“The fishermen … were out scrubbing their nets.”  Luke 5:2

Jesus was preaching at the shore of the lake of Gennesaret and there is an interesting detail contained in the scriptures.  There were boats pulled up on shore and the fishermen had gotten out of the boats and were scrubbing their nets.  This is not a gratuitous detail included by Luke in chapter 5.  Enter into the scene – Jesus preaching and these fishermen busy at work with His words in their ears.  I can only imagine that after a short while they gave up any pretense of scrubbing their nets and were listening intently to Jesus.  The nets however are what we want to focus here as they play and important role in the story that follows.  The nets can be seen as a metaphor to represent several important truths for these fishermen:

  • The nets as  a means of livelihood
  • The nets as a source of identity
  • The nets are as a way of interacting with the world

 

Nets and Making a Living

Understand that these fishermen had worked all night and had caught nothing.  This wasn’t just bad luck, this was a crisis.  No fish, no money.  No money, no food.  These men were under stress.  Peters’ mother was ill.  These men had no safety net to fall back on.  We can imagine the conference these fishermen had as to why they did not catch any fish:

Peter – “John, it must be the nets.  Maybe they are dirty”

John – “How can they be dirty?  We haven’t caught a fish all night!  Besides, we scrubbed the nets yesterday”

Peter – “You might be right John.  But I think we should scrub them again anyway, just to be sure”

John – “Well if you say so.  Not sure it will do any good”

Peter – “Just humor me and get going.”

What Peter and John and their partners were engaged in is the classic response when things do not work out – “If at first you don’t succeed – TRY HARDER!”  Jesus breaks into this reality with a new reality – “Push out into deep water and let your nets out for a catch.”   Insanity has been defined as doing the same thing and expecting a different result.  Peter tries to explain to Jesus the foolishness of His request – “Master, we’ve been fishing hard all night and haven’t caught even a minnow. But if you say so, I’ll let out the nets.”  We know what happens next.  They catch so many fish that the nets begin to break.  They catch so many fish that their boats begin to sink.  Jesus called them not to trying harder, but to surrender – “Let down your nets”

Jesus did not need these fishermen to let down their nets.  He could have given a command and every fish in that lake would have jumped into their boat while singing Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus.  Nor did Jesus ask them to let down the nets using a new and improved method.  The point is not the fish, nor the nets; it was who was in control.  Do we let Jesus control our nets?  Do we go into the deep water and let down our nets at His command?  He is inviting us see our work, our vocation, as a partnership with Him.

 

Nets and Identity

How do we know Peter and James and John and the rest of these men were fishermen?  We know because they had all the trappings associated with their trade.  Nothing says “Fishermen” like the nets, the boats, and the smell.  Their nets gave these men an identity and also defined their place and role in the larger society. Their occupation defined their expected contribution to the common welfare.   Although there is a sense of security in having everything in life defined, it is also a trap.  These men were fishermen, and it is all they would ever be.  Society expected no more and demanded nothing less.

Jesus launches a paradigm bomb into this closed and constraining system – “ ‘There is nothing to fear.  From now on you’ll be fishing for men and women.’  They pulled their boats up on the beach, left them, nets and all, and followed him.”  Jesus redefined what it means to be a fisherman.  He called them into a new identity, a deeper reality of who they were.  Our true identity is received not from listening to and following the world’s expectations.  Our true is identity is received as we follow Jesus.

Following Jesus into our true identity can seem daunting.  There is fear in leaving behind our false self.  This is the self that is identified by the surface, by the externals – money, position, family, occupation, material goods.  The world wants us to identify ourselves using its terms.  Jesus calls us to base our true identity on our relationship with Him as He leads us.  When asked “What do you do?” our natural tendency is to reply with what we do for a living.  Peter also would have said at first that he was a fisherman.  However, after walking with Jesus we see a profound change as he opens his last letter (2 Peter 1:1) “I, Simon Peter, am a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ.”

 

Nets and the World

Nets defined the way the fishermen interacted with the world.   The nets that they used needed to small enough for them to handle.  Fishing in the shallows suited their equipment and was safer and perhaps even more productive.    Jesus called them to push out into the deep water.  This is dangerous territory.  Storms happen in the deep.  Fish can swim around and under your nets in the deep.  You cannot control what happens in the deep.  This is precisely the place Jesus calls us to be – not in control.  If sin is defined as self in control then Jesus is calling us to a place of dependence.  It is a place of freedom where we can escape the entanglements of the world’s nets and walk in the freedom of Jesus.

However, most of the times we like to fish in the shallows – greed, power, ambition, comfort, outward religion that is socially acceptable.  These fish prosper in the shallows.  Jesus calls us to the deep water where love, generosity, and life from above are found because it is where Jesus lives.

It has been said that all oceans have shores and therefore we cannot escape living in the shallows.  The shallows serve a purpose in our lives but they are not where we are intended to live for eternity.  Perhaps there is an area where Jesus is calling you out to the deep waters, to push out in faith.  The only reason it makes sense is because the Master says so.  We may have good reasons to stay in the shallows.  If we do we will miss what Jesus has for us in the deep.  Let us cultivate the attitude of Peter who was willing to follow Jesus – even if it meant walking on the water

Prayer of Response:

Father, show me how I draw my identity and my sense of worth and identity from the nets of my life – my occupation, material possessions, my comforts.  Help me to renounce the false self that finds its identity in these shallow things.  Open my eyes, my ears, my heart to hear you invitation to push out in faith to the deep water and let the nets down at your command.  Help me to receive my true identity in the depths of your love.

Advertisement