Luke 5:11

‘And when they had brought their boats to land, they left all, and followed him.'

Notice the ‘they'. It caters for Andrew, James and John as well. Together they left their boats with the servants, and followed Jesus. From now on they would go where He went, learning from Him and preparing to be proclaimers of His word. We are intended to see that they turned their backs on the greatest catch of fish that they had ever made without even a thought. They left all and followed Him. So it must be if we would follow Jesus.

What Jesus had done had paradoxically done by producing an abundance of fish was to make clear to them that there was more that they could do with their lives than be fishermen. They could go with this Prophet and serve God, which was better than a whole multitude of fish. And so they responded to His quiet word of Messianic authority and followed Him.

(The servants would take the fish to the homes of Peter, James and John and explain what had happened, and they would no doubt carry on the fishing business on behalf of the families, but that was not Luke's interest. As for the three (or four), they would, of course, be able to return to their homes now and again while they were in the area. But they had received a permanent call from which they could not draw back. Although later, after the resurrection, Peter would take his wife with him - 1 Corinthians 9:5).

Note on the Connection of This Passage With John 21.

As we might expect many scholars, who cannot bear to have things happen twice in life, and for whom every day is totally different, see this story as simply being the same as John 21 under a different guise. But there are no real grounds for doing so. The similarities are mainly those which naturally arise when men go fishing, and the differences are many and varied. It is true that there is a similar ‘miracle, but that is the only parallel apart from the obvious. And what is much more likely than it being a duplication is that Jesus planned what He did in John 21 as a reminder to Peter of this life-changing moment at his call. It was an indication that his call still held, and that He still had plenty of ‘taking men alive' for him to do. End of note.