Luke 5:10 KJV

…”And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.”

From Background Notes [BN] for March 3^rd/4^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

With this fuller narrative, Luke helps explain what Matthew and Mark meant by Jesus’ words, “I will make you fishers of men”  (Matthew 4:19; Mark 1:17).



That is, Jesus doesn’t just go up to a bunch of men fixing their nets and recruit them for his new movement. Rather, he spends a little time with them, sharing in their current vocation, before he actually asks them to leave it for a new one. It matters to Jesus what Simon and his companions are presently doing. He understands the frustrations of fixing nets after a disappointing night, having caught nothing. In spite of failure, they still come back to shore, work on their nets, “take their lumps,” and prepare for another attempt. What they discover, because Jesus is with them, is that the ordinary ventures of human life become something extraordinary. Before he summons them to “catch men” or become “fishers of men,” he interacts with them in the context of their space.

Discipleship is rarely removed from the rough and tumble of ordinary life. Jesus calls us to follow him in the midst of our present work. He may even sit in our boat and show keen interest in what we are doing. Because he is with us, we are free to tell him that all our long hours and strenuous efforts have left us disappointed and discouraged. Even though we refuse to quit — we are still, after all, fixing our nets — things aren’t working out the way we planned, and Jesus sits next to us, listening to our complaints and to our uncertainties. Sometimes, as in this case, he may well step up to help us do better at our trade, whatever that might be. Or, after he has helped us and after he has showed us the monumental possibilities of making something remarkable out of our ordinary lives, he then asks us to come follow him so that we might move beyond all of this to something extraordinary.  [BN, 3]

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* Saturday 6:00pm
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