And as soon as they landed, they left everything and followed Jesus. — Luke 5:11
Simon and the Sons of Thunder, Inc. had just come back from a grueling night of fishing. They caught nothing at all, and had brought their boats in to clean the gear. Jesus, never really doing things like a normal person, gets into one of the boats and starts preaching. Then, to top things off, he tells fisherman who owned the boat, “Now go out where it is deeper, and let down your nets to catch some fish” (Luke 5:4). At this point, Simon answers him, “We did this all night and got nothing.”
Sure enough, the Bible story picks up right about here, and within a few words, the net was overflowing and the boat was sinking under the weight of the fish. The entire company was astonished, and when they landed, they left everything and followed Jesus.
There’s a few points I got out of this as I read that I’d love to share.
- Just because you just came back from a fruitless season doesn’t mean God can’t use you. Jesus took the fisherman who were worn out after a zero-fish catch, who were cleaning their nets so they could give up for a little while, and brought them to an abundant harvest.
- At God’s Word is better than at our word. Simon’s word was, “there are no fish here. All night for nothing.” Nevertheless, at Jesus’ word he let down his net and the consequences were awe-inspiring.
- What we let Jesus use, he will use greatly. The other boat was not the one filled with fish, just the one Jesus was in and using. I love that Jesus preaches from the boat beforehand, because it’s a brilliant metaphor. Are we a vessel, a vehicle for Jesus to fish for men from? He’s always faithful on his end, do we hold up our end of the bargain in preaching, leading, serving, loving by letting Him use us?
- Our stuff isn’t good enough. Did you notice that the net was breaking when they let things go Jesus’ way? What we have, even if we use it day to day in a live work environment, isn’t ever going to be enough to handle a move a God. Why? So we get a fuller picture of who God is and how much we need him. We don’t have the capacity with all of our manmade things to do what God can do with all of his Godmade things.
- Landing in the same spot with different results beckons a response. The story started and ended at the landing point, the shoreline. The response was completely different each time. At the beginning of the story, the men had left the boats completely, dejected and cleaning their gear. At the end of the story, the men had left the boats completely, accepted and following God. When they landed, they realized what had transpired between the two times they had docked the boats, and they made a bold response to it. These three men gave it all up to become the inner three disciples of Jesus. They wouldn’t even go back to fishing until after Jesus was crucified.
It’s easy to feel like the empty boats in the story. Notice what Simon says in Luke 5:8: “Oh, Lord, please leave me—I’m too much of a sinner to be around you.” You can be in a dry spot spiritually and God can still take you out on the water one more time and use you. Jump forward to John 21. Peter says “I’m going fishing.” Read into that, “I’m going back to my old way of life. We’ve been separated from Jesus and don’t know where to go next.” Not really the rock of the church right now, Peter is. But Jesus offers the same invitation then as he did in Luke 5 and does to us now, “Follow me.” Because Peter followed when he had given up, both times, he was on the front line for Pentecost, preaching the sermon and shepherding the moment the Holy Spirit was given to the Church.
Similarly, it’s too easy to come back from a great haul and have the wrong response. We elevate ourselves and our gear, or aren’t changed at all. It’s a kind of a mission-trip high. You can feel really good about who God is and what he does, but never really get how much you need him and need to open yourself up for one more fishing trip. We aren’t disposable humans; God can use us again and again for his glory, but we have to respond each time by getting in line with God’s direction and submitting to that next insane-sounding request to go fish in the deep.
Where are you in this story? Where do you want to be in this story?
-Zachariah