Living Stones – Thursday, January 25, 2018
Go deep
Luke 5:5
But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.”
Luke’s extended recounting of the calling of the first disciples, Luke 5:1-11, immediately exposes us to who Jesus is and how He confronts and challenges us.
The experienced fisherman is one with a particular body of knowledge. It may be local knowledge but his survival and his success both depend on his knowledge about the weather, the characteristics of the particular sea in which he works, and the typical behaviour of the fish schools most common to that area. That local knowledge has to be respected.
Jesus showed up and borrowed Peter’s boat to be used as a podium for His seaside sermon to His growing number of followers assembled ad hoc on the busy business beach. The loan of the boat was an easy transaction because Peter, his brother, their business partners – James and John the sons of Zebedee, and their staff were all busy washing, cleaning, mending and folding their nets.
This work was a daily chore. The fishing crew had no choice once they had made a foray into the waters and let down the nets. The cleaning and preparation was not a function of success. If you caught nothing you had to clean the nets if you had a modest catch you had to clean the nets, and if you were blessed with a big catch you had to clean and mend the nets.
The cleaning and mending chores, I suppose, were sweet toil on the mornings after a big catch and payday. With big fish out of the water, writhing on the sand in the last efforts at life, as the women in the business end of the enterprise haggle with the domestic and commercial purchasers the fishermen are pumped to clean and mend for the fish seem to be ‘running’ now.
But when the night’s work out on the dangerous waters produced nothing, the workers lose the joy of the work and it becomes tough toil. Work that must be done through disappointment and with the hope that tonight would be better.
It is at this point that Jesus looks at Peter and issues the seemingly bizarre instruction, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” Luke 5:4. Jesus’ instruction to Peter immediately ran contrary to all of Peter’s general and local knowledge, contrary to his experience, and quite frankly, contrary to his mood.
Often, the word of God is quite contrary especial when it comes to us at times of difficulty or at low points in our lives.
In my own experience, not as a fisherman to be clear, I have often wondered as I drove to the homes of families who had a relative sick unto death, or where the sting of death had just been felt, whether the words I am about to say would be adequate to their experience of grief. Sometimes the passage of scripture on my lips or my mind seem so contrary, “Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted.”
If you have ever suffered through the death of a loved one you would know how contrary the words of the visiting mourners could be as you wrestle with your grief at the loss.
Peter and his companions had not suffered death, not in the least, this would not have been the first time that they had come back from the sea with nothing. This is a common part of the experience of a seasoned fisherman. Fishermen say “every day is fishing day but every day is not catching day,’ but that does not make them happy.
Peter makes this point to Jesus, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing;” In other words, what you are asking us to do makes no sense. We have been at this all night and the fish didn’t run. We know this sea and we know these fish. Like all fish they come up at night when the water is cool so that they could feed, the sun is out now and they have made the deep dive. Who with any basic knowledge of fish would go out into deep waters for fish in the middle of the morning? Furthermore, if we do this wild thing that you are suggesting we would have to wash and clean and pack these nets all over again!
Luke, I am sure, gave us the abbreviated and cleaned up version of fisherman speak. Peter though, impulsive as he always was as a young man, made a snap decision that showed respect for Jesus and a willingness to acknowledge that, given all that we have seen and heard about Him so far suggests that He be taken seriously.
Peter went into the deep against his better judgement, contrary to his knowledge and experience, risked his reputation, and also risked the ire of his partners and staff if this didn’t pan out. “Nevertheless,” he said to Jesus, “at Your word I will let down the net.”
Peter went deep with his boat and a part of the team, the rest, as they say, is history. Go deep.
Think on these things:
- Have you ever been challenged by a word from God to act contrary to your experience or knowledge, what did you do?
- Do you have a testimony of trusting the promises of God when everything seemed contrary?
- How have you used the word of God to offer comfort, guidance or hope to someone in difficult circumstances?
- Are you being challenged to “go deep” in any area of your life right now?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that we would be prepared to quickly trust God even when our knowledge and experience say something different.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex