Listening
Not written by AI but by AK
By Angeline Koh, February 2004
Personal reflection based on Luke 5:1-9
There is little to show for their night of hard work. Tired, the men berth their two fishing boats by the water’s edge and proceed to wash their nets. A fisherman’s routine is interrupted by the request of the master; “Peter, put your boat out a little from the shore.” There were his companions James and John and their partners, but he singles out Peter. Two boats, but he chooses Peter’s. Peter obliges.
From the boat, the Master continues his amazing teachings as people jostle their way closer to the edge of the lake to hear the Master. Peter listens in the comfort of his boat. The crowds wonder if they will witness more miracles today; he who sits within arm’s reach of the preacher can tell how his own mother-in-law was healed of a severe fever. When the preaching is over, the Master turns to the fisherman and tells him, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”
“Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything,” replies the experienced fisherman to the carpenter~teacher, “but because you say so, I will let down the nets.” Instantly, there is a catch so great that the nets begin to tear. “Come and help us!” Peter shouts to his fishing partners. There is a frenzy of activity as the dumbfounded fishermen haul in the catch. The two boats are so full of fish that they almost sink. When it dawns on Peter what had happened, he instinctively falls at the master’s feet and exclaiming, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”
What was it about the catch that had made Peter see his own sinfulness?
A crowd, but Jesus singled out Peter. Two boats, but he singled out Peter’s. Jesus was out to catch, not the crowd, nor the fish, but the heart of a fisherman. The master had tweaked an everyday event in his life – he made a miracle out of the mundane so that Peter saw himself for who he really was and who it was who stood before him. That intrusion and others that came in Peter’s life left markers that would change him forever. The fisherman was caught.
Nothing happens by chance. In the Old Testament, the Israelites saw the deeds of God but only Moses understood the ways of God (Psalm 103:7).