fishers of men

I love this article by John Michael Talbot.

Luke 5:1-11, Master, we have been hard at it all night long and have caught nothing; but if you say so, I will lower the nets. v. 5

We see in this gospel reading that Peter was undoubtedly exhausted after working through the night. And then Jesus came along and had the audacity to ask him to go back to work! Peter complained a little, but in the end he lowered the nets and hauled in more fish than the nets could hold. Because of Peter’s obedience, faith, and extra human effort, Jesus worked a miracle and proceeded to call Peter to become his disciple. It took human effort and faith for Peter to obey Jesus and lower the nets again, but it took the power of Jesus to work the miracle of filling Peter’s net with fish.

Often, this is exactly the way Jesus works with us. He comes to us when we are tired and exhausted, after our own human efforts have failed. At that point, he asks us simply to trust him and try again according to his command. If we trust and obey, we will see the kind of result that could easily be called a miracle.

Like Peter, we must never be possessive of the miraculous fruits of God’s grace. Overwhelmed by the miracle, Peter humbly says to Jesus, "Leave me, Lord: I am a sinful man." Instead, Jesus responds by calling Peter to leave everything, even the miraculous fish and follow him to become a "fisher of men." As a result, Peter and his companion left everything and become followers of Christ.

When we witness the power of God and are called to such a faith commitment, we, like Peter, are often afraid, but Jesus' words to us are: "Do not be afraid. From now on you will be catching men."

I like this for several reasons. First, I think it is far too rare that when Jesus shows up that it leads to repentance. I have had the privilege to be in some 'worship' services that at some point a real sense of awareness of our sin occurred and we were led to cries of repentance and forgiveness. This however is an exception, far more there is more of a party/celebration or worse, simply singing some songs. Now I'm not proposing some percentage split, it just seems to me that a little more humbling and repentance would be a good and right thing.

Also, I like how Talbot pointed out that Peter left the fish to follow Christ. Too often we hang on to miracles of the past (or even present) and fail to realize that it is not about those at all. It is all about Christ. Time to get up and follow Him.