along and sees a pair of fishermen, brothers, casting a net. He calls Peter and Andrew; they drop everything and follow him. A little farther down the beach he calls another set of brothers, James and John, hard at work mending their nets. Jesus also calls these two. Right away they follow Jesus, leaving their daddy in the boat.7
Description #2: Jesus is walking along through an undetermined town. Perhaps Jesus sees a small gathering of interested observers, whispering and pointing. One of the observers is Andrew, mentioned earlier in Description #1, nowhere near a net. But here’s the funny thing. Jesus walks right by these interested observers without a word. Ignores them is another way of saying it. Two inquirers (one is Andrew) scamper behind a rather aloof Jesus to ask questions.
So, which of these two descriptions is more biblically accurate? Oddly, they’re equally accurate descriptions of discipleship—the Jesus who takes the initiative in finding us, and we who take the initiative in finding a rather elusive Jesus. The stories should not compete with one another. More and more I’m discovering that both are vitally important facets of the Christian life.
*
Lutherans get this right, I’m convinced: God acts, Jesus acts, to find us in our waywardness, our sin. We are called out of darkness into his marvelous light. The reason we baptize babies is not because they’re so cute, but because the sacrament is God’s action; God claiming a new child in a fallen world. Few things disturb me more than re-baptism. “Babies don’t know what they’re doing,” is the rationale. “Now at an older age, they do.” I once met a man who’d been baptized six times. The reason this is wrong-headed is that the sacrament (at whatever age) is about God acting, not about our relative worthiness or understanding. Baptism is grace in liquid form.
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