My dad taught me to fish and Jesus taught me what it means

My dad can fish. Holy cow can he fish. Here is from a trip with friends last Saturday holding an eleven pound fish (I think it is a Striper). Growing up he would plan trips for my brother and I to go fishing and I still get a creaking in my bones anytime I smell the air at 5am. While I enjoyed being with my dad and my brother as we cast lines, I never have been a much of an angler.

However, like my dad, I fish but in a different way. Since my reading of Ched Myers' "Binding the Strong Man" back in college, I have taken the "fishing for men" motif in Mark to heart.

One year ago I posted on this theme and as I look at this picture of my dad, I am reminded of it.

Fishing for men???

Taken from one of my favorite books, “Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus” by Ched Myers

There is perhaps no expression more traditionally misunderstood than Jesus’ invitation to these workers to become ‘fishers of men’ (Mark 1:17). This metaphor, despite the grand old tradition of missionary interpretation, does not refer to the “saving of souls,” as if Jesus were conferring upon these men instant evangelist status. Rather, the image is carefully chosen from Jeremiah 16:16, where it is used as a symbol of Yahweh’s censure of Israel. Elsewhere the “hooking of fish” is a euphemism for judgment upon the rich (Amos 4:2) and powerful (Ezekiel 29:4). Taking this mandate for his own, Jesus is inviting common fold to join him in his struggle to overturn the existing order of power and privilege.

I would add two things to this. Matthew 17:27 Jesus asks his disciples to pull a fish out of the water and remove the riches in its mouth. Secondly, In light of this interpretation it is highly ironic that James Avery would make an gold and silver “fishers of men” bracelet.