Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing,
We can probably relate to Peter and his companions, who worked so hard to no avail. They were fishermen, skilled in the trade, and persisted even throughout the night, resisting sleep, trying to force their way to an eventual catch. We too sometimes experience frustration that neither skill nor effort can remedy. And how do we feel at such times? Don't we tend to struggle against a sense of worthlessness, a sense that we failed to do something that we should have been able to do? Giving up at the end of a period of struggle like this is its own kind of difficulty. But once we do give up we tend to consider it over and done and the opportunity lost, just as Peter did.
Realizing his situation and no doubt seeing the tiredness and desperation written on the face of Peter, Jesus still chose to involve him, to avail himself of his boat as a platform for his preaching. It was clear that, in spite of what ever frustration and tiredness Peter may have felt he was listening. For when Jesus commanded, "Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch", Peter responded in spite of his own tiredness and frustration. He did not insist on the basis of his superior expertise in fishing that it wouldn't work, as well he might have. Everything he knew said it was hopeless, but he chose to obey the voice of the one he now regarded as "Master".
Simon said in reply,
"Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing,
but at your command I will lower the nets."
When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish
and their nets were tearing.
By providing this miraculous catch Jesus entered into the wounded depths of the heart of Peter. There was more at stake than merely a day's work. Peter's self-worth was tied to his ability to be productive, and he had already exhausted his human limits to that end. When Jesus himself provided what Peter sought in super-abundance Peter was overwhelmed. He knew that he himself was too sinful to ever merit such a miraculous catch. But miraculous it certainly was, and he knew it. He realized from the catch that his own credentials as a fisher were much less important than he thought, that his own sins were more glaring than he had heretofore noticed, and that the one who chose to share his boat was even more than "Master". He was "Lord".
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said,
"Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man."
For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him
and all those with him
Jesus demonstrated by the catch that he himself would become the new source of self-worth for Peter and for all who would hear his call. He himself would be the source of a fruitfulness that could not be attained by merely human effort. He did not stop with Peter. He continues to enter into our lives where we are the most deeply wounded, the most frustrated and tired, and provides for us with miraculous abundance. But he does not do this to entrench us in our old routines, but rather to open us to his call. What we once sought on our own was only a shadow of what we are meant to seek and to find in him. But he is still willing to start at the level of circumstance in order to take us higher.
Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid;
from now on you will be catching men."
In order for us to experience what Peter experienced we must learn to hear Jesus and to trust him, even when he calls us to enter back into past frustrations together with him, to the deep, past our own limits, so that we can discover what our new life with him is meant to be.
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the eyes of God
With too much trust in our own wisdom we do not listen when Jesus calls us to something that seems foolish in our eyes, to one more cast of the nets when all previous attempts had failed. But true wisdom calls us to recognize that when Jesus invites us it is not the same as when we try alone. Things can be different, and new. We can experience a deeper revelation of the identity of Jesus as Lord and respond, more and more, with our whole hearts.
When they brought their boats to the shore,
they left everything and followed him.
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