Today I read Luke 5, where Jesus calls Peter, James and John as well as Matthew to be His disciples. This chapter also contains the story of the man with palsy that was let in through the roof of the building where Jesus was, and Jesus cleansing a leper. But the story that struck me the most is the calling of Peter and the other fishermen.
It's very, very obvious that the scriptures only contain the bare bones of what actually happened during the life and ministry of the Savior. I do not think that even the Savior Himself could just casually walk by some fishermen cleaning their nets, say the words, "Follow me" and they would do it. Most people would just look at such a person askew and then shake their heads at the weird person and go back to what they were doing in the first place. But Luke sheds some light on the subject.
Jesus had such a great multitude that there was no where for Him to go to teach them when He sees Peter, James and John and their ships. So He walks over to them and finds them cleaning their nets. He somehow gets Peter to take Him out a little ways in His ship and then teaches the multitude. Peter hears what Jesus is preaching and is obviously impressed. This adds more to the next part of the story too.
After Jesus finishes preaching to the multitude, and to Peter and his crew, Jesus tells Peter to lower the nets into the water. Peter replies that he and his crew have been fishing all night and have caught nothing. But then he tells Jesus at at His word, he will lower the nets as he has been asked to do. Without the knowledge that Peter had just heard the Savior preach to the multitude, this seems a very odd thing for someone to agree to do. Now, it is entirely possible that the Spirit that Jesus surely must have radiated could have touched Peter, and others, from the beginning. After all, most if not all of us have met people that just seem to radiate goodness, just like I'm sure most of you have met people who radiate wrongness, or an evil feeling from them. So it is very possible that Peter would have done all this just from feeling the Spirit the Lord has about Him. But for my logical brain, this makes sense to me that Peter was more willing to lower the nets after a night of no success because he heard the Savior speak His doctrine and it resonated within him.
Now, the story is recorded that as they lowered and raised the nets, they caught the largest haul of fish they had ever seen. It was so large, that it started to break the nets, so they had to stop, call over the ship where James and John were and have them also lower their nets to help. Between the two ships, they were able to bring up the haul of fish, but it was so massive that it started to sink both ships, surely the single greatest haul of fish those poor fishermen had ever seen in their lives or perhaps ever even heard of. Peter immediately recognizes it is all because of Jesus and declares his unworthiness. And from that time forward, Peter, James and John become the Lord's disciples.
But have you ever stopped to wonder why Jesus had them catch those fish? Surely He could have convinced them another way. So why have them haul in the greatest catch of their lives and then just give up their trade? There is no clear cut answer because the scriptures do not say, but here is my thought. Peter, was a married man and had a family. It is possible that James and/or John did as well. It's all well and good for them to just leave their trade and follow Jesus, but how would their families be cared for if they do this? The Lord, in His mercy, gave them a method to provide for their families and to follow Him at the same time. He gave them a haul of fish that when sold, was great enough to live off of for 3 years, if not longer. That is what I believe happened. I believe the Savior was caring for the families of those fishermen so that He could take their men, their financial providers away for His purposes, but not leave the families destitute. It was a tender mercy of the Lord.
Now, no where in the scriptures does it implicitly state this, but it is my belief and once you think about it, I suspect many of you will feel I am right. It is entirely possible that Jesus sat down with Peter, James and John and had a whole conversation with them about what "following Him" would mean and how they can sell these fish to make sure their families are well cared for, we just don't know. But there are many, many things Jesus said and did that we do not have a record of, John tells us that at the end of his book, so I do not think it is too hard to imagine that there is a LOT more to this story than we have recorded here. But we do know that the Lord loves and cares for His people and has mercy for them, so I will continue to believe that the way I have outlined it, is the way it happened. It makes me happy to think that Jesus cared for the families of His Apostles while they were with Him. He certainly cares for all of us now, and He does not change yesterday, today or forever the scriptures tell us. Until tomorrow.
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