March 14, 2024
The men had been fishing all night and they were exhausted. And, worst of all, they had nothing to show for their efforts. An entire night’s worth of work had been wasted. So now, sulking, they cleaned their nets in the hopes that tomorrow night would be different.
That’s the story we find in Luke 5:1-11. Depressed fishermen, tired from an unsuccessful evening. See, in ancient Judea, fish were the most present near the surface at nighttime and it was considered a waste of time to do much commercial fishing during the day. All night these men had labored and they got not a single bite.
Jesus watches them. Jesus sees their frustration and hears their sighs of defeat. And then Jesus does something strange: He gets into a boat with Simon Peter and tells him to row out to deeper waters and cast his nets. Deep waters on Lake Gennesaret was the least likely place to catch any fish. Peter grew up around fishing his entire life; he had seen his father labor on these waters. He knew what he was talking about and he knew that what Jesus was asking him to do was foolish.
And that’s when Peter gives the most extraordinary response: “Because you say so, I will.” (v. 5) And then, you know the story, the nets are full of so many fish that the boat threatens to capsize under the weight of the haul.
When it comes to our relationship with God, some of us prefer the shallow waters near the shore. We stay where we can touch the ground and we get nervous when we venture too far out. And certainly, the shallow waters can suffice for a season. But God does not want us to stay in the shallows; God calls us to the deep. God calls us to cast our nets into the murky mystery of the unknown.
What deep waters are you afraid of? Is it your own psychology? Your past? Your family of origin? Is it examining your personal theology? Spiritual practices? Issues of justice in the world? Maybe it is embracing a calling on your life.
My prayer for our church is that we would not be a place content to splash in the shallows; we would long for the deeper waters of God’s presence. We would be a place that is not content with surface-level faith, but we would strive for the subterranean, abiding spirituality of seeking God’s presence daily. And, most of all, I pray that we would be a church that responds to the commands of Christ on our souls with these words of faith: “Because You say so, we will.”
