Many years ago the great explorer, Sir Francis Drake, was attempting to recruit a number of young men for an upcoming exploration. He gathered them around and told the group that if they came with him they would see some of the most marvelous things their eyes could ever behold. Sandy white beaches, juicy fruits, foreign peoples, priceless treasures, and gorgeous landscapes. And he told them that this wild adventure could be theirs if they came with him. Not one of them enlisted for the journey. The next day a different group came out. Drake told them that if they came with him they would encounter storms that would terrify them to tears. Tiger winds would hammer them and blow them off course for months. Water would frequently be scarce. At times they would be so thirsty that their very souls would cry out for simply one drop of water. In short, danger would always be their constant companion. Drake concluded by declaring that if they could handle these things, the joys of exploration would exceed their wildest dreams. Every single one of them in the group joined Sir Francis Drake that day, some did not even go home to say goodbye to their families, they just boarded the boat eager for the journey.
What made the difference in these two groups? Why did the first group turn down the mission and the second jump at the chance? Was the second group different and more adventurous than the first? The answer is: No. It is not the men who had changed; it was the message. The first spoke of rewards; the second spoke of challenges. The first offered comfort; the second promised suffering. The first tempted them with things; the second seduced them with an experience unlike any other.
I like to think that Sir Francis Drake discovered what Jesus knew all to well. And that is this: The paths that are offered to us must promise to shape us, build our character, change our world view, if they are to have any appeal to us at all. If we are presented with a challenge that will change, we will be eager for the journey.
What is it about Jesus' message that made the disciples eager for the journey?
I
They were made eager because first Jesus offered them a change. How many times does real change occur in life? It is not often. Most of us get up each day and do as we have always done. We gather together, prepare our nets, row our boats from the shore, cast into the deep and pray there is a catch worth our efforts. Some catches are better than others but the object is still the same, catch enough today to make a living.
Now I will be the first to say that there can be great joy in daily living. In fact if I were offered a life that was average, no wild and unpredictable swings of success and misfortune, I would be tempted to take it. Getting up each day, going to work, coming home to family, and looking forward to the weekend, has merit. And we rarely understand how fulfilling it is until something unexpected happens and threatens to take it all away. But even when we are content we find ourselves asking, “Is this all there is? Isn’t there more to life than this?”
Peter, James, and John. They were no different then you and me. Their daily lives were as blue-collar as anyone’s. They lived paycheck-to-paycheck, day-to-day. The feeding of their families depended on a little bit of skill, dogged persistence, and a whole lot of luck. Every morning, when they arrived for work one question dominated their lives: Where are the fish today?
On this particular day they were met with misfortune. Each cast netted little. The fish were nowhere to be found. Enter here Jesus of Nazareth, a friend who offered them a change. “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch,” he said. Peter’s response is like anyone who has worked all day at an unsuccessful project, “Master, we’ve worked all night and haven’t caught anything. But if you want, we will let down the nets.” What happened next was a miracle. Where once their was no fish now there were so many they had to call for the second boat to handle the load and the number of fish nearly sank both of them.
The same thing happened to the great musician George Frederick Handel. He was dogged with misfortune. He had debt upon debt, despair upon despair. He had a cerebral hemorrhage and was paralyzed on his right side. For four years he could neither walk nor write. The doctors gave up on him. He wrote several operas, but again he fell in debt. At age 60 he thought his life was finished. Then he was challenged by a friend to write a sacred oratorio. He read the Scriptures and went to work. For 24 days, without eating a crumb, he worked fanatically to produce the piece. Handel thought his work was finished and then inspired by a friend he wrote his crowning achievement: The Messiah. Today it is considered the greatest oratorio ever written.
Life can often look hum drum and it can even look grim. But change can happen just that quick. Jesus knew there were fish yet to be caught and Handel’s friend knew their was music yet to be written. Both situations seemed hopeless. Peter speaks for everyone of us who are willing to try again, "Master, at your word, I will let down the nets.’
Now of course the real change that occurred that day was not their luck in fishing. The real change would occur when they got to shore. Peter knew this. “Go away form me, Lord; I am a sinful man.” Peter always seems to know, intuitively, what’s going on. He doesn’t want to get any closer to Jesus. He wants Jesus to go away. He is not worthy.
When Abraham plead with God to spare Sodom, he said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes.” When Job finally got his audience with God, he realized then his error, “I spoke of things I did not understand, things to wonderful for me to know. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” When Isaiah stood before God in his throne room, he cried out, “Woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips.” The closer we get to God the more our sinfulness is revealed to us. Falling to his knees Peter pleaded, go away Lord go away. I am a sinful man.
But Jesus did not go; extended, he extended an invitation and their lives would never be the same again.
II
They were made eager because first Jesus offered them a change and then he offered them a challenge: Come with me and I will make you fishers of men. My friends, Christianity is a challenge. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. It has always amazed me that non-Christians look upon Christians as weak and naive. I am not sure where that perception started but next time I’d like to ask these people, Alright, you think it is so easy being a Christian lets see you try. First I want you to stop lying. Then stop cheating people in your business practices, don’t steal, don’t stretch the truth, just let your yes be yes and your no be no. Don’t hate your enemies and pray for those who hate you. Oh yeah, and did I mention, you can no longer lust after women.
And on top of all this pray every day, fast on occasion, give as much of your money away to the poor as you reasonable can, while still taking care of your family and when you leave home each day make every effort to tell the world that the reason you are doing all this is because some guy 2000 years ago claimed to be God, died on a cross, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and is coming back one day to judge the living and the dead. Let’s see you do that? My friends, Christianity is a challenge.
The world thinks we are naïve. They have gotten the impression, I think from the television evangelist, that we are all a bunch of dunderheads that think Jesus is going to solve all our problems and that life will be full of sandy white beaches, juicy fruits, foreign peoples, priceless treasures, and gorgeous landscapes. They forget that our captain died on a cross. His first followers were all martyred. Paul was imprisoned, flogged, whipped, beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, robbed, betrayed, hungry, thirsty, cold, and naked.
We know life can be hard. We are not naïve. We are Christians. We know we shall suffer in this life and sometimes for the sake of the Gospel. But we are up for the challenge.
III
They were made eager because first Jesus offered them a change. Secondly, they were made eager because he offered them a challenge. And finally they were eager because they knew their lives would never be the same again. Robert Fulghum, in his humorous book It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It , tells the story of Alexander Papaderos, a doctor of philosophy, who worked for many years trying to bring peace between the bitterly divided countries of Europe after WWII. His motivation for doing so stems from his childhood and a very odd event which took place. "When I was a small child," he said, "during the war we were poor and lived in a remote village. One day, on the road, I found the broken pieces of a mirror. A German motorcycle had been wrecked in that place.... I kept one, the largest piece.... By scratching it on a stone, I made it round. I began to play with it as a toy and became fascinated by the fact that I could reflect light into dark places where the sun would never shine - in deep holes and crevices and dark closets. It became a game for me to get light into the most inaccessible places I could find. I kept the little mirror, and as I went about my growing up, I would take it out in idle moments and continue the challenge of the game. As I became [mature], I grew to understand that this was a metaphor for what I might do with my life. I came to understand that I am not the light or the source of light. The light [or truth] is there, and it will shine in many dark places only if I reflect it."
He concluded: "I am a fragment of a mirror whose whole design and shape I do not know. Nevertheless, with what I have, I can reflect light into the dark places of the world...and change some things in some people. Perhaps others may see and do likewise."
That’s how it happened to Alexander Papaderos. Listen to how it happened to Peter. Late into the evening Jesus finds Peter fishing on the sea of Galilee. They had caught next to nothing. Jesus astonishes the fishing crew by telling them exactly where the fish are. Peter falls to his knees and asks Jesus to leave. Apparently, Peter thinks to himself, this is a very holy man. But Jesus has other plans. They will continue to fish but the tackle will be adapted. Boat’s will be shored for sandals. The open waters replaced by the open road. Net’s will be cast aside for the Word. And fish will no longer be the goal. From now on, said Jesus, you will fishers of men. Amen.