Calling (Healing)

Synoptic Gospels

In (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), Jesus finds and calls His earliest disciples along the shores of the Sea of Galilee (Matt 4:18; Mark 1:16; called the “Lake of Gennesaret” in Luke 5:1). Since Jesus’ tiny hometown of Nazareth had a “very limited scope for the proclamation of the good news,” Jesus began preaching along the west and north sides of the nearby lake because “its prosperous fishing industry and … active trade route” potentially provided Him with a larger audience (France, Gospel of Mark, 95). Some of His disciples may plausibly have heard Him preach about the kingdom of God before He called them; this could explain their abrupt willingness to embrace the socially and economically costly call of leaving their families and the fishing industry to follow Jesus, a choice that would have resulted in “downward mobility” (Matt 4:13–17; Mark 1:14–15; Luke 4:31–44; Keener, Matthew, 151–52).