Our key verse for this bible study is found in Luke 5:4 where Jesus tells Simon Peter,
“Push out into deep water and let your nets out for a catch.”
(Luke 5:4, The Message)
FUTILITY
The End.
No one starts a story with a The End.
Yet, for many of us, life feels exactly like that. Every morning aches like a cliff-hanging The End. We have no closure. No resolution. No well-defined instruction manual on what to do next.
Our feet barely slide off the bed and touch the floor, yet the weight of a million failures and unresolved problems from yesterday already drain our energy at the dawn of today.
Whether we’re at the end of our wits or at the end of our rope, The Ends are no fun.
How frustrating it must be to have a door slam on your face before your foot hits the foyer. For breakthroughs to evade you when you’ve worked like a dog. You can’t level up, you might as well quit aspiring.
The Ends look like that. The cycle of obstacles is so persistently spinning. You begin to wonder if God taped a sign on your back that says, “Go ahead. Play a prank on me.”
If there’s a person who understands futility better than anyone, it must be Peter.
Jesus’ disciple knew how exhausting it was to toil overnight and haul nothing in the nets except, perhaps, a few stray seaweeds.
A DEEP DIVE INTO LUKE 5
In Luke 5:1-11, Simon Peter’s setback made it to the Hall of Famed Failures. I guess it was documented so that flops like us may see there’s a sequel after every The End. But I’m jumping ahead of the story.
Peter was a seasoned fisherman who knew the contours of the Sea of Galilee as skillfully as the veins and callouses on his hands. Yet, one night, he didn’t catch any Musht (tilapia) or minnows.
He had nothing.
Not even a single Biny carp to pay the tax collector or a six-inch sardine to pound into fish sauce.
Fish usually swim towards the surface during low light conditions, and go deep when the sun is too radiant at midday. They also seek shallower levels at night because water near the bottom are colder and lack oxygen.
Despite the expected abundance in the evening, Peter caught nothing to prove his mastery of the trammel net.
Drawing back to shore after a long night didn’t mean snuggling back to bed for a power nap. First century fishermen still had to scrub their nets.
Ancient nets weren’t made of durable nylon, man-made polyester or polyethylene. No-snag rubber meshes didn’t exist then. Peter and friends used high-maintenance linen nets that required occasional mending, and regular washing and drying, otherwise they rot.
It was at this point in their routine that Jesus approached and said, “Push out into deep water and let your nets out for a catch.” (Luke 5:4, MSG)
How preposterous of an idea this was, let me demystify it for you.
It was daytime. Fish were unlikely to bite without the cover of twilight. Even if they did, it was still best to approach fish with stealth if fishermen didn’t want to spook their catch back into the deep. Fish sense vibrations and are sensitive to low-frequency sound.
But notice how at the opening of the story, in Luke 5:1-3, a large crowd gathered by the lakeside. Jesus pushed from the shore, using Simon Peter’s boat as soapbox for preaching. In such a scenario, do you think they spoke in whispers? I doubt it.
So as you can imagine, a sleep-deprived Peter had legitimate reasons to gripe about Jesus’ request.
Why return to the place of his rejection?
He already failed once. Must he embarrass himself in front of a larger crowd, some of whom know him by name? Besides, he already cleaned his nets and removed enough seaweed to make sushi for 5,000 people. Why torture himself with an instant replay?
Peter would have been justified to chew on these crazy thoughts. But he was too polite to verbalize what I just did. Instead, he bowed to the command.
“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.” (Luke 5:5, NLT)
SEASIDE REEF
Oil Painting by Ginger Umali
Watch the step-by-step process behind the creation of this art piece.
LUKE 5:6 – OVERWHELMED BY FISH
If you say so.
How many of us have spoken those same lines with a prick of sarcasm? And after we’ve proven our point, we follow the dialogue with “I told you so” or “I rest my case.” Can you hear the arrogance sprinkled somewhere in there?
“Okay, if you say so… hmmph… ” I said, with one eyebrow raised two-inches higher.
The Bible wasn’t clear about the exact emotion by which Peter delivered his words. Did he sound prickly? Peeved? Tired and fully submissive? We don’t know. But we can gather clues from his reaction after Jesus’ miracle, after he was blown sky high with holy overwhelm.
“Oh, Lord, please leave me—I’m such a sinful man.” (Luke 5:8)
I wonder what filthy thoughts he entertained that forced him into heavy remorse. How offensive was Peter’s doubt that he labeled himself a sinful man?
But that was a natural response. Because in the face of heavenly grace, while standing at the turning point of unbelief to miraculous splendor, nothing could be more sacred than to admit our smallness before God.
What inspired the change in Peter?
The fish. The same fish that outwitted him all night, voluntarily jumped into his nets. And it wasn’t just one puny sardine. They were supersized tilapia that came to be known as St. Peter’s Fish. They frayed the nets and almost made a Titanic catastrophe of two fishing boats. (Luke 5:6-7)
The bible didn’t specify the fishing boat’s dimensions. For sure, it wasn’t a Noah’s Ark. But it wasn’t the size of baby Moses’ reed basket either.
If the 1986 archaeological find in the Sea of Galilee is to be an indication, Peter’s boat could be at least 27 feet long, 4 feet deep and 7.5 feet wide.
This historic discovery, now named The Ancient Galilee Boat, is housed in the Yigal Alon Museum in Israel. It may not be the exact same boat Jesus used. But its scale paints for us a picture of the bountiful harvest of fish.
The harvest Jesus gave as pay-back for obedience. A reward for Peter’s rising above his pessimism and forging ahead though nothing made logical sense.
A gift of “… good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over …” (Luke 6:38, NIV)
FINAL TAKE-AWAY
Friend, let me encourage you who may be arriving from a long odyssey of fruitless toil. You who have worked your muscles to exhaustion but fell short of expectations, listen.
Return now to the place of your futility and cast your nets again. God isn’t done filling up your boat because you too aren’t done crushing your disbelief.
Give God the chance to prove his promises weren’t lies. Keep fishing even when your sea of opportunity is empty. And keep casting your nets as the Lord leads.
Because ultimately, obedience comes before a miracle.
Have you entered phases in your life when nothing bore fruit no matter how diligently you strived? Does your life feel like an endless mountain climb? Take heart. Isaiah 54 was penned to give hope and healing for you.
Come and read more about it.
