Jesus
said to Simon,“Put
into deep water andLower
your nets for a catch.”Simon
said in reply,“Master,
we have worked hard all nightAnd
have caught nothing,But
at your command I will lower the nets.”~ Luke 5: 4-5
Have you ever
experienced dryness in your life? The kind that makes a beautiful thing look ugly,
a sweet tasting drink, bitter, a lovely and romantic feelings turn into a hateful
and revengeful one, a comfortable living turn into hardship and even a blooming
professional career takes a disastrous and deteriorate twist that no longer
seems exciting and what about the desire to hurt or at the extreme entertain
the thought of taking one’s life, the same that you so cherish and want to
protect at all cost?
Well, to a greater
extent Peter, James and John share a commonality with the some of this dryness
that we often experience in life, until their encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ!
If we open ourselves to Jesus Christ as Peter and company did, he will turn our
dryness into greatness, our fear into faith and our despair into hope.
Call to
discipleship
While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus
and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret. He
saw two boasts there alongside the lack; the fishermen had disembarked and were
washing their nets. Getting into one of the boasts, the one belonging to Simon,
he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore. Then he sat down and
taught the crowds from the boat. After he had finished speaking, he said to
Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon said in
reply, “Master, we worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your
command I will lower the nets.”
When they had done this, they caught a
great number of fish and their nets were tearing. They signaled to their
partners in the other boat to come to help them. They came and filled both
boats so that the boats were in danger of sinking.
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the
knees of Jesus and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”……….
Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”
When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed
him.
The Miracle
There are
multi-dimensional ways to reflect on the miracle that has just happened! The
apostles Peter, James and John were so astonished that they were willing to
leave everything behind and follow Jesus Christ new mission for them; that of
becoming fishers of men for the eternal Kingdom of God. The catching of the
fish is indeed a miracle; however the greatest attribute was the transformation
it brought into the lives of the Apostles!
Faith
Faith was very
instrumental to helping Peter to obey Jesus Christ command! Imagine, you are a
professional fisherman and being commanded by a preacher to cast your net into
the deep water, and not only that, at the most odd time based on your
experience and calculation on the best hour to fish! They worked hard all night
and caught nothing! Was it the teaching of Jesus Christ that influenced them to
obey? While one may never fully comprehend the actual reason or reasons, it
suffice that they obeyed Jesus Christ and behold their “dryness”, the darkest
moment in the career, the most humiliating and frustrating part of their life
was turned into one of the greatest and most successful ever! The catching of
the fish, transformed the lives of Peter and the rest from fear, doubt and despair
and frustration into courage, faith and hope and satisfaction.
Humility and Grace
This catch
without any doubt will definitely provide them with professional successes,
bragging right and even financial security based on the gospel narrative.
However something remarkable happened! Peter immediately recognize the moment
as both miraculous and at the same time humbling, because in spite of their
experiences together as fishermen, here is the Lord, Jesus Christ telling them
to do otherwise and behold their faith was instantaneously reciprocated.
Out of
humility, Peter told Jesus Christ about his unworthiness! And as is always
typical of our Lord, Jesus Christ, he pointed Peter not to his shortcomings,
but the resident talents and faith that he possesses. As a result of this
bountiful grace and supernatural encounter that Peter, James and John had with
Jesus Christ, they were forced to see how superficial our life successes or
personal victory can be! This humbling experience opens Peter, James and John’s
eyes to the endless possibilities none of them would have ever imagined when
Jesus Christ told them from now on they were to become fishers of men!
Twenty-one centuries
later, our generation is still talking about Peter, James and John and the
other disciples as Jesus Christ has promised! These men became fishers of men
not y any human means, wisdom or attribute, but simply as a result of their
total submission to the will of the almighty God through love and obedience to
his laws. When we allow Jesus Christ into our lives and cast our nets, as
commanded, pride will give way to humility and sin and crookedness will be
replace with grace.
Purposeful Life
A person can
have a full “net” and still have an empty life! A person can be wealthy and
still be very unhappy, insatiable and depress. Life therefore is much more than
professional successes and financial security. When the disciples came ashore
and left everything behind and follow Jesus Christ, it is possible some of
their contemporaries might have considered them to be fools, hooked on “false
hope” of a Kingdom that may never materialize. However history says otherwise
and today following Jesus Christ, they have been vindicated not according to
worldly standards of material comfort, but through divine grace and true peace
and everlasting life in the Kingdom of Heaven. Our purpose in life is not to
acquire ephemeral wealth, but to use our “wealth’, “talent” and or “net” to
bring true love, peace and the prosperity of Jesus Christ and our God to
mankind! We are to become fishers of men by our actions, generosity, being our brothers’
keeper, instrument of justice and humanity and as a matter of fact, the image
of our Lord Jesus Christ on earth.
Wisdom
When Peter,
James and John encountered Jesus Christ, they became wise! As Saint Paul will
later put it in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, “Let no one deceive
himself. If anyone among you considers himself wise in this age, let him become
a fool, so as to become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in
the eyes of God.” The wisdom of the world is mostly saturated with
individualism, egocentrism and selfishness or greediness! Every dream is
tailor-made to satisfy the individual and not mankind and as a result of this,
we have continued to witness severe disparity between the rich and poor, those
who have and those with almost nothing, and the developed world’s material comfort
in comparison to the developing countries high poverty rate and near absence of
material comfort.
Our encounter
with the Lord Jesus Christ should help us to become like Peter, James and John
and the other disciples and saints of God and therefore fill with the knowledge
of God’s future plans for humanity. In the presence of the Messiah in our
lives, we will recognize the shortness of life on earth and therefore build our
treasure where worms cannot eat them.
How to be a “Fisherman” for God
The pivots upon
which we can become “fishermen for God” are in love, hope and faith!
If you love me,
you will keep my commandments! This was exactly what Peter and his colleagues
did, obeying Jesus Christ out of love, which at the time may not be fully
comprehensible, but yet they did love the Lord! When we love God, we will be
giving the grace to love our fellow mankind that we can see. To become a fisher
of men, our challenges are to emulate the kind of agape and selfless love that
Jesus Christ has for every one of us. We must not discriminate or be quick to
condemn others; on the contrary, we are called upon to shower compassion, mercy
and kindness to all that we encounter in life. One of the easiest ways of
accomplishing these tasks of love of God and love of mankind is to see Jesus
Christ in everybody irrespective of race, wealth and social status.
Like Peter and
company, we must have complete hope in the almighty God’s plan as the best
possible for us and our loved ones, meaning, our God who is the “potter” will
mold us the “clay” into the kind of vessel that will ultimately bring glory to
his name! No matter how difficult our circumstances may be; unemployment,
broken relationship, poverty, deterioration in our careers, ill-health, lack of
recognition and even betrayal from loved ones, knowing that Jesus Christ truly
care about us should enable everyone that seeks the Lord with a sincere heart
shall never be hopeless, because the wisdom of God is different from those of
the world.
Peter had complete
trust and confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ and consequently obeyed the
Lord’s command and cast his net into the deep water! This action of Peter will
be ridicule today by the experts based on human wisdom for uncountable reasons;
one, Jesus Christ was not a fisherman by trade and therefore what does he know
about fishing? Two, at the time that Peter was being asked to cast his net,
many professional fishermen will consider it outrageous, because normally, the
best time for a catch is at night! In spite of the obvious, Jesus Christ was
able to penetrate Peter’s doubt, concern and fear, and he was rewarded beyond
his imagination.
And part of being
wise in the things of the Lord is our ability to let go of loving the things of
this world, such as money or wealth, passion and the little things that comes
between us and our ability to help make life better for our brothers and
sisters. Furthermore the realization that we came into this world with nothing
and so shall we depart should encourage us to be generous with our love for
others for the sake of the almighty God.
Today, Jesus
Christ is reaching out to us too! What are the night “dryness” experiences we
are passing through right now? How do we want Jesus Christ to intervene in our
lives today? What are the worries in our lives that are making it very
difficult for us to turn to Jesus Christ and cast our “nets” in the directions
he wanted for us? Whatever it may be, let us reflect on the simple act of faith,
hope and love that Peter, James and John displayed in this gospel account of
Saint Luke and ask the Lord to help us become fisher’s of men today!
Prayer
Dear heavenly
Father,
Thank you for
the gift of life and love, which have their origin in your Only Begotten Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ. The salvation of the just comes from the Lord and no any
other and therefore we turn to you O Lord, our God and pray that you give us
the grace to merit it!
You O Lord
promised us that we should trust in you and do good, take delight in your ways
and in return you will make us dwell in the land and be fed in your security
and you will grant us our heart’s request.
We ask you to
make justice dawn for us like the light; and bring us your vindication, and
help us to turn from evil and do good that we may abide with you forever.
Father, you love
what is right and never forsake your faithful ones and you are our refuge in
time of distress, please come Lord and help and deliver us from all evils.
And we present
these petitions to you O Lord our God and with sincere and grateful heart for
your faithfulness, steadfastness and infinite love, mercy and compassion for
all of us, through Jesus Christ our Lord, your son who lives and reign with you
in union with the Holy Spirit, one God world without end. Amen!
Ref: Luke 5,
Psalm 37, 1 Corinthians 3, Psalm 90
Podeh2016
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