A Fish Story

He was a commercial fisherman, with hardened callouses on his hands from dealing with oars, sails, and nets. He had the scars from thousands of bristling fins and errant knife strokes that cleaned the fish.
It’s hard to calculate how many hours he had spent enduring bad weather, griping about catchless nights, cursing torn nets, quarreling with other fishermen over choice fishing spots. He could’ve easily snapped at his wife when she complained about lean times. It would’ve been easy to envy others who seemed to have an easier way to make a living.
This fisherman had open sins and hidden sins of the heart. He may not have given his spiritual condition much thought, or even thought in such terms as “sin” and “spiritual condition.” Whether he did or not, one day a man came to him with a strange request. He wanted to use one of the boats as a kind of podium from which to speak to a large crowd that seemed to be following him. What could the fisherman say? No? So he put the teacher out a little bit from land, and thus began the experience that would change Simon Peter’s life forever.
You heard what happened next in today’s Gospel: Jesus taught the crowds. He preached. And then he turned to Peter with an even stranger request—a command, really; one that did not make sense; he wanted Peter and his fellow fisherman to let the nets down one more time, even though fishing had been lousy that night on the lake. For whatever reason, Peter obeyed, certainly with the expectation that nothing was going to happen. And suddenly, he had no time for reflection, because the nets were bulging and breaking with fish—more fish than he and his partners had ever seen.
There was something about the combination of listening to Jesus teach and then seeing this sign with the fish that caused Peter to arrive at the conclusion: I am in the presence of God. And this was not a pleasant conclusion. At the speed of thought, Peter concluded that He was in the presence of God, and since that was true, then his every thought, his every word, and his every action was an open book to the One who stood before him. Call it shame; embarrassment; repentance, even; it sent Peter to his knees, and he said to Jesus, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” This commercial fisherman hardly had time to pursue theology as a side hobby, but he instinctively knew that holiness and sin don’t mix--and that he fell squarely on the “sin” side of the equation. The right thing to do was to ask Jesus to leave. Or so Peter thought.
Instead, Peter hears these words: “Do not be afraid.” In those words, Jesus says, “It’s all right. I know who you are and what you’re like. I know what you do when you think no one is watching. Peter, you just did what I wish everyone would do. You humbled yourself. You were open about your sin. And I forgive you.” Being allowed to stay by Jesus’ side without fear—that probably would’ve been amazing enough to Peter. But then Jesus continues “Do not be afraid, from now on you will be catching men.” Just try to imagine the questions that this commercial fisherman had racing through his mind at this moment. Not only had Jesus just forgiven his sins, but it also sounded like Jesus had just enlisted him in some kind of…what? A Movement? An experiment? Something to do with the kingdom of God that Jesus had spoken about? Whatever Peter thought “catching men” meant, it captivated him so much—and Jesus had gotten to him so much—that he and his partners James and John left their old way of life behind almost instantly. Luke tells us that “when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.” It doesn’t sound like the fisherman sat down and made a “pros and cons” list. There was no: “Let me prayerfully consider your offer, Jesus.” They had been changed, and that was that.
I don’t think I really need to tell you that you and I are meant to strongly identify with Peter the fisherman. When God comes around, there’s always a natural sense of fear. You see a very miniature version of this when a pastor enters a room full of people who have no Christian faith to speak of—you can literally see the discomfort in their body language and eye contact is avoided at all costs. Isn’t that because they know who the pastor represents? (Hopefully it’s not his personal grooming.) But do you know what I mean? And when we’re being honest, we will even admit that we too avoid God’s holiness. We act as if we can hide things from God. We want God to bless us, but we don’t want Him to get too close to us…to really see us…but in the end, we can either lie to ourselves, or make Peter’s confession, “I am a sinful person,” our own.
Then it’s our turn to be amazed as Jesus says: “Do not be afraid. I forgive you all your sins. That’s why I suffered. That’s why I was wounded. That’s why I bled and died on the cross. From now on you will be catching men.” You see, you were not just saved from the fear of God and the fear of punishment by Jesus, but you were saved for this same catching of men Jesus told Peter about. You have been enlisted in the high calling of fishing for people. If you are “fishing about” for a purpose in life, this is it. You are to join Jesus on a journey that will make your life an adventure—where you will be dragging people out of the pounding surf into the lifeboat. This is what you have been saved for—to join Jesus’ team…to rescue people with Him.
I love the way that author Mark Cahill describes the adventure of fishing with Jesus. He writes: “If I threw a birthday party for you where every guest would receive $100,000 in cash and a Mercedes convertible, and I gave you fifty tickets to your party, how many people would you have at your party? No doubt, you would have fifty people. Isn’t that similar to what God has done for us? He has given us a pocketful of tickets, and it is up to us to hand out ticket after ticket to a place called heaven. Do you realize how many Christians are going to die and stand in front of God with a pocket full of tickets to heaven? You had all these tickets to heaven. You could have given them away to anyone you wanted to, but you died with your pockets full of tickets.” Cahill concludes, “My goal is that I am about to die, I hand my last ticket to a police officer or an ambulance driver or an emergency room doctor. And then I’ll take my last breath, die, and stand in front of the throne of God with no tickets left in my pockets.”
Jesus has saved you from the fear of death and saved you for the catching of men. This means a Spirit-filled shift in your thinking. It means you start looking for people to give tickets to. It means…well, it means a lot of things, but maybe we should just talk about the first step, because I know the idea of handing out these tickets to people is terrifying for us in our natural hearts.
Do you remember the first step Peter, James, and John took? After Jesus had created faith in them by his preaching his Word, did the fishermen stay put in the same old routine? No. They left their old way of life behind and went on a journey with Jesus. That was their first step as disciples. Believing is easy; it’s a gift, after all. Putting your beliefs into action—that’s not so easy, but that is discipleship. Jesus doesn’t call anyone to believe in Him and do nothing. He says, “Come fish with me!” And the first step is leaving behind whatever you need to leave behind in order to do that.
What is holding you back from going fishing with Jesus? What keeps getting in the way of you handing out gospel tickets to people? What do you need to say “no” to in order to say “yes” to this journey of a lifetime? Whatever it is, it’s time to leave that boat by the lake. Tie it to the post and leave it behind. It’s not too late to walk away with Jesus by your side. “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”