|
|
The Gospels describe lots and lots of encounters between Jesus and all types of people-rich people and poor people; educated and uneducated; businessmen, laborers, and beggars; honest and dishonest; respectable and not so respectable; people who traveled a long way just to hear Jesus teach, people who elbowed their way through crowds just to touch his cloak, people who climbed trees just to get a glimpse of him, people who called out from the crowd to get his attention, and people who hardly looked up from their work until Jesus came to them and called their name.
Simon was one of this last group.
Simon was a fisherman. He had a house in Capernaum. He was married, and his mother-in-law lived with him. He had a brother named Andrew, also a fisherman. Night in and night out, Simon and Andrew worked the Sea of Galilee. Day in and day out, they washed and mended their nets and marketed their fish.
Simon had encountered Jesus early in his ministry. In fact, Jesus had been a guest in Simon's home. Simon even had first-hand information about Jesus' remarkable authority over sickness. When Jesus had come to Simon's house, Simon's mother-in-law had been in bed, ill with a high fever. Jesus healed her with a word.
Despite this early encounter with Jesus, Simon's life showed no evidence of profound transformation. When Jesus left Capernaum to continue teaching in other towns, Simon returned to his nets.
How could this happen? Was Simon particularly thick-headed? Was he blind to what Jesus was doing? Was he deaf to what Jesus was saying? Was he uninterested in what Jesus was up to? Was he too busy, or too stubborn, or too distracted, or too self-absorbed, or too something or other?
Well, maybe. Or maybe Simon was just a normal, ordinary guy living his normal, ordinary life. Maybe he was content doing what he was doing. Maybe it just never occurred to him that God had a special purpose and plan for him that would take him to places he had never imagined and stretch him to do things he couldn't possibly imagine. Maybe he just never dreamed that Jesus would want him-normal, ordinary Simon Peter the fisherman-to walk by his side day in and day out.
Maybe you've been there.
I've been there. I was blessed to encounter Jesus as a child and to see him make a difference in the lives of people close to me. It didn't change my life though. For years and years and years, I lived my life the way it made sense to me. I was content to let Jesus do his thing and to go on doing my thing. It never occurred to me that God might have a special purpose and plan for me that would take me to places I had never imagined and stretch me to do things I couldn't possibly imagine. I never dreamed that Jesus would want me-normal, ordinary Chris the engineer-to walk by his side day in and day out.
Maybe you're still there.
Maybe you grew up in the church. Your Sunday school teachers were really good, and you really did encounter Jesus in their teaching. You saw people whose lives were turned around by Jesus' touch. But you never really experienced any profound transformation. You let Jesus go his way, and you went yours-content to do whatever it is that you do. It's never occurred to you that God has a special purpose and plan for you. You've never dreamed that Jesus would want you-normal, ordinary you-to walk by his side, day in and day out. Maybe you continued going to church because it's always been a part of your routine, and that's why you're here today. Maybe you stopped going to church, because you didn't really see the point of it, and being here today is an unexplainable departure from your routine.
Maybe you didn't grow up in church, but somewhere along the line you encountered Jesus, or someone who loved you like Jesus. You're here today because of that, but you never really experienced any profound transformation. Maybe you're content to do whatever it is that you do. Maybe you're not all that content. But either way, it doesn't seem likely that God has a special purpose and plan for you. Why would Jesus want you-normal, ordinary you-to walk by his side, day in and day out?
Simon was not one of those people who traveled a long way just to hear Jesus teach, who elbowed their way through crowds just to touch his cloak, who climbed trees just to get a glimpse of him, who called out from the crowd to get his attention. Simon was one of those people who hardly looked up from his work until Jesus came to him and called his name.
One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret [the Sea of Galilee], with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, he saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
The text doesn't say what Simon did next, but I don't suppose he had much choice but to sit still in the boat with Jesus and listen to what he had to say. The text suggests that the reason Jesus got in the boat was to give himself a little space from the crowd, maybe so that the crowd could hear him better. I wonder if maybe this was also Jesus' way of getting Simon to stop fussing with his nets long enough to look up and listen too.
Sometimes God has to get our attention before he can do much else with us.
If you haven't heard God speaking in your life or seen him acting in your life or in the lives of those around you, it might be worth asking yourself…is it that God is not speaking and acting, or is it that I'm just not paying attention?
Sometimes God has to get our attention before he can begin teaching us how to recognize his voice and notice his presence.
Sometimes God gets our attention by interrupting us, by making us slow down and sit still so that we just might look up and listen. If you're facing a major interruption in your life-something you didn't plan, something that is disrupting your routine and causing you to look at the world from a different perspective than you usually do-consider the possibility that God may be using this interruption as an opportunity to get your attention. It might be something as anxiety-filled as an unexpected job loss. It might be something as adventure-filled as a short-term mission trip to a different part of the world. It might just be that God is trying to get your attention.
God doesn't always use burning bushes. Sometimes it seems like he isn't even speaking directly to you. Did you notice that after Jesus got Simon away from his nets and in the boat, sitting still with nothing to do but listen, Jesus turned back to the crowd and spoke to them? Simon wasn't the direct recipient of Jesus' words. Simon was one of the crowd-though he was one of the crowd who could not easily get up and walk away.
When Jesus had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch."
When Jesus finally turns to Simon to speak to him directly, he gives him a command that-truth be told-really doesn't make a lot of sense. After all, who's the fisherman here? Simon has been fishing this lake his whole life. He knows what he is doing. He doesn't need instructions from a carpenter. It's mid-morning by now. If the fish were no where to be found at night, they certainly aren't going to be easier to find at this time of day. And in deep water? Be serious-in deep water whatever fish there might be are likely to be beyond the reach of the nets.
Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything."
How familiar is that? God finally gets our attention and gives us a nudge, and our first instinct is to dig in our heels.
I remember when, in my late twenties, God finally got my attention enough to notice that he was nudging me pretty hard to get involved in church again. (Like a lot of people, I stopped participating in church when I was in college.) Come Sunday morning, I could definitely feel the nudge. (It made it awful hard to drink my coffee in peace!) "But God," I'd say, "I went to church for years and it didn't really do a lot for me. Why can't I just keep doing this Christianity thing my way?" I'm a lot slower than Simon, it took me a few years to obey that nudge whether it made any sense or not.
Simon just hesitated for a moment, and then he said, "But because you say so, I will let down the nets."
"But because you say so…."
Not because it made sense. Not because Simon experienced any dramatic conversion. Not because he suddenly became convinced that God had a special purpose and plan for him that would take him to places he had never imagined and stretch him to do things he couldn't possibly imagine. Not because he suddenly realized that Jesus wanted him-normal, ordinary Simon Peter the fisherman-to walk by his side day in and day out. But just because Jesus said so. Just because Simon felt the nudge, and decided to respond to it.
Sometimes the turning point in our walk of faith hinges on that one little phrase, "but because you say so…"
Sometimes the turning point is not our very first encounter with Jesus. Sometimes the turning point is not the first time we see him do something amazing in somebody else's life. Sometimes the turning point is not even when we finally hear him say the words, "follow me."
Sometimes the turning point in our walk of faith is when we feel the nudge and we finally respond to it-not because it makes sense, not because we have experienced a dramatic conversion, not because anything has happened to convince us that God has a special purpose and plan for our life, not because we have suddenly become convinced that Jesus wants us to walk by his side-but just because Jesus says so…just because we feel the nudge, and we decide to respond.
Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets."
When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners.
Now Jesus really has Simon's attention. And the first thing that happens is that Simon is overwhelmed by a sense of his own unworthiness. His first instinct is not to jump up and follow Jesus, but to beg Jesus to go away.
Maybe you've been there. Maybe God has come close to you, and your first instinct is to pull away. Not because you don't think God is wonderful, but because you can't imagine him really wanting you. Somehow it just doesn't seem right for normal, ordinary, sinful us to get too close to wonderful, amazing, holy Jesus.
Sometimes it can even be frightening. What happens when broken, distracted, messed-up people get really close to wonderful, amazing, holy Jesus? Do they get lost in his brilliance? Do they get zapped by his holiness? Do they get swept aside by his astounding power?
No. They get wrapped up in his mercy. They get washed clean by his blood. They get re-made into something new and beautiful.
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.
And, eventually, Simon learned that God had a special plan and purpose for him, and that Jesus really did want him-normal, ordinary Simon the fisherman-to walk by his side day by day.
May you and I learn to respond to God's nudges in the same way: "But because you say so, I will…"
May you and I discover again and again what it is to get wrapped up in God's mercy, to get washed clean by the blood of Jesus, and to get re-made into something new and beautiful.
May you and I take joy today in knowing that God has a special plan and purpose for each of us and Jesus really, truly does want us to walk by his side day by day.
|
|
