I have always had a hard time understanding passages of scripture like Matthew 16:25. The verse is “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” I have heard sermons preached on this or similar themes. But it wasn't until this morning in church as I listened to the dismissal that I really understood. The leader said the following words: “Remember that God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, has caught you and freed you, so that you may go to be fishers of people. And on this mission, may the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.”
For some reason, when I heard those words, the picture finally came together. A simple oxymoron helped this person, who thought he must be missing some vital knowledge, to understand a message that was so simple, it eluded me. You see, what I learned today was that God wants to take us one by one and wrap us in his protective and loving net. When we realize that we have been “captured” by God and pulled from the waters of our previous lives, we have the hook of our past mistakes removed from us. God cleans us up, heals us, and then frees us to go back into the world and live our lives as changed individuals. We are then free to joyously live as followers of God's way, and to be, as the Gospel says, “fishers of people,” bringing others to the net.
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