Let Down Your Nets

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This morning I was reading Luke 5. The title of this chapter is Jesus Calls His First Disciples and it starts with Simon Peter and the other fishermen washing their nets after catching nothing all night. These men were likely exhausted and discouraged, they were fishermen without fish! This is when Jesus steps in. Jesus asks Simon to pull his boat away from shore and begins to teach the people who were on the land. When he finishes He tells Peter to, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch" (v.4). Now, Peter answers in the way I feel most of us would, he reminded Jesus that he had just gotten back from fishing all night and caught nothing but, notice, he still does exactly what Jesus asked him to do. He doubted, but he obeyed. The story goes on to say that they caught so many fish their nets began to break and their boats almost sank! The same thing they had been doing the night before with no success, now with so many fish they are struggling to bring it all in! The difference? This time Jesus was in the boat with them.

What was so different about this time? Jesus said 'the harvest is ready'.

Now, the story continues, when they come back with two boats of fish that were on the brink of sinking Simon Peter falls down at Jesus' feet saying, "Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!" (v.8) for Simon knew that he doubted but he obeyed with doubt in his heart and saw God move. But, I think this shows us that Simon Peter didn't want to continue to obey with doubt but with faith because this was God. Is that our hearts?

What is so significant about this? Simon Peter is us.

This story is a reminder of what we have been called into if we have put our faith and trust in Jesus. This is obvious because we often hear about Jesus telling his first disciples that they will now be fishers of men, but what about the preceding story? In the beginning of this story Simon Peter was finishing up working hard all night trying to catch fish with no avail. He was standing on the shoreline cleaning his nets out, a symbol of the reality -- he was done for the night. But Jesus interrupts this narrative by doing what He does, teaching and instructing. I wonder what He was saying, one can only really guess, but whatever He taught changed the course of Simon's life forever.

Like Simon, Jesus is asking us to go into the deep waters and let down our nets for a catch. Maybe we are on the shore cleaning our nets, we are done, we have worked hard to cast our nets into the deep with nothing.  Oh how often do we respond to God like Peter, reminding Him that we have already tried. We remind Him we have already been trying for 30 years and they're still not getting it, we remind Him that you have invited that person to church and they have constantly said no, we remind Him that you already have been praying for that person to get saved and nothing is happening. Don't grow weary.

Maybe today God is asking you to go into those deep waters and let down your nets, for today is the day for the catch. 

I still sit and wonder why Jesus chose some on the shore that day and not others. I still wonder if they ever got that He was the Messiah sent to be slain and not just a rabbi. I still wonder how Jesus went about choosing Simon of all the other men on the boat. My mind is flooded with many questions, but one thing is clear: God is so faithful.