Wednesday: Throw out your net
At dawn Jesus was standing on the beach, but the disciples couldn’t see who he was.
He called out, “Fellows, have you caught any fish?”
“No,” they replied.
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.
V4-6
Sometimes I allow my imagination to run away with me…in this case, I am imagining how the disciples would have responded to Jesus!
Imagine this, after the rollercoaster of life for the past 3 years, and the depths of disappointment of the Easter story (at this point they are still without Jesus), they have been out on a boat all night and caught nothing…not good!! And then on top of that they have a ‘random’ guy calling out from the beach “Fellows, have you caught any fish?” I wonder if John has written down the child friendly edited version of their response!!
Interesting if you look at the Greek word ‘Fellows’ you will find that its root is not in the empathetic ‘people who are in the same situation as you’ but actually Jesus is saying ‘children’, or ‘lads’ – the same word used as in ‘suffer little children to come on to me’.
I sometimes feel God asking me ‘Nick (child), have you caught any fish?’ and my response is usually a long list of reasons why I haven’t, and usually blames other people and circumstances. Here I find it quite refreshing to see the disciples respond with a simple ‘No’. And even more refreshing is the realisation that Jesus can work with the simple recognition of failure on our part. He doesn’t blame, or empathise, also note he doesn’t accept or condone. He simply sorts it out…“Throw out your net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you’ll get some!”
In terms of strength and hope, they didn’t have the strength to haul the net in, and in this simple act of saying No, listening and obeying Jesus, I, in my imagination, feel hope stirring in them as they marvel at this wonder.
To do today:
As we think about all the children and young people across our areas who are in a boat struggling without Jesus, and our response to helping them come close to Him, maybe don’t focus on all the reasons why we struggle to help (there are many!!), but simply say we are struggling, and in many cases failing, and then simply listen.
Did you know…one of the easiest ways to support your school community is to be a listening volunteer. It is a really effective way for you as a church to build meaningful bridges into your schools. See www.niscu.org.uk/121listening/ for more information.
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