Every living human being somehow needs to find meaning in their lives, it’s what holds us together. Why get up in the morning if there is no meaning in it? Perhaps you have experienced days of depression, when meaning was absent, and any sense of purpose was lost. Perhaps you know how that feels. Meaning is essential to our well-being.
For the fishermen, Simon Peter, James and John, it is possible that the primary meaning in their lives was providing a living for themselves and their families. Maybe they loved their work. Hopefully they took pride in it – it was hard. Sometimes you worked all night and came up empty.
They weren’t wealthy men. As Jews in an occupied land, they were enduring the hardships of the Roman rule, which taxed them heavily and took much of the product of their labors to be sent elsewhere. There were cities nearby that were predominantly Roman cities, full of comparatively wealthy Romans. These people wanted fish, they wanted the best of the catch. The fishermen and their families, even though they did the work, were at the bottom of the food chain.
Life was hard. Sickness could rob a family of a loved one overnight. Truly, there was not much of their lives that was under their control. But something that occurred earlier in Simon Peter’s life, which Luke shares in Chapter 4, is relevant to this story.
While in Capernaum, Jesus was invited to visit Simon Peter’s house. From the time he had arrived in Capernaum, Jesus had been in the synagogue teaching. While he was there, a man who is described as having an unclean spirit became disruptive, challenging Jesus. Jesus then commanded the spirit to come out of him and, to all appearances, that is what happened.
Perhaps Simon Peter was there, in the synagogue, witnessing all this. If not, he probably heard about what happened as the story went around, and so he asked Jesus to come visit his house.
There was a reason Simon Peter might have wanted to bring Jesus into his home. His mother-in-law was quite ill. She was running a high fever. The others in the house asked Jesus about her – can anything be done? What do you think? Jesus healed her in a manner much like the way he had ordered out the unclean spirit from the man on the synagogue – after which he was implored by many others to do the same for them and their loved ones.
Some time later, Jesus was at the lakeshore – Lake Gennesaret, which is another name for Lake Galilee. He was trying to find some space – away from the crowds of people who kept coming after him, beseeching him to help, to heal, to give them the miracle they so badly needed in their lives.
But the crowds followed him, pressing in on him. The more they drew near, the closer Jesus inched to the water’s edge. They left him nowhere to go. Then he saw these fishermen. They had just come ashore and were cleaning their nets. It had been a long night of fishing for them. It was one of those nights where they came up empty.
Jesus climbed into one of the boats – it was Simon Peter’s boat. Simon remembered him. This was the rabbi who had healed his mother-in-law, thanks be to God. She might have died, but for Jesus. Simon Peter was grateful, indeed, to this man.
Jesus asked Simon to put out a little way from the shore, giving him some breathing space, and Simon complied. The boat became Jesus’ stage as he continued teaching the crowds who stood on the shore.
When he was finished speaking, he turned to Simon Peter again and said, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon might have smiled, slightly, at that. He respected this man very much, but Jesus was not a fisherman. He answered him respectfully, kindly, telling him that he thought it was pointless, but he would do as Jesus asked. Why wouldn’t he, after what Jesus had done for him, for so many in his community?
As tired as he was, as many other chores as he had to do, Simon Peter took his boat out into the deep water. He let down his nets – so many fish were drawn in, the catch threatened to break the nets.
This was nothing Simon Peter had ever seen before. Those who were in the boat with Jesus and Simon quickly called the others still at shore to come out and help them with this enormous catch. The men worked quickly, frantically, to hold onto all of it – this would more than make up for the night before. There would be fish for their families and fish to sell – lots and lots of fish to sell.
But Simon Peter is paralyzed. He has fallen to his knees. Everything that has happened. The healings…the teachings…the revival of his mother-in-law…now this. Now this.
Simon Peter is trembling, tears flow down his face. He is overcome with amazement and gratitude, awe and fear. Fear. Simon sees what is happening. In all of this, Jesus is drawing Simon into his circle – just as he drew the fish into Simon’s nets, now he draws Simon into himself.
There will be no going home to his family. There would be no selling this abundance of fish, pulling in a handsome profit. Nothing would be as it was before. How could he possibly bear it? Suddenly, everything inside of Simon rebels. “No! Go away from me Lord; I am a sinful man!”
I am a sinful man. I am not able to be what you want of me. I am not strong enough. I am not worthy.
Yet Jesus goes straight to the thing – the one thing that is holding Simon back. “Do not be afraid.”
Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid of loss or upheaval of your life, the gain is all yours, Simon. Do not be afraid of your weakness or of my power, they are one and the same. Do not be afraid to step away from this life and into a new life with me. From now on, Simon Peter, you will fish for people.
And so they did.
Well, it sometimes goes like that – but not always. There are as many ways of responding to the call as there are people who hear the call. And, to be honest, a call is never done – we will find ourselves being called by Jesus again and again and again, to follow him into new and different circumstances, to respond in new and different ways. On any given day, he might call you to go out into deeper water.
And most likely, we are right there with Simon Peter when we hear the call, on our knees, in tears, begging the Lord to leave us be. What? Again, Lord? What do you want of me?
Hearing the call is always hard. And frightening. We don’t know what we are being called into. We fear the risks, we hate the change, as we are wrenched away from what is familiar and comfortable. We like our life as it is. Even if we complain, it doesn’t mean we want to change.
Hearing the call is always hard. But answering the call brings surprising blessings and joy.
Every living human being somehow needs to find meaning. And so we do – we make meaning out of the small happenings of our lives. We find purpose – anything from putting a meal on the table for our loved ones to cheering on our favorite football team – or maybe cheering against our most hated team. We might find meaning and purpose in giving encouragement to someone you like, or in causing someone you dislike to feel embarrassment. There are countless ways to make meaning.
But if you are sometimes wondering if there is more…if you sometimes feel that sense of yearning, a hunger and you can’t quite figure out what you need to fill it. And so you try to feed it, to fill it…with something. But, still, there is that yearning that never seems to get satisfied. If you feel that yearning…then listen. Listen. You might hear Jesus calling you to go out into deeper water.
Do not be afraid.
