Fishing with Jesus

Jesus took particular care to call the disciples. He used various different means by which to call them ask them. In Luke 5, Jesus approaches Simon, James and John and over the course of the passage recruits them as disciples.
This story seems to be a simple case of Jesus seeking these men, showing them a powerful miracle and in turn they accept his invitation. As awesome as this story sounds on the surface, I believe there was more to it than what is on the surface.
The focus of this passage is on three fishermen: Simon Peter, James and John. These three men had just returned from a night of fishing. They were epically unsuccessful in their endeavors that evening having caught nothing. They were no doubt a little grouchy and tired after such a bust. Perhaps during the evening Simon Peter even suggested to James that he was making too much noise and chasing all of the fish away. John might have told Simon Peter that he must have done something with the nets to make the fish avoid them. James might have told John and Simon that all the fish were in a different part of the lake, and they would have known that if they had listened to him earlier.
So the three men were done for the day, and decided to pack everything in. They were washing their nets and putting away their fishing tools for the next day, and who should walk up to them but Jesus. Jesus had been preaching to a large group, and noticed the boats by the edge of the water. Feeling crowded in, he decided to march right up to Simon’s boat and enter in an attempt to create some distance between himself and the crowd.
Now Simon Peter knew of Jesus, and was undoubtedly respectful of him. However, When Jesus entered his boat, Simon Peter probably took unfavorable notice. Simon Peter probably thought to himself “Really? I’m tired and trying to pack things up, and dude’s gotta get in my boat? Seriously, what’s the problem, he can’t handle the popularity?” That’s when Jesus breaks out with the request to be pushed a little bit away from the land.
Tired and grumpy, Simon Peter begrudgingly obliges and pushes Jesus out, allowing him space to teach more effectively. Simon Peter was probably happy when Jesus finished, imagining going home and getting some rest after the long day. James and John were still hanging around watching, and were probably just as confused as Simon Peter at Jesus’ next request. Jesus turned to Simon Peter and said “Go out a little ways into the deep water and throw your nets in for the catch.”
At this point I am sure Simon Peter wanted nothing to do with more fishing. First of all, this Jesus guy was a carpenter, and not a fisherman. Maybe if the fish needed something nailed or sawed, then sure, he could help. But really, there was no need to tell experienced fishermen how to do their jobs. Secondly, it was a terrible time of day for them to go fishing. If they hadn’t caught anything during the good time for fishing, they weren’t going to catch anything right now. Thirdly, the nets were clean, things were put away, all the men were tired and they were going to be coming back later to start their next day of work. They could what Jesus asked later.
“Look,” Simon Peter started, “we were fishing all night. We caught nothing, and I know that there are no fish to be had out there.” It was then that Simon looked over at James and John, and even though it felt inconvenient and pointless, they had respect for this Jesus, and acquiesced. ‘But if you say so, we will do it”
So they launched out into the deeper water, threw over their nets and waited. But they didn’t have to wait long before their nets began pulling and tearing at the weight of the multitude of fish that engulfed the nets. There were so many fish that they had to get other fishermen to help them with the haul.
At this point, Simon Peter was probably red with embarrassment. He was so against going back out because he was tired that he almost forgot who this man was that was telling him to cast his nets. That’s when Simon Peter decided that a good rule of thumb was that if Jesus suggests you do something, then it is a good idea to do it.
But it didn’t end there. When they finally got the fish in the boats, the boats began to sink under the weight of the fish. James and John probably looked at each other in disbelief, finding it hard to believe that the entirety of the lake held this many fish!
Oh, the irony that could have been racing through Simon Peter’s mind. Jesus sets them out to catch the largest amount of fish they had ever caught at one time, and there was so much that the boats would sink! All the fish would then be delivered back to their watery home from whence they came! Talk about easy come, easy go. Simon Peter would have gone home not with the typical “big one that got away” fish story, but of the “little ones-that-I-caught-and-got-in-the-boats-but-then-the-boats-sank-and-I-had-to-swim-to-shore-and-they-got-away” fish story.
But that didn’t matter to Simon Peter. All he knew at that moment was that this Jesus had done the impossible, and since that was true than this man must be the Son of God as he claimed. Simon knew that he was too sinful to be in Jesus’ presence, and bowed down out of reverence and fear.
That’s the way we do it today. Often times we will get too caught up in our own desires and timing to recognize what Jesus is saying to us. We are often motivated by ourselves and not motivated by the fact that what Jesus is asking us to do will yield far greater results than we could ever imagine. It is not until we witness the miraculous works of Christ in our own lives that we finally bow down and recognize Him. We bow down and recognize him in awe and fear because we realize just whom it is that we have been brushing aside.
Jesus tells Simon Peter not to fear. But Simon Peter immediately looked back on the sequence of events that had taken place and realized his petulance, grouchiness, disbelief and the all around crummy way he had treated Jesus. In that Simon Peter realized he had even more reason to fear. But Jesus was having none of that, and let Simon Peter, James and John know that there were bigger and better things in their future. Jesus let them know that they were no longer simply going to catch fish. No, they were to become fishers of men.
To which Simon Peter thought “then we are definitely going to need bigger nets.”