoms of the world. Each time Jesus answers with a line from Deuteronomy, beginning with man shall not live by bread alone.
The forty days recall Israel's forty years in the desert, and where Israel complained and tested God, Jesus trusts and obeys. Luke 4 tells the same temptations in a different order.
Light for Galilee
When Jesus hears that John has been put in prison, he withdraws to Galilee, leaves Nazareth and settles in Capernaum, a fishing town on the northern shore of the lake. Matthew sees Isaiah 9 fulfilled: the people which sat in darkness saw great light. From then on Jesus begins to preach, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
What does “fishers of men” mean?
Walking by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus sees two brothers, Simon called Peter and Andrew, casting a net into the water, for they were fishermen. He says to them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men, and they straightway leave their nets. A little further on he calls James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who are mending nets in a boat with their father. They leave the boat and their father and follow.
The image is a play on their trade. They already knew how to gather fish; now they would gather people into the kingdom. The call comes with no program and no promise of comfort, only a person to follow, and the Gospel records no hesitation. For many readers that simplicity is the whole challenge of the passage.
Our Jesus by the Lake print holds this moment of invitation. As Christian wall art it suits a pastor's study, a youth room or the home of someone just starting out in faith or in ministry, and it is often chosen for an ordination or a confirmation.
The call repeated
Luke 5 tells a fuller version of this calling, with a miraculous catch of fish before Peter leaves everything. And in John 21, after the resurrection, the story comes full circle: another night of empty nets, another great catch at Jesus' word, and to Peter once more the words follow me.