Article 2017-07 -Fishing Partners
Chapter 34: Fishing Partners
Introduction
Jesus likes to enter into partnerships with His disciples and in doing so, asks a little and gives a lot. He encourages His disciples to partner together in sharing His blessings. And, He loves to create unusual circumstances to teach us unusual lessons!
Scripture reference
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 … When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” 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.” (Luke 5:3-5)
The story
Jesus had just ended His first teaching session of that morning. He stood at Lake Galilee’s shore and the crowd almost pushed Him into the water. He walked away, between the boats that had been out fishing during the night. Among these He found Simon Peter, who was washing nets, and asked him to move his boat into the water, some meters from shore. He wanted to use it as pulpit. Peter grinned wearily, because he was tired. He’d been fishing all night and caught nothing. So, he started to loose the cables that tied the boat to the poles at the lakeside.
Scripture reference
When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled to 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 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 … Jesus said “ … from now on you will catch men” (Luke 5:6,7,9,10).
The story, continued
When He had finished He addressed Peter with an unusual remark. ‘Simon, set out for deep water and cast your nets for a haul.’ Peter stared at Him. ‘But Lord, we fished all night …Well, if You say so, I will.’ Some distance from shore, a silvery explosion seemed to come from beneath. Before long the nets filled up so much that they almost tore. Peter and Andrew waved the red flags they always carried for emergencies, in the direction of the coast. They were noticed and immediately James and John loosened the boat of their father Zebedee, and started in the direction of Peter’s boat. They helped to bring the fish on board but the catch was so huge that both boats almost sank. With difficulty they reached the shore. Peter fell down in front of Jesus. ‘Lord, depart from me. I am a sinful man!’ Jesus answered ‘From now on you will be catching men, instead of fish. Follow Me!’ With those enigmatic words He disembarked and the fishermen followed Him.
Comment
Jesus loves to partner with His disciples. He asked Peter’s help to use his boat for preaching, and returns the favor by providing an economic blessing for him and his colleagues. Jesus partnered with Peter and encouraged him to partner with the other disciples. The catch of fish was meant as a picture of something more important, namely to catch men for God’s Kingdom. But the principles remain the same: Jesus wants to partner with us, and wants us to partner with each other for that purpose.
There’s more ‘depth’ in this story though. The lake symbolizes our daily life, from where we seek to ‘fish’ results for our benefit. How do we do that? We use our boats, with which we navigate from place to place in life. These boats represent our prayer life, with which we remain on top of our life’s circumstances and that help us not to drown in its depressions. We may not always be successful in fishing out economic blessings, but the Lord always wants to teach us, even if we’re not successful. Maybe the time has come to learn to fish for His benefit, instead of for our own? As His disciples, other dynamics come into play than our economic prosperity. Jesus wants to lead us to the eternal dynamic of bearing spiritual fruit – and with that He will not overlook our temporary needs either. Our challenge is to answer the question where our priorities lie.
Sometimes people in the churches that do not participate in the harvest of the mission fields sit at home, washing the nets of past disappointments. Jesus wants to bless them as much as He wants to bless these successful missionaries. All He asks from them at home, is to pay attention to the red flags those at the mission fields wave. Successful as they are, they need help, otherwise they may drown in their successes. They need those on shore, to direct the boats – their prayers – into their direction, in order to haul in the catch together. That is what true partnership is about. Churches at home and missionaries in the field. They need each other badly. None will be successful without the other.
Discussion & dialogue
- Discuss how partnership between churches and missionaries can be improved in practical ways, e.g. how churches can learn to pray for missionaries more often and more effectively
- Which 3 of the 10 themes reoccur in this story and how? (Answer: see Teacher’s Guide)
