Fishers of Men

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.


Today we have a story about some fishermen. I’m sure the beginning of this story would be very familiar to many if not all of you. These fishermen have two boats. They have just gotten in from a hard day of fishing with little luck. This is not surprising. They are trying to catch fish in the Lake of Gennesaret, which you might know better as the Sea of Galilee. There weren’t many fish in the Sea of Galilee. The fishermen were some of the poorest members of society. If you had no other way of feeding your family, you would try fishing. It wouldn’t make you rich but you might be able to eat.

Along comes Jesus. He is as popular in this story as he was unpopular in the story before. Do you remember last week? The crowd there wanted to push him off a cliff for claiming to be a prophet. Now the crowds are pressing around him and pushing him towards the water not to do him harm but because they don’t want to miss a word he might say. Kind of like paparazzi.

Well, anyway … Jesus sees these two boats. He has an epiphany. “If I go out a bit in the boat, the water will keep them back and I’ll actually be able to talk.” The boat served kind of like this pulpit, keeping Jesus safe from the mob hanging on his every word. Then Jesus thinks a moment … “I need to do something to show them what I mean.” So he has the fishermen let out their nets into the barren waters. Simon says “There aren’t any fish here but you’re the teacher. So here goes.” Simon didn’t believe they would get any fish. Down go the nets. Up come the fish. So many fish that they can’t haul them all in. Even with two boats, there are too many fish.

Hallelujah, the fishery is saved. Or is it? Do the fishermen say thank you to Jesus, sell their fish, and head back out to catch more? No.

These fishermen haul in their catch, pull their boats up onto the shore, and walk away from it all.


What is going on here? Obviously Jesus is turning everything upside down again, but what does it mean?

Back around the time of Jesus they had a saying – they said that teachers went fishing for students. But they didn’t mean that they literally went fishing. I think Jesus is playing with this idea of fishing for students to tell us something very important. Maybe even a number of very important things.

Jesus has a mob of people following him, trying to hear every word he says. This throng may be following Jesus but they are not his followers. Coming to hear the message isn’t enough. If the message of Christ does not change them in some way, they might be hearing the words, but the words don’t mean anything. In this story only the fishermen are changed and they are the ones who are still there at the end of this story and in stories to come. The message of Christ has not lost its power. His message continues to change us; to change the way that we see the world.

Jesus came into the lives of these fishermen. He went to their place of work. He showed them what they had to gain from following him in terms that they could understand. He gave them a catch beyond their wildest imaginings. Then he showed them what they should be doing. He showed them what was really important. And because they had already come to trust him, they let their old ways fall from them and took up Christ’s way. Jesus does this for us, too. The words of Christ, his message, has meaning in our everyday lives. Jesus meets us where we work. Then he shows us where we can make a difference in the world. What we have to give to his cause. And when we give what we can, we end up richer for the giving.

The final message that I see in this passage is, I believe, the most important. Simon Peter fell down at Jesus’ knees. He said “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” And Jesus said “Do not be afraid” and gave him his new job to do. Jesus knew that Simon Peter was a sinful man. That didn’t matter to him. Jesus forgave him and accepted him for who he was. This is where grace is found in this message. We are all sinful. We pull away from God. We test God. We try to avoid God’s call. And when we take a moment away from our struggle, God is still there. God is still calling, telling us what our job is. God is still there. Telling us that we are his beloved. God is still there. Telling us that we are forgiven.