Jesus used to hang out by lakes a lot. And who can blame him? Middle of the palestinian desert. About a thousand degrees. Whether you were a fisherman or not, I imagine the Sea of Galilee would’ve been the place to be on a hot first century day.

In addition to liking lakes, Jesus also had a predilection for making a point, often in a none too straightforward way. He’s out one day in a boat with Simon (soon-to-be-Peter), and Simon’s probably been talking. Again. This time he’s complaining about the fishing. Empty nets. Waste of a day. Not a single catch.

So Jesus grins and says, “Uh, let’s pull out a bit farther, into deeper water. Then try putting the nets out again. Who knows.”

And in his typical fashion, Simon says, “Master. You are aware we haven’t caught anything. All day. Not one Galilean fish. Zero. Zilch. And I’ve never caught anything this late in the day in a lifetime of fishing this lake, BUT, since you say so, I’m going to sail all the way out, and put my nets all the way down again, cuz hey, you say I should.”

The smugness melts somewhere around the moment when a huge haul of fish almost sinks the boat. And in true Peter fashion, he is then genuinely astonished, and humbles himself before Jesus, kneeling and saying, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”

I think he meant what he said when he told the man he had so recently called “Master” to leave him. And Jesus knew he meant it, and he knew why.

Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid…”

Whether it’s our first brush with God or our hundredth, fear is a sensible reaction. The God of the Universe can playfully commandeer your fishing boat or tap you on the shoulder and ask if perhaps you wouldn’t like to travel halfway round the world for him and suddenly life shifts. Which is why maybe faith and terror and joy are the same thing sometime. Peter had religical words, claimed to be a sinner and maybe hoped to be off the hook, but Jesus saw his heart, comforted it, and offered instead to let Peter live the rest of his earthly days engaged in the most radical adventure ever conceived by God or man.

He was human to be afraid. He was wise to follow.

Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch men.” So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 2nd, 2008 at 10:15 pm and is filed under From the nation of Indig. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.