John 4:18-20
As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him.
So, Jesus said, "fishers of men" and Peter said, "YES," and dropped everything to follow Jesus. He was willing to be changed from what he had thought his life was about into what Jesus had envisioned for him to become.
Talk about trust! Peter's "own understanding" (Proverbs 3:5,6) must have tried to talk to him at that moment. I imagine it trying to say something like, "Peter! Get ahold of yourself! How are you going to make a living? What will your family say? Check yourself, do you have a fever?!"
If there was any internal dialog like this going on in Peter's head, we don't know it because the man did not bow down to it even for a second! The Bible says that at ONCE they left their nets and followed Jesus!
What a beautiful and challenging picture of trust we see in Peter. He became a fisher of men because that is what Jesus transformed him into being. He was taught by the best "discipler" that ever was or will be.
Jesus said, "Fisher of men" and Peter said "YES" and dropped everything to follow Him. Peter spent days, weeks, months, and years with Jesus. Those days were filled with listening to Jesus talk of His ways and of His promises. Peter probably had some of it memorized.
Peter got to know The Lord Jesus. He didn't get to know some new spiritual philosophy to live by or some religious formula to practice or some political platform to fight for. He got to know Jesus Christ, Himself by spending a lot of time in His presence.
The promises of Jesus are beautiful and full of hope and strength and grace and truth. Imagine how wonderful this was for Peter. How close he probably felt to Jesus. How full of trust! We know that Peter was strong in his trust since before Jesus was taken to be crucified, Peter had promised that even if everyone else abandoned Jesus, Peter would die with him rather than abandon Him.
Then, after a few years of fishing for men, walking with Jesus, hearing Jesus' teachings, experiencing true community with others who followed Jesus, seeing one miracle after another..(Peter is famous for walking on water, after all!) Peter came to a place of complete disillusionment. Jesus, the one Peter knew to be God, gave Himself over to be captured and mocked and crucified.
Even though Jesus had told His disciples that this was coming, Peter wasn't prepared for this kind of pain. He wasn't prepared to deal with the death of Jesus and he wasn't prepared to deal with the fact that he had been one of those who betrayed Jesus and he wasn't prepared to walk in this world and follow God without Jesus physically being there.
I can imagine the devastation. Peter probably had such anguish in his mind and emotions. Such pain, shock, and disappointment. His own understanding may have told him that everything he had believed in had been a lie. He had trusted himself to follow Jesus to the cross and he couldn't even manage to acknowledge Him in front of a servant woman.
The bible says that Peter wept bitterly. Some of you have wept bitter tears. You know grief.
There can be enormous amounts of fear mixed in with grief.
In the beginning of John chapter 21, we read that Peter went fishing.
I don't know if he forgot that he was now a fisher of men, or if he was in such grief that he couldn't see straight, but the scripture does say that he went fishing.
I think it makes perfect sense. He went back to the safe, familiar waters. Back to his old identity, back to what his own understanding felt right about. It's not like he had been something terrible, not like a prostitute or tax collector or something. Fishing was a decent thing to do and he went back to it. He basically said to his friends, "I don't know about you guys, but I'm going fishing."
They followed him into the boat.
They fished all night and caught nothing.
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