Caught Up in a Dream
Matthew 4:12-17
A few years ago there was a movie titled Tucker. It's the story of a man who tried to fight the Detroit automobile industry by attempting to introduce a car named after himself. In one scene, Tucker is talking about how his mother came from the old country. She was Italian and had a very heavy accent. Tucker remembered that for years when he was young she said to him,
"Don't get too close to people, you'll catch their dreams." What she was really saying in broken English was, "Don't get too close to people, you'll catch their germs." But Tucker grew up thinking she was telling him, "Don't get too close to people or you'll catch their dreams."
That can happen sometimes, can't it? We can get swept up in somebody else's dreams. I heard about one man who was determined it wouldn't happen to him.
Jim Eghan worked at the West Coast Computer Fair in 1977. His job was to help customers decorate their booths. Industry shows are the cheapest way to reach customers within the trade, but some undercapitalized entrepreneurs hardly have enough to rent a booth, let alone pay for the decorations. Egan was approached by a couple of long-haired kids who wanted some chrome displays to make their booth "look fancy." Egan said he had the displays but they were for rent. The kids said they were short of cash, but perhaps Egan might like some stock in their new company. Ehan, who had seen them come and go in his twenty years in business, said he would accept only hard cash. So Steve Wozniak and Steven Jobs did without the chromes, fixed up their booth, and kept the stock in Apple Computer to themselves. Presumably, Jin Egan is still decorating booths for hard cash. Sometimes it is a good thing to catch someone else's dream.
The story in the New Testament is the story of men and women who got close enough to Jesus to catch his dream. Doesn't it amaze you how quickly the disciples left their fishing nets to follow Jesus?
Matthew tells us that Jesus was in Capernaum. John the Baptizer was now in prison. It seems more than coincidental that upon hearing of John's incarceration Jesus began his own ministry of preaching. "taking up, as it were, where John left off" preaching a message of repentance: : "for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Walking by the sea of Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers, Simon and Andrew casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow ne, and I will make you fishers of men." And Simon and Andrew left their nets, and followed him. And going on, he saw another set of brothers, James the son of
Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with their father, mending their nets; and he called them. And immediately, Matthew tells us, they also left the ship and their father, and followed Jesus.
Doesn't that seem rather abrupt to you? What, no discussion? No, "we'll think about it and get back to you tomorrow?" No, "don't call us; we'll call you?" Could we not say that these four fishermen acted rather impulsively? Evidently, they were caught up in Jesus's dream. Doesn't their impulsiveness suggest certain truths?
Questions to Ponder
Do you have a dream?
Have you gotten caught up in somebody else's dream which can be good or bad?
Have you gotten close enough to Jesus to catch his dream and perhaps become a part of it?
In His Service,
Terry Phillips
