“One day as Jesus was preaching on the shore of the sea of Galilee, great crowds pressed in on him to listen to the word of God. He noticed two empty boats at the water’s edge, for the fisherman had left them and were washing their nets. Stepping into one of the boats, Jesus asked Simon, its owner, to push it into the water.
So he sat in the boat and taught the crowds from there. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Now go where it is deeper, and let down your nets to catch some fish.’ ‘Master,’ Simon replied, ‘we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, I’ll let the nets down again.’ And this time their nets were so full of fish they began to tear! A shout for help brought their partners in the other boat, and soon both boats were filled with fish and were on the verge of sinking.
When Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and said, ‘Oh, Lord, please leave me-I’m such a sinful man.’ For he was awestruck by the number of fish they caught, as were the others with him. His partners, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were also amazed. Jesus replied to Simon, ‘Don’t be afraid! From now on you’ll be fishing for people!’ And as soon as they landed, they left everything and followed Jesus.”
Luke 5:1-11 NLT
I have never felt so close to a miracle in the Bible before. I have been watching the series The Chosen and I saw one of the miracles differently. This was the miracle of Jesus telling Simon and Andrew to cast their nets on the other side of the boat after a night of fishing with no fish. When they listened to Jesus their nets filled with fish.
It was noted in the series that fisherman gather fish then they sort the good from the bad. They then throw the bad out and sell the good. This helps give me some of the context as I am not a fisherman, nor do I fish very often. I personally am still not sure how you can tell a good fish from a bad fish. So I will leave that to the professionals.
After the miracle Jesus told them I will make you fishers of men. You will gather and I will sort them out later. They didn’t know what that meant at the time, but it did click differently for me when I was watching that. I am a fisher of men. I am gathering and Jesus will sort them out later on judgment day. Not to dwell on judgment day but more to think on how the great commission just became simpler for me. Yeah you can just use the word go, but my husband and I have already done this step. We went out of our comfort zones and out of our own country to Norway. Now Jesus is telling us to gather.
I have heard “I will make you fishers of men” so much in my life it already had its own meaning in my head. It was one of those things I learned as a child that “fishers of men” = disciples. That’s what Simon, Andrew, James and John became disciples. I never really questioned that and it was a reasonable explanation to me. In my mind disciples were people who went out and told about Jesus and told them to tell others. Mentally I thought of it more as relaying information not so much gathering people. I can relay information to someone without knowing them. Using the word gather is so much more intimate to me. On top of that, they were gathering people for their friend (Jesus) to do all the hard work. Jesus was the one telling the good news, forgiving sins, and sorting.
One could say, “Mikaela we cannot go out and gather because of the ongoing pandemic, it is not possible.” I am sure Simon was saying a similar statement “we fished all night, we cannot get anything, it is not possible.” But I want you to realize that it was God who put those fish in their nets. God will also put people in our nets. He will do the impossible. He will be the one to put people in contact with us in some way or another. Honestly I am watching that happen right now. I am watching our metaphorical nets get filled as God continues to send people to our house church. However, this only happens because we are obedient and have cast our nets out.
We currently have people reaching out to us to be in our house church. There are also people reaching out to IMI Church to join into some kind of fellowship with others. We were already amazed at how quickly our house church was formed and now we are going through a growth spurt six months later. We have more people in our House Church than what is permitted to have in a home in Norway. Now I want to clarify we are doing hybrid meetings where we are meeting five guests in person and the rest on zoom (Revision: Norway has made it only two guests now). The disciple’s nets were breaking. Our capacity is breaking. Wow! To come alongside something God is already doing is so amazing. God never told us to stop being obedient in Corona times.
How are you also gathering? How are we being the fisherman of men? And how do we challenge others to join in, to gather with us?
“The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.”
Matthew 9:37 NIV
“Let us not become weary in doing for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
Galatians 6:9 NIV
The harvest is plentiful. Be a gatherer.
Sincerely,
Mikaela Shipley