In August 1989 then President George Bush took his family to their summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine, for a nineteen-day summer vacation. No sooner had he arrived than he hopped into his twenty-eight-foot fishing boat, FIDELITY, confident he'd catch some bluefish as he had so many other times before. He didn't mind that a flotilla of press boats was following him to record every moment of his expected angling successes.
However, Bush didn't catch a fish that day . . . or the next day . . . or the next . . . or the next. While those around him were getting strikes, the President was striking out a fact reported daily by the media. By the tenth day without even a nibble, a local newspaper began publishing a "fish watch." Every day the paper ran a drawing of a bluefish inside the international symbol for no and gave the number of outings the President had gone without catching a fish. This spurred Bush's staffers into damage control. A White House press official claimed that although Bush hadn't snared any blues yet, several members of the presidential fishing party had caught fish "under the President's very careful tutelage." But the press continued to report his catch of the day: zero. Finally, with only one full day left of his vacation, a desperate Bush turned to prayer. And it worked. Within an hour after leaving church, President Bush landed a two-foot, ten-pound bluefish to put an end to his embarrassing jinx. Reporters and Secret Service agents in boats about 150 yards away began honking their horns and cheering. It was victory at sea. Paul Bedard, a WASHINGTON TIMES reporter, said the news was "like the end of a war." When the FIDELITY returned, the mood at the dock was as wild as Election Night. Barbara Bush thrust her fist high in the air in celebration. Relatives shouted for joy. Grandchildren kissed him. (1) It was a great victory for the President. It's frustrating to fish and fish and catch nothing.
It's like a man who had spent a fruitless day fishing. In desperation he picked out three fat fish at the local market. "Before you wrap them," he said to the clerk, "toss them to me, one by one. That way I'll be able to tell my wife I caught them and I'll be speaking the truth." Fishermen must be all alike. Someone has said that the only thing that casts doubt on the miracles of Jesus is that they were all witnessed by fishermen.
The disciples had been fishing all night and had caught nothing. They were not fishing for a hobby. This was their livelihood and it was serious business. The towns around the Sea of Galilee had names that reflected fishing's importance to their economy and daily life. Tarichaea, one of the villages, meant "the place of salt fish" probably a town where people were employed in packing and exporting fish to Rome. Bethsaida meant "fish town" at least four fishermen who followed Jesus came from this town, and most of the town's men were employed in the fish business. After bringing in the day's catch, fishermen still had to mend and wash their nets, repair and maintain the boats, preserve the fish, and bargain with local merchants to sell or trade the catch. It was a very tiring job. The fishermen had been fishing all night, because the fish come closer to the surface of the water at night. During the day, the sun's rays penetrate the surface of the water, driving the fish into deeper depths. "Cleaning their nets" probably indicated that they were finished with the day's catch, ready to go home. (2) These fishermen were tired and they were frustrated. They had toiled all night and had nothing to show for it. It's like the salesman who has gone for days without a sale. It's like the lawyer who cannot attract clients. They were discouraged, disheartened.
Jesus' request must have seemed strange to them. Jesus asked them to go back out in their boats into the deeper waters and let down their nets again. This didn't make much sense to them, but notice what happened--THEY OBEYED. A carpenter they had only known for a short time suggests to these professional fishermen that they go back out and they did it! They obeyed. And their obedience was rewarded beyond their wildest dreams. They caught so many fish that their nets were breaking.
It took extraordinary humility for these fishermen to trust Jesus like this. What did he know about fishing? What humility! What faith! And their reward was that they took in so many fish, it nearly sank their boat. Then look what happened. THEY MOVED FROM OBEDIENCE TO ASTONISHMENT ASTONISHMENT AT WHAT CHRIST HAD DONE IN THEIR LIVES. Simon Peter falls to his knees and cries out to Jesus and says, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." Luke tells us this, and then says, "Peter was astonished, and all that were with him, at the catch of fish which they had taken." Here again humility is a key factor. Humility cannot live in a closed mind or a closed heart. People who are full of themselves cannot open themselves up to the leading of God's Holy Spirit. Peter's reaction was one of humility and repentance: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!" He knew he was in the presence of God, and he was afraid and ashamed. He knew he was not worthy.
Do you know where the word "humility" comes from? Its root word is "humus," which means "of the earth" or "of the ground."
Are there any teachers in our congregation? School teachers, Sunday School teachers, people who train others on the job? If you had to choose between a super intelligent but arrogant student, or a student of average intelligence who listened to you with great respect and attentiveness, which would you prefer to teach? I think you'd choose the student who was willing to learn from you. We can't help but notice that Jesus didn't choose the most educated, or the most respected, or the most influential people to assist him in his ministry. He chose the ones who were willing to follow Him. And that requires obedience and humility.
Isn't it interesting, though, that even though Peter may have heard Jesus preach and teach before, he didn't fully believe in him until they caught all those fish? Isn't that just like us? No matter how much we agree intellectually that Jesus is the Messiah, few of us are willing to fall down on our knees and call him Lord until he has done something to personally affect our lives.
If any of you have seen the movie JERRY MAGUIRE, you can appreciate this. In the movie, Tom Cruise is starting a business as an agent for sports stars. He is trying to snag one big client, a young football star played by Cuba Gooding, Jr. Cuba likes Tom, he trusts Tom, he respects Tom. But he won't sign with Tom's agency until Tom can guarantee him a hefty advertising contract. His catchphrase is, "Show me the money! Show me the money!" Then we've got a deal. Well, in the same way, Peter probably respected and trusted Jesus. But in his own way, he was saying, "Show me the fish! Show me the fish!" before he would sign himself over completely. Jesus showed him the fish and Simon Peter was astonished.
WE HAVE OBEDIENCE, AND THEN WE HAVE ASTONISHMENT AND FINALLY WE HAVE TRANSFORMATION. According to our Bible passage, when the men got back to shore, they left everything and followed Jesus. The verb in the Bible is "forsook," which means "to abandon, or to give up entirely." Entirely! They abandoned everything! They left their homes, their jobs, their friends, their families, their routines, their comfort zones, their stability everything! Did they have any idea where they were going? Did they have any idea what Jesus wanted them to do? Did they have any idea how much they would suffer? All they knew for sure was that Jesus was who he said he was. He was the Lord. And that's all they really needed to know.
Let me ask you, do you have that kind of complete trust in Christ that you would forsake everything for him? I believe there are many of us who would answer, yes I would. If Christ came to me personally and asked me to give up everything for him, I would do it. Permit me please a followup question. Would you live daily for him here and now?
Let me tell you a true, but humorous and slightly scandalous story that comes out of the early days of the church. When the father of Origen, a third century theologian, was arrested for being a Christian, Origen, then only 17, was aflame with the desire to follow his Dad and share in glorious martyrdom. His mother pleaded with him not to go, but the headstrong boy did not want to listen to reason. His quick thinking mother did what she could. She hid his clothes. Though Origen stormed and protested, she wouldn't reveal where they were hidden. He couldn't leave the house, and so he was unable to volunteer for martyrdom.
Isn't it interesting? Origen was brave enough to be martyred, but not brave enough to go outside naked. Stepping outside without clothing would have sped up his arrest and imprisonment, but it was a step he was unwilling to take. (3)
In a sense, I suspect that talking with a friend about our faith is, for many of us, the equivalent of going outside naked. It makes us uncomfortable. We feel exposed. We declare that we will give our lives for Christ if he should ask it, but to risk a bit of embarrassment for him seems to be beyond our level of discipleship. How sad. The disciples were willing to forsake everything including the esteem of their friends.
They OBEYED Christ. They humbled themselves as fishermen and listened to the instruction of a carpenter about where to fish. Then they were ASTONISHED by Christ as he rewarded their obedience. Then they were TRANSFORMED by Christ they became new people as they pondered who Christ was and what he was doing in their lives. This is usually the progression of discipleship. We rarely get converted by a blinding light in the sky. Usually it begins by a daily walk with Christ, in which we do the little things that he calls us to do. Then we begin sensing his presence in our lives and we become astonished by his goodness to us. And then this daily walk gradually transforms us into the likeness of Christ.
Max Anders, in his book titled GOD gives one of the most powerful analogies of this progression that I have ever read. He says that in the 1940 version of The Mark of Zorro, there is a remarkable "chase" scene in which Zorro is fleeing in the dead of night from a band of Spanish army officers. He is dressed in black, and his horse, of course, is jet black. Racing at breakneck speed through woods, over creeks, along narrow paths, Zorro is finally cornered on a bridge suspended about twenty feet over a river. In one of the most remarkable stunts Anders had ever seen in a movie, Zorro turns his horse toward the railing on the bridge, which is about four and a half feet high, and spurs him. The horse jumps over the railing, into the river below, with the rider still on him. It swims downstream in a hail of bullets from the bridge, and once again, Zorro makes a cunning escape.
Max Anders questioned how in the world did that stunt rider get that horse to jump over that railing into the black abyss below? He says that is one of the most unnatural things a horse would ever do. A horse would be almost as likely to dance ballet or swim a back stroke as to jump into a black abyss.
He learned the answer from those who train horses. The secret is that the rider must never ask the horse to do anything that hurts it. The rider first gets the horse to do little stunts that seem dangerous, but the horse does not get hurt. So the trainer graduates to major stunts. After years or training, the horse learns to trust the rider, because nothing traumatizing has ever happened to him in the past. As a result, he will do almost anything the rider asks of him in the future. Obviously, this rider had spent a lot of time working with that horse, and a high degree of trust had developed. The horse never hesitated. Over the rail and into the river. Max Anders says that if you know anything about horses, it will almost bring tears to your eyes to imagine the amount of work and trust that had to have gone into such a bold move. (4) This is the story of our faith walk with Christ. Like those fishermen of old, we obey Christ in the little things. We learn that we can trust him and then, we give to him our all.
1. Bruce Nash and Allan Zullo, THE FISHING HALL OF SHAME (New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, 1991).
2. The Word in Life Study Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, 1993, p. 228.
3. "Embarrassment's Perpetual Blush," Frederica Matthewes Green, CHRISTIANITY TODAY, July 14, 1997.
4. Max Anders, GOD, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995.