STORIES ABOUT JESUS

As told by Simon Peter

The Call

I remember when we first met Him.  It seems like only yesterday but so much has happened since then.  My brother Andrew and I were fishermen.  That morning we were casting our nets into the sea as we usually did in those days.  While we were fishing we were talking about the new Rabbi that we heard was in town.  Well to our surprise He came close to where we were, and called out to us to come ashore.  We did and then He spoke with us for awhile.  It was the Master.  It was then that He said, Come follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.  I said goodbye to my wife and we said goodbye to our family.  We both left to go with Him.  The Master didn’t say for how long we would be gone but it didn’t seem to matter.  There was a feeling of excitement just to be around Him.

The Master soon called others to follow Him.  I asked each one their reaction when He called them and they all said the same thing.  There was something about the experience of meeting Him that drew them to follow Him.  The same day the Master called Andrew and me, He called James the son of Zebedee and his brother John.  They were also fishermen working the boats with their father and the hired men.  When He called them to follow Him they stopped repairing their nets, and immediately left their father to join us.

It happened that way every time.  There was Levi the son of Alphaeus, who was also known as Matthew.  We couldn’t believe the Master called him too.  He was a tax collector.  Most of us hated the tax collectors because they were dishonest and you couldn’t trust them.  Yet when the Master called Matthew he was changed and never the same after that.  He became one of us.

Eventually the Master called twelve of us to work closely with Him.  He designated us as His apostles.  The Master called me Peter instead of Simon because I was to be the Rock of the group.  James and John were called the Sons of Thunder.  I already told you about my brother Andrew and Matthew. The others He called to join us were Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, the other James, who was the son of Alphaeus, Jude sometimes called Thaddeus, Simon, and Judas, who later on betrayed our Master.  We were always inseparable.  Every place He went we went with Him.  We saw Him do things that seemed impossible.  He cured a paralyzed man.  He made blind people see again.  He told demons to get out of those who were possessed and the demons obeyed Him.  You can just imagine the large crowds of people that came out to see Him and hear Him speak.

When the Master called us to follow Him we didn’t know it then, but He was preparing us to continue what He was doing even after He would leave us to return to His Father in heaven.  We walked with Him on the dusty roads from town to town and heard Him speak to the crowds.  In the evenings He would gather us around Him and explain the meaning of what He had said to the crowds.  Those were very special times. 

The Master gave us authority and power to do many of the things He did.  Sometimes He would send us to tell the people about Him and to cure people in His name.  We always had to tell the crowds that we were not able to do these things of ourselves. but that we were acting with the power given to us by the Master. 

Just like He called us, He still calls people to Him.  Every day someone is telling others about Him.  Just look around you, every day miracles are happening in His name.  I am telling you all these things so that you will also know about Jesus.  The Master is alive.  He continues His work in those who follow Him.  If you listen closely, you too can hear His call to follow Him.