Can It Be Natural to Talk about Jesus?

I don’t have any qualms insisting someone watch a movie I enjoyed, so why do I flinch before even mentioning Jesus to them?

Has anyone else pondered this too?

When it comes to talking to others about Jesus, many feel more obligation than overflow, and maybe that’s the problem. When we are obligated, we do things because someone told us to or for some reason we believe it's right. When we overflow, we do things because it’s bubbling inside us or for many reasons we know it's true.

We might need more overflow.

And we probably need to rethink Jesus’ fishing metaphor.

I’m not one to criticize Jesus’ teaching, so let’s assume this issue is our wrong associations with his metaphor.

At the recruiting stage of Jesus’ ministry, he saw two brothers fishing. Let’s call them Peter and Andrew since those were their names. Jesus, for reasons we’ll never understand, thought these two anglers had the potential to change the world, so he invited them to join his movement, which hadn’t started moving yet. They would be the first members. To get them, Jesus talked their language.

“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people” (Matthew 4:19).

I assume there was some sort of Q&A that followed, but they eventually quit their fishing business and joined the movement.

I’ve never fished for money, but I’ve fished. My dad taught my brothers and me how to do it. It’s fun, sometimes, when the fish want to join your movement. Otherwise, it’s a fairly slow day for a kid who likes to run and yell.

Again, I’m no pro, but the basics of fishing with a rod and reel are these:  

You do whatever you have to do to get a fish to bite a very sharp hook so you can yank it excessively hard while it is in his or her (who knows?) mouth, which then allows you to drag it from both its home and the only environment in which it can survive and put it in the back of your truck, so later you can grill it, satisfy your taste buds, and turn it into energy so you can run and yell.

That’s where Jesus’ imagery falls apart for me, and it isn’t because it was bad teaching. But it is because we push it too far. Jesus was basically saying, “Peter, Andrew, your life is about fishing. I want your life to be about helping people into the Kingdom of God.” And that is a vision worth leaving a secure, outdoorsy job.

But some of us push the imagery too far.

We focus on the nasty, barbed trap (or the paralyzing net, as Pete and Drew probably used). Perhaps that’s because we tried to do what Jesus expected, and it didn’t go so well. He made it the mission of every believer to “fish for people,” to “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). We’ve fished, but the fish seem to see what they think is a hook, and they swim away, or they laugh at us, and they call us names, and they accuse us of all sorts of things, the least of which is being arrogant and trying to ambush them into our boats. At a minimum, they ignore and dismiss us.

It’s probably because of our experiences or because of all the hoopla in our culture against Christianity, but we have come to believe that we are actually asked by Jesus to make disciples in the same way that I was taught to bait a hook: cover the danger with something juicy or shiny to lure the naive fish to their deaths.

But Jesus asked us (commanded us, actually) to do the opposite of that: to invite people to real life, wooing them out of the death trap they don’t know they’re in.

“I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of” (John 10:10, The Message).

The fishing with a hook that we focus on (and the grilling part) doesn’t match Jesus’ command to make disciples. It doesn’t mesh with what Jesus taught about the Kingdom of God. Fishing for people isn’t a dastardly plot.

In another simple but poignant metaphor, Jesus said,

“The Kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field” (Matthew 13:44).

Ah, now we’re talking.

Treasure.

Valuable.

Worth selling everything for.

A joyful decision.

No tricks, just a trade, just a choice for something phenomenal. I can talk about that without flinching.

When we watch Jesus fish in the Gospels, he offered this Kingdom. He invited people to it. He persuaded them. He never hid the cost, like a hook in a glittery lure.

He said it would cost him his life to pay for humanity’s sin so that the Kingdom could become reality. He said it would cost each individual their idols, including their idolatry of self, to humbly let Jesus be their Leader and Savior so that they could enter the Kingdom.

But the Kingdom itself is so magnificently wonderful that there is no need to trick or drag people to it. It is the most valuable treasure on earth.

There is no need for manipulation. It just needs to be shown.

Maybe if people could be convinced that Christianity is an intoxicating treasure and realize that there are no hidden hooks, they might be open to listening to us describe how to get it. Maybe we should focus our efforts on elucidating the treasure. Additionally, won’t our offers be more believable and even captivating if we will live in the treasured Kingdom, literally displaying its beauty and benefits? And maybe if we do that, we’ll overflow with interesting and informative conversations, and all that will lure people to life.

I saw a great movie this weekend. Want to hear about it?

I recently experienced something remarkable with Jesus. Can I tell you about it?

Now that’s fishing.