To
Make Fishers of Men
It
took two miraculous catches of fish
It
would always be a mystery me and to many, I am sure.
The apostles
who walked for three years with the messiah, the Son of God, who witnessed His
miracles, who hung on to his every word; Thomas called Didymus, was even willing
to die for Him. (John 11:16)
Peter,
always ready with the sword to defend his Lord, denied Him most avowedly, others
abandoned Him, not to be seen either on the Road to Calvary or near the cross
(except for John the Evangelist).
Mary
Magdalene, from whom Jesus cast out seven demons, and to whom Jesus appeared
first, told the “mourning and weeping” apostles that she had seen Jesus. They did
not believe her. (Mark 16:9-15)
Why
were the disciples behaving in such a strange way?
Jesus told
them about what was going to happen to Him several times, and most memorably (Mark
10:32-34), when He was going to Bethany (very close to Jerusalem) to raise
Lazarus from the dead.
“Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of
Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes. They will condemn
Him to death and will deliver Him over to the Gentiles, who will mock Him and
spit on Him and flog Him and kill Him. And after three days He will rise
again.”
It was
not that they did not know what was going to happen. They simply did not want
to believe it would happen. It was just too much to internalize and to
accept.
“When he had finished praying, Jesus left with
his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was a
garden, and he and his disciples went into it.”
“Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place,
because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. So Judas came to the garden, guiding a detachment of
soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They
were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons. (John 18:1-2)
And the events began to unfold. Oh my God! It is
actually happening …
“Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high
priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus).
Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I not
drink the cup the Father has given me?” (John 18:10-11)
This was the turning point for Peter.
This man, his Lord, the Messiah, the Son of God, was actually
going to his death. He was not going to fight.
All the
illusions of power, such as it may be, being with the Jesus, who would save Israel.
The sons of Zebedee, had worked out their part in the kingdom: “to sit, one at His
right hand and the other at His left when He comes in His Glory” (Mark 10:37).
All their
glorious dreams came crashing down when Jesus said, “Shall I not drink the cup
the Father has given me?”
The
shock of hearing that statement filled their mind with a terrifying fear. With John,
Peter followed the detachment of soldiers, who were taking Jesus away after his
arrest. Peter was still hoping for a miracle. The storm will go away. As Jesus stilled
the winds, He would raise his hands and strike the soldiers down and march into
Jerusalem and do the same to the Roman occupiers.
However,
by the time Peter reached the gates of the High Priest’s courtyard, his bravado
(cutting off high priest’s servant Malchus ear) had melted, and he began to
feel like a fugitive avoiding capture. Denying Jesus was not hard. It was
essential for his survival.
Among all
the apostles, John stands out in stark contrast. He appears well connected
among the rulers and elders to walk into the High Priest’s house along with Jesus,
and familiar enough with the household, to speak to the servant girl on duty
there to bring Peter in. (John 18:16)
The other
apostles of Jesus, would not or could not believe He would actually die the
death He predicted. Like Isaiah 53 said:
“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and
acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was
despised, and we esteemed him not.
“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his
mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her
shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
The apostles who could not accept Jesus’ death (even though He had
died); could they believe in His resurrection when Mary told them as much?
Their attitude: “Go away, Mary, leave us alone”.
Strange perhaps to say, but in the apostles’ heart they would have
preferred Jesus to stay dead. With all this talk of resurrection, it would only
mean more trouble. And, it did, 50 days after Easter, post the holy day of Pentecost.
Jesus had to appear eleven times according to different
church scholars, but we know of three – to Mary Magdalene, to the two on the
road to Emmaus, and to the eleven, and when He did “… He upbraided them for their lack of faith and their
stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.” (Mark
16:14)
The amazing transformation that occurred when the Holy Spirit descended upon
the Apostles and other disciples
of Jesus is the stuff of a revolution in making.
Peter and John could
take on the most powerful men in Jerusalem, the high priests, Annas and Caiaphas,
(who maneuvered Jesus’ crucifixion with the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate); as
well as the rulers and elders, and the whole Sanhedrin, when they healed the
lame man, with the now famous statement, “silver and gold I have none to give, but I
will give you what I have: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”
(Acts 3:1-10)
How did they the apostles
get to this stage? From quavering with fear during the passion and crucifixion
of Jesus, to unbridled boldness on the coming of the Holy Spirit upon them?
Their journey with Jesus
is like ‘bookends’ with each end representing one of the miraculous fish
catches.
The fisherman’s first encounter with Jesus’ was
at the Lake of Gennesaret (Luke 5:1-11), at the beginning of Jesus’s ministry, when
Jesus asked Peter, ‘Put out into the deeper part, and let down your nets for a
catch.’
They caught such a huge number of fish that
their nets began to break. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’
knees.
‘Go away,’ he said. ‘Leave me, Lord! I’m a
sinner!’ He and all his companions were gripped with amazement at the
catch of fish they had taken; this included James and John, the sons of
Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.
‘Don’t be afraid,’ said Jesus to Simon. ‘From
now on you’ll be catching people.’
-------------------
The fishermen’s second encounter with Jesus was at the end of His ministry,
after His resurrection. (John 21:1-14)
“Jesus stood beside the seashore, by the sea
of Tiberias but the disciples didn’t know that it was Jesus.
‘Children,’ said Jesus to them, ‘haven’t you
got anything to eat?’
‘No!’ they replied.
‘Cast the net on the right side of the boat,’
he said, ‘and you’ll find something.’
So they cast the net; and now they couldn’t
draw it in because of the weight of the fish.
So the disciple that Jesus loved spoke to
Peter.
‘It’s the master!’ he said.
When Simon Peter heard that it was the
master, he wrapped his cloak around him (he had been naked for work), and threw
himself into the sea. The other disciples brought the boat in to land,
dragging the net full of fish. They weren’t far from shore, about a hundred
yards away.
When they came to land, they saw a charcoal
fire laid there, with fish and bread on it.
Jesus spoke to them.
‘Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught,’
he said.
So Simon Peter went and pulled the net onto
the shore. It was full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three in all. The net
wasn’t torn, even though there were so many.
‘Come and have breakfast,’ said Jesus to them.
None of the disciples dared ask him, ‘Who are
you?’ They knew it was the master.
Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to
them, and so also with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus
had appeared to the disciples after he had been raised from the dead.
------------------
It took a catch of fish each time to remind the apostles
that Jesus was Son of God. Even after three years of walking with Jesus –
witnessing amazing miracles – ‘the deaf could hear” – however, when Jesus spoke
about his passion, death and resurrection to the apostles – they were tone
deaf to this part of His teaching (except John the Evangelist).
After Jesus died and had resurrected (which they refused
to believe), they slipped into their old routine.
They had gone back to fishing, reflecting on the
wonderful three years, and accepting that it finally amounted to nothing.
The resurrected Jesus had to call them back to their
ministry, through another miraculous catch of fish to follow through on His
ministry to
“go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation. (Mark
16:15)
The rest is history.
Saturday, April 18, 2020
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