Reel Luke

Jesus Calls the First Disciples

Luke 5:1–11, 27–31

Helpful Stuff to Know

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We don’t know exactly how old the disciples were, but some wise Bible scholars think at least a few of them might have been in their late teens.
In the ancient world, rabbis (wise religious people who mentored and taught a small group of followers) would invite people to be their disciples. The men Jesus chose hadn’t been invited to be someone else’s disciples. Maybe they’d never even considered it as a possibility for them because of their backgrounds, education, or social standing.

Be Sure Not to Miss

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The disciples were very different from each other — different families, jobs, backgrounds, etc. — but Jesus called them into community together.
Some of the disciples were the “wrong” kind of people: Matthew was a tax collector (often referred to as “notorious sinners”), some were fishermen (not a prestigious job), one was a revolutionary (strong political passions). We don’t know the others’ backgrounds or jobs, maybe because they weren’t flashy or famous in any way.
Jesus explained things in ways that made sense to his new friends, for example, telling a real fisherman that he would now “fish for people” as he learned to tell them about God and lead them to Jesus.
Jesus noticed the people around him, people that others would often ignore or overlook, and treated them as people worth his time and attention and friendship: fishermen, tax collectors, and more.
Jesus didn’t give his disciples a list of things they needed to do or accomplish before following him. He just invited them and let them respond.
Jesus said he came to call people who know they are sinners and who know they need to repent. He called people as they were in order to make them new people. When Jesus proclaimed good news, he almost always said, “Repent and turn to God” or “Repent and believe the Good News.” In other words, turn away from a life of sin and self-lordship and turn to a life of following me and living for God.

Be Careful About

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The image of “fishing for people” made sense to fishermen. It might not be a helpful image for many people today. Thank about what other terms or images might make sense for your group.

Here's a few different ways you can read and recap the story with your group.

Read it through one time with people just listening to you. Then read it through a second time with people following along in their own Bibles.
Ask a few people to act out the story while you read it.
Ask one or two people to retell the story after hearing it.
Ask two people to retell the story in the first person, as though they were actually there. One person can do the play-by-play (tell the details of what happened), and the other can offer color commentary (add details about how they felt, what surprised them, what confused them, etc.). First-person retelling can make the story feel more real. It's also a blast.

Where did this story happen? What do you think it looked like? Smelled like? Sounded like?
Make a list of all the people in the story (including "crowd" if there is one), and give a one-word description of each e.g. impatient, desperate, funny, selfish, awkward, etc.
List everything that happened in the story. What was your favorite moment?

Why do you think the first disciples were willing to give up certain things in order to follow Jesus?
Why do you think Jesus chose unlikely and unexpected people to be his closest friends and followers?

Why do you think this story is included in the Bible? What do you think God wants us to learn from it?