Sunday’s gospel reading (Mark 1:14-20) tells us that Jesus invited Simon and Andrew as well as James and John, the sons of Zebedee, to follow him. Unlike the story as told in Luke 5:1-11, Mark’s version says nothing to indicate the men knew anything about Jesus. In Luke’s telling, the men returned to shore after fishing with no catch and Jesus told the men where to try. When they did so, their nets almost broke because of the amount of fish they caught.
Luke’s story gives a reason that the men might follow Jesus; Mark’s does not. Yet in both versions, the men dropped everything to go with a stranger. We might wonder about this. We might also question whether we would do the same.