From now on

The story is familiar. Early in his ministry, Jesus called four Galilean fishermen who were business partners: brothers Peter and Andrew, and brothers James and John. Matthew and Mark record that Jesus was walking along the Galilee lakeshore, encountered the men, and told them, “Follow me and I’ll make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:18-22, Mark 1:16-20)

Luke’s account is quite different. (Luke 5:1-11) All of the gospels are highly compressed accounts, and each writer had to choose what details to include and what to leave out. So I don’t think Luke’s version stands in contradiction with the others. Rather, he just presents different details. With the result that there’s some work for us to do, to figure out the full story.

Luke is the only one to tell us about a miraculous catch of fish. He records that Jesus asks Peter to permit him to preach from his boat, speaking to a crowd on the beach. When Jesus is done with his talk, he asks Peter to go farther out and deploy his nets. Peter objects. He is exhausted—he and his partners had been out fishing all night with nothing to show for it. Night is the time for fishing in this lake, so if they had no luck overnight, they sure wouldn’t get anything in the daytime. Peter knows Jesus is no fisherman, but he says, “OK, you tell me when.” Maybe a little sarcasm there.

They put out, Jesus does tell them when, and there’s a catch so huge they can’t haul it in! They frantically call for their partners, and the catch comes close to overwhelming both boats. At this point Peter is ashamed of his earlier doubt. He falls to his knees in the middle of the pile of fish and says, “Lord, you don’t want to be near me. I’m too sinful to be in your company.” But Jesus replies, “Don’t sweat that. From now on you’ll be catching men.”

Can we put together the full picture from all three accounts? I think the key lies in what the four partners were doing with their nets when Jesus spoke to them. Luke tells us they were washing their nets—that is, cleaning up after their fruitless night of fishing. Matthew and Mark tell us they were mending their nets. Why would they need mending? Mattew and Mark don’t say, but Luke tells us in his account that under the weight of the huge catch, their nets were breaking.

I don’t know if I’ve got it right, but I can see one possible scenario that meshes the accounts: There were two calls. Luke’s came first. The fishermen were washing the nets, Jesus asked to use the boat, the huge catch happened, Peter was ashamed, and Jesus told the four of them that they would be catching men from now on. Then there must have been a gap, while the fish were taken to the market, the crowd dispersed, and the still-amazed fishermen sat down to mend the torn nets. Jesus came down to the shore again, and told them to follow him, repeating that they would be catching men. Matthew and Mark tell us they instantly went with him. Doesn’t that seem unlikely? Well, not if they had just been in the middle of that miraculous catch! It seems to me that they now realized the impact of one phrase. Jesus had said, “From now on you’ll be catching men.” He was now calling them to be with him permanently.

You may remember that this whole incident was not the first time Jesus had encountered these four partners. It’s only John who records the first interaction, which occurred right after Jesus went through the wilderness temptations. (John 1:35-42) It was at that time they began to be Jesus’s disciples, but not yet full time. After the events of John 1 through 4, they went back home, back to their fishing business. The call recorded by the other three writers was the call to be full time.

All of this might seem to only be an interesting but unimportant puzzle. Or you may even be asleep by now. But I think there are lessons for us in all the various details. I’ll highlight one, as I see it.

Jesus engineered the miraculous catch. Why? His intention was to give indisputable weight to his call—he was serious about having the full attention of these men. He insisted they embark on a completely different career. The four men already believed that Jesus was Messiah, they had already heard him preach and teach. Jesus wanted them to go to a whole new level.

Peter’s response was that he wasn’t worthy. “Depart from me!” Jesus acts like he doesn’t even hear this. He says, “Stick with me. From now on.”

Lesson for us? Jesus will call us repeatedly. He will provide indisputable evidence of how serious he is about it. He wants a change from us, a “career change” in a spiritual sense. He wants our full attention. He wants us to get to a whole new level. No, we’re not worthy of being in his presence. But that’s exactly where he wants us to be. From now on.

Love, Paul