Fishing

Luke 5:1-11

1  On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret,

2  and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.

3  Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

4  And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch."

5  And Simon answered, "Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets."

6  And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking.

7  They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.

8  But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord."

9  For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken,

10  and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men."

11  And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

     I am going to try something new: An exercise, if you will, to keep my writing muscles flexed and to give me some degree of consistency. My church body, Grace Park, is beginning something that I find myself excited about. We are, all of us in our small groups, going through the Word of God in a particular order; reading, meditating on, and in our groups, retelling various stories from the life of Jesus. This past week the idea of writing about the passage we are studying came to me, but my week was gone before I found the time. The passage was rich, however, and I will jot down some of how my Lord spoke to me as I read it even though we are at the end of this week.

     The first thing that stood out to me was the obedience of Peter. He did not see the reason the Lord would tell him to put out and try for a catch. He had been working hard all night and had nothing to show for it. He was a little put out, perhaps, or even incredulous, nevertheless he did obey. And he was well rewarded.

     I have seen this very thing at work in my own life, and what struck me was the timing of the thing. This event occurred, not at a time when Peter had spent great amounts of time with Jesus drinking in His words and seeing His power, but at the very beginning, shortly after he became a follower of the Man. It is an excellent picture of the relationship between obedience and faith, and how obeying now in the small things prepares us to greater and more daring acts of obedience later on.

     Peter did not start off as the man who died, as it is commonly held, by crucifixion as his Lord did. Peter started as the somewhat skeptical yet obedient disciple. Had he not learned the fruit of obedience in small ways early on, he would have been ill-prepared to die for the Gospel later. I know that God prepared me early in my walk to be obedient so that I can stand firm through the more difficult tasks of obedience that face me now. I have not been asked to a literal death, but more a daily dying to self and trusting God even when it doesn't make sense to me. Some days I trust little, others much, but in all I am still being instructed in obedience regardless of the cost to myself.

     Another point that stands out is Peter's reaction to the abundance of the blessing that was given to his small act of obedience. He was appalled by his own sinfulness in the face of such power and mercy. He did not credit his own fishing ability, but fully understood that the catch came from the Lord. His response, I feel, is often lacking in our church today. It seems to me that many of us long for tremendous blessing and are grateful for the mercy shown, but in our gratitude we are neither moved to absolute obedience nor heartfelt repentance. We are not often moved to recognize the astonishing nature of this mercy, undeserved, nor do we often acknowledge the depth of our atrocity to Him. This, too, I have seen in my own heart. It is when I am floored by His supremacy that I most keenly feel the weight of His forgiveness and the enormity of the blessing.

     This passage has been so rich to me, but I will summarize only one final key element that stood out to me. The men, once they had glimpsed His might, left all behind to follow Him. There was nothing withheld, no "Just a minute, Lord, while I pack," no, "First let me bury my father," nor any desire to hang onto possessions. These things and others we see in the account of the Gospels among many who claimed to want to follow Jesus, yet often something held them back.

     Perhaps some of them made the right choice when confronted with their true allegiance; perhaps some repented and surrendered wholly to following Him. We are not told in all cases. The one case of the "rich young ruler," finds the man proud of his keeping of the commandments and yet unwilling to leave behind his wealth to follow the Lord. This is telling, because our pride will get us nowhere with God, but instead is telling of whom we actually serve. Any withholding on our parts, whether it be family, possessions, a job, even a hobby--the list is virtually endless--anything at all that causes us to say, "Lord I will leave all behind for You save this one thing," is the one thing that will prevent our experiencing the true wealth and blessing of following humbly in obedience to our Lord.

     And so, I pray for us all today: Father, show us what it is that holds us back from pure devotion to You. Open our eyes to see it, unstop our ears to hear Your voice, and convict us to let it go. Let no worldly possession, no fear, no other attachment, indeed, let nothing whatsoever stand in our way of following You. Whatever acts of obedience You call us to, whatever sacrifice, whatever humility; in all thing and in all ways we ask that You will bring us to a place of sheer, unadulterated devotion to You. Make us followers of You in truth and not merely in word, bringing us to our knees in repentance, gratitude, and commitment to You. Uproot any and all things that stand in between us and You, and continue to bring us ever closer. Once we are committed to You, then we can become "fishers of men" to bring others to the blessing of serving the King. Where we are not willing, give us willingness so that someday we may hear the words we long to hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant." We ask and submit in the mighty name of Jesus, our Lord, amen.


Scripture quotations are from the ESV^® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.