Jesus Picked You First

 Luke 5:1-11

February 6, 2022

 

I have a question for you.                                                                   

In PE or gym or basketball,

or kickball or stickball, or whatever you played,

when were you picked to be on the team?

When were you picked by the designated captain?

Were you always picked first or second?

Were you picked somewhere in the middle?

 

Or were you picked last? Dead last? After the girl with the broken arm?

Were you actually taken begrudgingly with an eye roll?

Did teams actually fight over which one had to have you?

 

That was me.

I wasn’t popular. I was kind of large and uncoordinated.

I had allergies and asthma. I was afraid of flying balls.

I was an awkward, bookish kind of kid

I had a loud, New York accent.

And I didn’t know how to play, but

somehow I knew all the rules to the games

which you think would help out, but it really did not.

Sometimes I was picked in the middle,

but it was usually because someone

felt sorry for me and was doing a good deed,

which almost felt as bad.

 

I would have been picked first on the

wise cracking, English Literature, trivial pursuit team,

but there was never any picking for those teams.

So I was always picked last.

 

I can still remember today vividly what that felt like.

I don’t know who came up with this barbaric, Lord of the Flies type ritual.

Or Why otherwise caring adults would constantly give certain children

so much power to shape so many other children’s lives.

But millions of children have suffered through this torture.

  

There are two factors when it comes to being picked on teams:

ability and popularity. I mean popular kids who played as bad

or worse than me were still picked first, or at least

in the middle somewhere so that kids

could make points by picking them.

 

Being picked last gave two distinct messages:

I don’t really think you can do the job or

I don’t really want to be associated with you.

 

Now we don’t know whether Simon Peter and Andrew

and James or John were popular.

And we don’t know whether they were good at their jobs.

The scripture doesn’t really tell us about those two things.

What we do know is that they were fishermen.

Not fishermen as in relaxing hobbyists.

And at the time, fishermen weren’t even proud, independent

business owners we know today.

 

Fishermen were at the bottom of society’s barrel.

Fishermen had very hard, unrewarding jobs.

They didn’t have a special craft or skills.

They weren’t even hired by big conglomerates to fish.

Fishing was something that people did

when there wasn’t much else to turn to.

They were kind of the equivalent of

sharecroppers of the turn of the 20^th century.

You rented a boat and you put a net down

 and you hoped there were fish at the end of the day.

 

If there were, you ate and you could maybe pay for something more.

If there wasn’t you starved and went into debt.

On top of that, you smelled like fish.

 

Fishermen were not doctors or lawyers or tax collectors.

They weren’t even carpenters or farmers.

Fishermen were somewhere in the same club as

sheep-herders, prostitutes and beggars.

Fishermen were last.

They were told by the world that they could not do the job.

And other people did not particularly want to be associated with them.

 

The area around the Sea of Galilee wasn’t big.

It was like Hilton Head, I guess. With fewer people.

Capernaum where the Sea of Galilee

was only about 20 miles from Jesus home in Nazareth.

There weren’t many people around. Rumors fly fast.

These fishermen probably heard about Jesus.

They had heard about the religious gangs walking around Galilee.

Jesus was the one that John was talking about,

the one who was baptized by John in the Jordan.

The one who seemed to be chosen by God for something special.

 

But it didn’t really matter because

that kind of stuff passed people like fishermen by.

No one asked them for help.

No one bothered with people like that.

They could barely make a living fishing.

They had never shown any people skills,

they didn’t know much about God or theology.

They had no reason to think that they would be of any use to Jesus.

They were the ones who were always picked last.

 

But Jesus picked them first.

Not out of pity or because no one else was around.

There were other smarter, more popular,

more connected people to choose from.

Jesus came to them because he wanted to.

Because he believed in them.

He wanted them to come with him and to fish for people instead.

Jesus picked them because he thought they could do the job.

And because he wanted to be associated with them.

 

Jesus didn’t care about their resumes or reputations.

He didn’t care what the neighbors said.

He didn’t care what folks though about fishermen.

Maybe Jesus knew that being picked last all their

lives would give these fishermen a special

understanding when dealing with all of God’s people.

When we’re looking around to make a team for ourselves

in school or in work or in our social lives, we often look around

for the people who share the skills that we want:

law, finance, artistic skills, athletic skills.

We are look for people who already have proven that

they can do what we need to do.

 

But Jesus was working in partnership with God.

God doesn’t just look for gifts or skill to use, God makes skills,

God gives gifts to people. Jesus picks the last to be first.

Jesus picks the unlikely candidates –

those are the ones who God’s glory can shine through the brightest.

God doesn’t just look for the best, God can make the best out of anything.

 

So this a message for anyone who has been picked last.

Or anyone who has been in that position.

Anyone who has felt awkward.

Anyone who has failed a class or been let go from a job.

Anyone who has been dumped by a romantic interest

or forgotten by a friend.

Anyone who feels too old or past their prime. Or maybe too young.

Anyone who feels like their best days are behind them.

Anyone who wasn’t let in on the joke.

Anyone ever felt like something good was going on

behind your back, in the other room, wherever you weren’t.

This is especially for those who were picked last:

 

If you are in this room right now,

God has chosen you to do something wonderful in this world.

It’s not some chance or accident.

God didn’t call you here because there was no one else left.

God wants you to come as you are,

God wants to teach you skills that you don’t think you possess,

God wants to give you gifts that you don’t even know that you have.

 

So drop your nets.

Leave your past, your failures and disappointments and your status behind.

The creator of the universe knows that you can do the job

the ground of all being wants to be associated with you.

God has picked you.