October 2, 2019
Five-Day Forecast
Does this ever happen to you?
You’re driving down a road that you’ve driven down hundreds of times before when you see something that you’ve never seen.
“When did they put that sign up?” you ask your spouse.
“That billboard has been there for at least eight years,” is the reply.
And you quietly think you’re losing your mind.
I had this experience the other day while preparing for our new Adult Bible Study on Simon Peter. The scripture passage that I was reading was one that I had ‘driven down’ countless times before. But this time, I spotted something that caught my attention as though I’d never seen it before.
Jesus was preaching on the shore of the Sea of Galilee when he saw some fishermen washing their nets. Surprising them, Jesus hopped in one of the boats and directed Simon Peter to position the boat offshore so that the crowds could hear him.
After he finished preaching, Jesus said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”
Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.”
What I’ve missed before in this exchange is the exhaustion in Simon’s voice. He has nothing left in the tank. He’s done. Simon’s already been inconvenienced by Jesus when he allowed him to hijack his boat and demand that he listen to his preaching. Now, Simon is being asked to go back out and fish? It’s one thing to ask someone for a favor. It’s another to tell a man how to do his job.
Simon doesn’t want to do what Jesus is asking him to do. Not because he doesn’t like fishing—he’s a fisherman for Pete’s sake (I couldn’t resist)—but because he’s exhausted. And because he doesn’t think any good will come from doing what Jesus is asking him to do.
This resonates with me. The reluctance in Simon’s response connects with me. There are certainly times when I don’t feel like I have the energy to do what Jesus is asking me to do.
In the scripture, Simon’s reply is ready-made for a Sunday School lesson: “Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” But I’d like to believe that Simon, ever the most authentic of followers, might have paused after his initial statement to Jesus and genuinely thought about what he had been asked to do. I’d like to think Simon acknowledged the obvious—that Simon did not want to do what he was being asked to do—and that he looked off at the horizon to consider what he might say next.
The moment between Simon’s first statement and his acquiescence to Christ’s command is powerful and pregnant with possibility. Think about it. At that moment, Simon could have said no to Jesus. He could have said, “I’m done for the day. Find yourself another fisherman.” He could have ignored Jesus entirely and gone on home for a well-deserved night’s—well, day’s—sleep.
How do we typically respond in these moments? I know how I usually respond to God’s direction when I’ve been out on the job for hours on end with little to show for my efforts and I’m not proud of it.
The beauty of Simon’s response is his willingness to trust and obey Jesus even when he shouldn’t have. Simon pushed through his initial reluctance because it was Jesus who had asked him to do something.
It turns out that obeying Jesus was in Simon’s best interest. The miraculous catch of fish was an economic triumph for the fisherman. As we learn here, good things come to those who obey Jesus.
So when I make excuses when God directs me to do something, I’ll try to remember Simon’s obedience, here. I’ll try to summon the courage to reply, “Yet if you say so…”
Maybe God can redeem and transform my reluctance.
Now, that would be a miracle.