A BAND OF BROTHERS -- Devotional for May 14, from "Good Seeds"

Jesus stepped into Peter and Andrew’s boat and asked them to row out a bit, and from there He continued teaching the multitude. Then He said to Peter, ”Okay, time for some fishing; head for the deep water.” Soon their net was so full they had to signal their fishing partners, James and John, to come assist before their boat sank with the load. Peter was seized with amazement at this miracle, and said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man!” Jesus responded, “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.” And when they brought their boats to land, they left all and followed Him. (Luke 5:1-11)

It’s fun, and possibly instructive, to picture Christ and His followers as the first church. Of course Jesus was the pastor (Hebrews 13:20 calls Him “The Great Shepherd of the Sheep.” We know Judas was the treasurer (THAT didn’t have a very happy ending!) No doubt Peter was in charge of men’s ministries…but wait, wasn’t the whole church men’s ministries? Yes, for at first it was just men Christ called to be His disciples (starting down at the boat yard). Women followed Jesus, too, and He greatly encouraged it, but this didn’t change the nature of the Twelve, the original “Band of Brothers.” That term first caught my attention as the title of a television mini-series about American soldiers at war. I love what the phrase implies: 1) We are BROTHERS – there’s such a thing as siblings, which would include sisters, but when you use the word brothers, it means they’re all male, all men. But it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re blood related. The military band of brothers had the common bond of living, training and fighting together. Christian brothers are linked by our common love and service for our Lord. We think of the link between brothers as closer and stronger than that of friends. You move in and out of friendships, but you can’t stop being or having a brother simply because of a mood or a disagreement. It’s like a marriage: you can be happily married, or miserably married, but you’re married, either way. The separation of spouses by divorce is hardly more tragic than the breaking of the bond of intimacy between men who are brothers. 2) We are a BAND of brothers. We are linked. We are tied tightly together. We are members of a body, as the Bible describes it, with Christ at the head. When one of us is stepped on, the rest of us say, “Ouch!”…almost as if we share the same nervous and circulatory systems. To the men reading this let me ask: “Who do you consider to be a brother like this? Do you have a band of brothers? No? Then go join one. Can’t find one? Start one! Men need men!