Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
(Luke 5:1-11)
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The first thing that struck me in this passage was that the people pressed in on Jesus “to hear the word of God.” I immediately thought of what I was speaking about a couple of weeks ago - the centrality of the Word of God to the people of God; that it is the Word of God that causes us to rally together and that is the focal point of our faith - a word of God that, as Christians, we believe is revealed in Jesus. So the people were pressing in on Jesus. It’s still the same today for people of faith - or at least it should be. We shouldn’t downplay the Word of God, we shouldn’t be embarrassed by the Word of God and we shouldn’t apologize for the Word of God - and I’ve heard Christians do all of those things. The Word of God is what people need to hear, and as this passage begins we get another illustration of the power of God’s word. A lot of people today say that times have changed and people aren’t interested in the Word of God anymore. I call that nonsense. Go into Chapters or log on to amazon.com. You’ll find whole sections devoted to books about the Word of God. Chapters and amazon want to make profits - they don’t stock books that no one is interested in. The reality is that people are interested in the Word of God because, deep down, they know that through the Word, God can touch them very deeply. Jesus offered the Word of God (Jesus WAS the Word of God) - and crowds gathered to hear what he had to say, because they were hungry for it, and whatever challenges the church might be facing today, almost everyone agrees that there is a desperate spiritual hunger in our society today - that people today are as hungry to hear from God as they were in Jesus’ day. In today’s passage, Jesus spoke to the crowds from a boat. The point is to take advantage of whatever forum is available to offer those around us what they truly need.
To do that we have to be willing to take some risks, of course - and maybe even do some things we’d rather not do. In today’s passage, for example, Simon and his partners had been out all night and they had caught no fish. They were tired and discouraged. They were washing their nets and then probably looking forward to going home and resting for a while. And then, Jesus showed up and told them to launch their boats again. It’s not clear at this point whether Simon had ever met Jesus before, but even if he had I doubt that he was filled with enthusiasm for what Jesus was asking of him. “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” Do you hear the unenthusiastic tone to those words? The truth is that sometimes doing what God asks us to do feels like launching back out into the deep when all we really want to do is find a comfortable and safe place to put our feet up and get some rest. And I hope you noted that Jesus told Simon and his partners to go out into the “deep water.” This wasn’t a short or easy excursion they were being asked to make. This was going to take effort; it was going to be work. The point seems to be that shallow or half-hearted efforts aren’t going to achieve very much. You either put your all into something that’s important, or there’s no point putting anything into it at all. If the disciples wanted to catch fish, they were going to have to go all out to do it. Simon understood that, and so he said to Jesus, “... if you say so, I will let down the nets.”
As I said earlier, that might have been an unenthusiastic response, but Simon did go back out on the water, into the deep waters Jesus directed him to. And the result was dramatic: “When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats.” Simon had been ready to give up - but by responding to Jesus’ words and putting everything into the effort, he was led to a rich catch.
Today, we’re called to engage in a different kind of fishing. “... from now on you will be catching people,” Jesus said. This is what being a disciple of Christ is all about. It’s to be those who lower the nets of heaven and bring people into the Kingdom of God. On that day on Lake Gennasaret, Simon and James and John found a new focus and a new calling. Now they would follow Christ and bear witness to Christ and learn how to draw men and women to Christ. This lesson taught them a lot of valuable things.
- they learned to strengthen themselves for the task ahead of them through solitary prayer and time with God;
- they learned not to depend on their own words but on the Word of God;
- they learned to seize hold of every opportunity presented to them to share the message of Jesus with those they encountered;
- they learned to trust Jesus, even when what he asked of them went against their own desires or their own better judgement;
- they learned that they had to give this mission their all and make it their focus rather than just a hobby.
You see, there’s a difference between mere fishing and catching fish. Fishing is a hobby. People do it to relax, to enjoy themselves, to relieve stress. Sometimes - if all you’re doing is fishing - it doesn’t even matter if you catch any fish; it’s just all about the experience. But catching fish is different. When it’s your livelihood and your life then you put everything into it and you don’t let yourself get discouraged. You can’t let yourself get discouraged. Fishing is a hobby; catching fish is a calling.
Sharing the gospel and living by the way of Jesus isn’t a hobby Christians. The calling of the church (and of every individual Christian) is to follow Christ’s command to go out into the deep water and let down our nets to make a catch for the Kingdom of God through how we live; through how we love; through who we love. If we’re not seeing results, maybe we’re not going deep enough. Maybe we’re just fishing and not really trying to catch fish.
No comments:
Post a Comment