Lets go fishing
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Jesus often used fish or fishing related events to bring across his message. Why did he do this and what can we learn from this about living by faith.
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Lets go fishing
- 3. One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers – Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew – throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow Me, and I will show you how to fish for people!”
- 4. “But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish!” they answered. “Bring them here,” He said. Then He told the people to sit down on the grass. Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, He gave the bread to the disciples, who distributed it to the people.
- 5. Then Jesus served them the bread and the fish.
Editor's Notes
- I am certain that like me you have noticed the major role fish and things related to fishing played in the ministry of Jesus. So many of his relationships were formed in the context of fish, notable miracles involved fish or boats and water, many of his parables or discourses involved fish or happened around the fishing waters. Why was this the case? Was He indirectly trying to tell us that the secret to life is to be a fisherman or to eat more fish or to spend more time in water. Many of us would find it easy to surrender to that as the gospel. But I think we all now the real reason was because fish and fishing played such a central role in the lives of the people Jesus spent much of His time with. Jesus grew up and spent most of his life in Galilee the area that was dominated by the Sea of Galilee. This area was the most Jewish in Palestine of the first Century in that it had few gentiles living there. Archeologists has found few of the tell tale signs of statues, inscriptions buildings etc. commonly associated with Gentiles. In fact the coins found from that time had now images of the Caesar as Jewish law had strict restrictions around portraying the images of humans and even animals. It was a very rural Jewish community of mostly subsistence workers that lived in Galilee (http://www.bibleodyssey.org/places/related-articles/fishing-economy-in-the-sea-of-galilee.aspx) The fishing industry played a major roll in peoples lives as most made their living from fishing or industry related to it like boat building, net making, fish processing etc. The fresh water lake had 16 harbor ports around it and most of life centered in on these ports as places of trade and society. One of these ports was Magdala where Mary Magdalene hailed from its Greek name was "Tarichææ” and meant “Fish Factory”. Four of Jesus’s Disciples were fisherman. Fish and Fishing played a very determining role in peoples lives and events around or on the lake of Galilee always made headline news. But not only was fish important to people as a staple food and produce but perhaps on a deeper level it had importance because it directly brought them into contact with the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire gained its wealth from its provinces and areas under its rule through taxation. In Jesus’s time of ministry and for most of his life Galilee was ruled by Herod Antipas the one son of Herod the Great, the King that tried to eliminate Jesus by killing the male babies. Herod the Great had little interest in Galilee but when this area passed on to Antipas as an inheritance in 4BC and he ruled as Herod the Tetrach until 39CE. He was the Herod that beheaded John the Baptist (http://www.britannica.com/biography/Herod-Antipas, http://www.kchanson.com/ARTICLES/fishing.html) As a client king to Caesar Tiberius his main task was to provide Rome and Caser with the wealth extracted from the area he ruled. This made of Galilee’s economy an embedded agrarian economy, which meant that economic relationship with Rome played a very determining role in all matters of trade, production and distribution. This meant that the general populace were kept poor and lived as subsistence farmers. We cannot think of fishermen as entrepreneurs that plied their trade in a free trade model. Fishing was a way for Rome to become wealthy. The process worked as follows: Tiberius expected patronage from Antipas in the form of money that had to be paid to Rome, Antipas gathered this money by selling the collection rights to wealthy aristocratic families that would pay handsomely for this right. These families where then the chief tax collectors that sold rights for collection to brokers, tax collectors and toll collectors. These collectors would then sell fishing leases to families or syndicates that paid them in fish and money for the right to fish a certain area. So every part of the process involved with producing fish was taxed at least twice. As a fishing family you paid for the right to fish and then once you came back into the harbour after fishing you paid a percentage of the value of your fish to the harbour tax collector, a guy like Matthew the Disciple of Jesus. Raw fish was then sold to processors that moved some of the product on to distributors for export or for sale at local markets. The whole system ensured that wealth was taken from the fisherman and moved up the hierarchy to ultimately enrich the Caesar. Tax collectors also exacted more tax then needed because as long as they paid the tribute required whatever extra wthey collected was theirs to keep. There was no concern for the rights and wellbeing of the populace and the taxes where also not spent to improve their lives but on the lavish lifestyles of the ruling class. So the majority of people interacted with even his disciples were hard working but poor subsistence laborers that daily scraped to keep head above water and not to get indebted to tax collectors and end in prison or sold into slavery.
- Fishing is a Calling Jesus engaged with the World. He came to reveal the Father and His Kingdom. To show people that their reality was not the ultimate reality. The lives they have become used to was a cheap imitation of the real life he has for them. But he did not come to remove this world but teach us to see through it and beyond it the live that He hold out. As Paul wrote in 2 Cor 5:7 we are to live by faith and not by site. So he told these two brothers not to stop being fisherman but to show them what fishing is really about. We must always remember that sin and the lie is a twisting a perversion of what is true. Fishing may not be your core reality or be the determining reality of your life but toiling and living in this material world is. You can either be fishing to survive and enjoy life on earth or you can become a fisher of man. That statement is not to be reduced to mere issues of evangelistic endeavor but should mean living the life god as called you to live. You can be doing your job or living a calling, the difference is a heart issue. The difference between being a fisherman or a fisher of man is the heart. If you want to be a fisher of man then follow Jesus. Quit your job and take up your calling. I don’t mean resign your job I mean put your heart of following Jesus into it and pursue your calling in that job.
- Fishing Changes Lives It sounds incredulous to us that between 5000 plus people no one had food. This Miracle happened in the Gennesaret Valley in Galilee (http://www.messiah-study.net/Feeding5000.htm) so the people present where these poor hard working families that were toiling daily to make ends meet. Just for them to take a day of work on such a huge scale was an incredible thing. It is possible that on that day many boats didn’t go out and they risked not meeting their quotas to listen to Jesus. So with this Miracle Jesus was showing them that life is more than having food to eat. That if they believed in Him everything could change. But it is important to notice what Jesus didn’t do; He didn’t institute a new period of Manna from heaven, He also didn’t take on the Roman system head on. By change He meant firstly inner change in terms of their own attitudes and faith not changing the economic and political systems. That change He seemed to believe would become inevitable over time as people adopted a Kingdom view and practice of life. It is interesting that the times we see Jesus head on confronting an economic system was on the two occasions of the cleansing of the temple. It may be that the same spirit that was present in the Roman economic system of oppression had creaped into the Temple system of payment required for sacrifices and purchasing of sacrificial items. So Jesus deals with the Spirit among His people far more directly than in the world. Are we operating in the same spirit of this world or do we see Jesus is our provider and that our resources are to honor Him with not only by our tithes and offerings but in all our economic dealings. We must remember He is our provider and the one we honor with our resources, It is wonderful that the miracle happened in the hands of the disciples. God wants to do miracles with your hands. He is not afraid to put you in a world with lack so that with your hands He will do miracles. He has given resources into your hands, time, energy, relationships and money, let those be multiplied in your hands as you give to a world in need. “Let’s Go Fishing”
- Fishing is for all. John 21:4 At dawn Jesus was standing on the beach, but the disciples couldn't see who He was. 5 He called out, "Fellows, have you caught any fish?" "No," they replied. 6 Then He said, "Throw out your net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you'll get some!" So they did, and they couldn't haul in the net because there were so many fish in it. 7 Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, "It's the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his tunic (for he had stripped for work), jumped into the water, and headed to shore. Joh 21:8 The others stayed with the boat and pulled the loaded net to the shore, for they were only about a hundred yards from shore. When they got there, they found breakfast waiting for them—fish cooking over a charcoal fire, and some bread. 10 "Bring some of the fish you've just caught," Jesus said. 11 So Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net to the shore. There were 153 large fish, and yet the net hadn't torn. 12 "Now come and have some breakfast!" Jesus said. None of the disciples dared to ask Him, "Who are You?" They knew it was the Lord. 13 Then Jesus served them the bread and the fish. After the death and resurrection of Jesus and after he had already appeared to them He came to where the Disciples were fishing. In a stunning moment He comes right back to that first time He called some of particularly Peter to follow Him. After the shock of the arrest and crucifixion and disappointment of the betrayal Jesus serves them a fish breakfast but only after again doing a fishy miracle by providing them a record catch. It feels to me that here Jesus is showing Him that no matter the trauma of suffering a fierce attack from the enemy and their failure to stand strong He has not given up on them both in their personal relationship and as leaders. We all have tried to fish we have cast our nets out and they have come out empty. We have felt its not working that we don’t have what it takes to be fishers of men to live out our calling and have gone back to just being fishermen. Jesus reafirms his faith in these men by first giving them a supernatural catch and secondly he reafirms his love and presence with them by making them breakfast. We will fail and the enemy will have some victories but we cannot give up. Jesus wants to rekindle hope in you and continue to strengthen that hope so that you continue to reach for the higher calling. Despite all our disappointments and failures “Let’s go Fishing”