Drop Your Nets

The Scene

Here we find Jesus at the Sea of Galilee teaching a large crowd of people, but the bible says they were all pressing around him and it was super crowded. They all wanted to hear his teaching, they were desperate. But just as we see Jesus do at other points in the bible, he accommodates the crowd in ways only he can. What he does, is he notices these fishermen coming to shore after a night worth of fishing, and unsuccessful fishing at that. I know you guys probably aren’t big into fishing, and neither am I really, but fishing at night is a hotly debated topic it seems. Some fishermen swear by it. For Simon, it would seem his opinion is that fishing at night is the way to go. It also would mean they were limiting exposure to the elements and could fish for longer.

Anyway, as they were returning, it was best practice to clean off their equipment and gear, so this is what they were doing when Jesus approached them. Jesus asks Simon to take his boat and to go just off shore so he can address the crowds. When speaking on a lake, the echo created by the water creates a sort of natural amplification. So Jesus finishes teaching and he’s out chilling on a boat with Simon Peter, and he’s like lets go fishing.

Peter’s response is “Master we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as you say and let down the nets.

Agreement vs. Obedience

So we have Simon Peter who is a fisherman by trade, an expert, someone who knows how to fish since it is his job. And we have this carpenter who does a little teaching on the side. Why on earth would Peter even go along with this? You can even hear some notes of doubt in his response to Jesus as he says “Well, we have tried all night but okay”

What we have in this dialogue is a neat little lesson guys, one in which Peter’s expertise becomes irrelevant. As we know, the story goes on and when Peter does what Jesus says they pull up so many fish that they need back up. Just one boat couldn’t even hold the magnitude of fish. And Peter’s shocked. He was trying all night and couldn’t catch anything and then under conditions that were completely non ideal for fishing this happens.

Now let me ask you, how well do you know yourself? Raise your hand if you’d say pretty well. Of people on earth, who knows you the best? Probably you right? Raise your hand if you know what makes you happy. What makes you sad. What makes you angry. What you are prepared for. Now put them down. I see on social media often people will put up little me-quizzes to see which of their friends knows them the best. But it’s clear that you know all of the questions to your own me-quiz. If someone were to hand you a quiz about your life, you’d probably ace it right? Right. You know yourself. You are even more of an expert regarding yourself than Peter ever was regarding fishing.

Think about the bible like this, we are Peter, and Jesus’ teachings and lessons throughout the bible directly clash with our understanding and expertise. When we are told to love and pray for our enemies, we say “But Jesus, you don’t understand.” Jesus says drop the nets.

The lesson to be learned from Peter is that in his obedience Jesus works. He may not agree, but he respectfully obeys. And sometimes our obedience to Jesus if purely contingent upon our agreement. But for Peter, his response is “I will do as you say.”

Fishers of Men

The burden of every follower of Christ is to share! We have hope guys, at least I do. I spent most of my teenaged life doubting and searching and investigating Christianity. I hope you will investigate it and explore it as well, because when I wound up analyzing the truth claims of Christianity, I wound up believing them even more.

Jesus uses this whole fish situation to send the clear message that he will use the believer and whatever he has to offer to produce disciples.

Preparation is good, but when will we know we are prepared? Waiting for the perfect moment is ready right? But when is the perfect moment? I’ve even talked myself out of discipleship because I haven’t read the whole bible yet. The irony is, Jesus in this story doesn’t use the prepared man, he uses the obedient one. How do you know he’s unprepared? Because he can’t even get all of the fish in the boat. His net breaks. He has to call for help. Jesus doesn’t use the prepared believer. He uses the obedient one. And it should be our deepest desire to be used by Jesus Christ.

Glory to God

One final thing I love about this story is the reaction of Peter.

Peter sees the miracle and is awe struck. He cannot contain himself and he falls at Jesus’s feet and says go away. I am unworthy to be near you.

Do you think people ever take credit for something God has done? What sorts of things?

Every Sunday. Probably every day in between. But Peter knows exactly where the miracle comes from, and he reacts with a renewed awareness of his own sinfulness.

Zagrayo - Catch alive verse 10

Ogra - Hunting. Verse 9