Going Fishing
Linda Guy
And Peter said “I am going fishing”. John 21:3
Why was Peter going fishing? Why was he returning to his former occupation?
He had left his nets three years previously to follow Christ, and now, after Christ has been crucified, after Peter had witnessed the risen Christ, he now announces to all in earshot, ‘I am going fishing'. Linda Guy
What was Peter doing? Was he going back to his old life? Was he discouraged, had all his hopes and dreams died? Was he overwhelmed by his own failure? Perhaps, but Jesus meets Peter where he is at; beside the sea, where he is fishing. Jesus has once again come to Peter, and Jesus comes to us, where we are. The first time Jesus called Peter, He had said, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men”. But now Jesus, calls Peter a second time. His call this time is not to ‘become (I will make)’; but ‘to feed my sheep’; a command of doing. This second time, as Jesus appears on the beach while Peter was ‘going fishing’, the setting was the same, the task was the same, the friends were the same, perhaps even the net and the boat were the same; but Peter was not the same.
The Peter who left his nets to follow Jesus and become a fisher of men, was not the same Peter who now has ‘gone fishing’. That Peter was full of confidence, and pride. This Peter is now full of humility and brokenness. Broken, as he has had his weakness revealed in denying Christ; broken, in attempting to walk on water only to fail and nearly drown; broken as he boasted in his strength, ‘though all men deny you, I won’t’, only to fall in that strength.
Christ knew that Peter was full of self-confidence when He called him the first time. He knows us, he knows our flesh, when He calls us the first time. Why did Peter follow Him the first time?
Did he seek to become someone, after thinking he was a ‘no-body’; just a fisherman? Did he seek a life more exciting than the mundane, everyday life that he was living? Did he want an image other than that of an ordinary fisherman? did he seek success? We walk with God to become someone, when God already tells us we are someone. We have mixed motives as we live in Christ, and God’s work in our hearts is to free us from that which will obscure the image of Christ in us. Jesus met Peter where he was that day. In fact, He entered into Peter’s mundane, everyday activities, building a fire and cooking breakfast. And it was during this common situation that Jesus called Peter a second time, by asking Peter, ‘do you love me’? His call this time was to reveal Peter’s heart, not to test it. Christ already knew it. Peter needed to know his own heart. After all the dealings of the Lord with Peter, his motives are now pure, and it was love for His Lord that would now respond to the call. As the conversation develops, we see Peter’s humility, and Christ revealing to Peter, that all there is left is love. Christ’s forgiving, accepting love for a man who had failed; and Peter’s response of love to Him.
Here is a wonderful thing; it was because Peter had been humbled, lost his image and pride; because he no longer was ambitious for his own glory, that he could now go back to fishing.
Peter was now contented where he was, and with who he was; he saw no division between secular and spiritual; he ‘had seen Christ’.
And it was in that state that he was called to ‘feed my lambs’, and to follow, even to death. Peter, who had followed Christ ‘to become’ someone; now follows Him to lose his life. Christ had made Peter into a suitable and empty vessel for His Glory. Many believers are not content to ‘go fishing’; they desire a ministry, big and spectacular things happening; they feel they are ‘above the common place’; they develop a false spirituality whereby they believe God has called them beyond the everyday struggles of working, providing for the family, keeping house, looking after children, relating to neighbours, cleaning the yard. But God is in all the natural events of life; when Christ is invited into the ‘commonplace’, He makes it most uncommon.
We will be lead along the same journey as Peter. Hearing His call; being prepared to leave all to follow Him; but in order that we do not follow Him out of our own pride and glory, He will often allow ‘roadblocks’; perhaps failure, to come our way. The cross begins to take away; and it seems we have nothing. The reversal after the call, which propels us to focus again on Christ alone.
Then we will find that because He is the centre, and not ‘ministry’, or anything else, we are happy to ‘go fishing’. We are contented whatever we are doing in the ordinary, as His Life and walking with Him is the source of our fulfilment and satisfaction. However, the Enemy will often suggest to our minds that we have turned back; we are not faithful; we do not love Christ, what we are doing is a waste of time; or there is something wrong because we are simply ‘fishing’. Nothing is wrong because you have gone back ‘fishing’. This is the perfect place that your love for Christ will be revealed; and because you hold all things loosely, when He moves you on, you’ll go. As we invite Jesus into all we do, and do all from Him, and to Him, we will know His presence and hear His voice. Then when His call comes a second time, we will know our heart and motive is that of love for Him. And we will put aside fishing for the present as we obey His voice and call, but in the knowledge that we need not fear that His call may lead us back to it again. Have you discovered the joy and contentment in Him, wherever you are, and whatever you are doing?