Good morning Lord Jesus, I seek you this morning so that the words “Lord Jesus” will not just be words that I speak but define the life I live out today.
But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesusʼ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For Peter and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, and so were James and John, Zebedeeʼs sons, who were Simonʼs business partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” So when they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him. (Luke 5:20-31)
My daughter and her boyfriend each have a dog. They drove up together from Birmingham to spend Labor Day weekend with me and Nancy. Yesterday, I grabbed a fishing rod and took the dogs for a walk over to one of the ponds in a small park in our neighborhood. While the dogs ran around, I made a few casts and caught a couple small bass. I love to fish. However, the kind of fishing envisioned in the passage above is not the fishing we envision today with a fishing pole, line, bobber, and hook with bait or a lure. It was not a relaxing hobby of a fun outing that dad’s take their children to enjoy or people do to forget work and get out on the water.
The fishing in this passage is net fishing. It involved a circular net that had heavy weights around its perimeter that was cast out into the water and dragged back in over and over again. The occupation of fisherman was not fun or relaxing, but labor-intensive, hard work and this imagery of a fisherman involved much strain, long , hard, hours, and often resulted in the disappointment on little or no catch of fish. Jesus called Peter out of his calling of a fisherman and the catching of fish; into the calling of of sharing the Gospel and the catching people. However, in catching people; the strenuousness of evangelism, the time, the work ethic that it required, the persistence and the dedication to the task (often in spite of minimal “catch” orresults) is the same as in catching fish. Yet the infinite value of the new "catch" (the people), and of snatching people from judgment into grace and new life has eternal significance. Then catching people in a way is the opposite of catching fish: The fish that were caught would be destroyed: killed, cooked, and eaten. The people that will be caught would be saved, rescued, removed from eternal destruction, and given new eternal life. In His saying, "You will be catching people", Jesus turns the miracle into a metaphor for mission for all who follow Jesus, including you and me today. We also accepted Jesus’ call to become “fishers of people” when we were baptized.
My family, I pray as we celebrate Labor Day and our whatever different callings and careers (fisherman) we have, you will be reminded and recommitted of your calling you promised to enter into in your baptism of being a fisher of people. I pray you will reflect on the level of your work ethic, persistence, and dedication currently in your life to catching people. I pray you will realize the infinite value of your “catch”; your neighbors, co-workers, classmates and others, in Jesus name. Please pray the for me. God bless you my friends!
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Help Me Share The Gospel With Those In Troubled Waters!
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