Day 139: Luke 5:1–7

When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch” (v. 4).

At the time when Andrew, Peter, James, and John were casting their nets into the Sea of Galilee, a vigorous fishing industry was booming all over the lake. Many villages populated the shores of this body of water. Not only was it the food basket of the region; the sight was breathtaking. It still is. The surrounding hills cup the lake like water in the palm of a large hand. I’ve seen with my own eyes how the early spring sunrise hangs lazily in the clinging winter mist. Since the first time I saw the Sea of Galilee, I understood why Christ seemed to favor the villages near its shore over the metropolis of Jerusalem.

Bethsaida lies at the northern tip where the Jordan River feeds the lake. The name Bethsaida means “house of fishing,”33 and it lived up to its name. We know for a fact that Andrew and Peter were from Bethsaida, and we can safely assume Zebedee also raised his sons in the village, since they were all partners. As we will soon discover, at some point Andrew and Peter moved to nearby Capernaum where Peter lived with his wife and mother-in-law (Mark 1:21, 29). We don’t know for certain which of the two villages housed James and John at this point in their lives, but we do know they all continued to work together.

Obviously Zebedee was the one who owned the fishing enterprise. We read in Mark 1:20 that James and John “left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men.” While I don’t want to intimate that Zebedee was wealthy (since few villagers were), we’d probably be mistaken to think him poor. The reference to the hired servants tells us that he owned his own business and was profitable enough to have servants in addition to two healthy and able sons. Both boats might easily have been in his ownership. Peter and Andrew could have fished from one (which was considered theirs in Luke 5:3) while a little farther away (Mark 1:19) James and John fished from another.

God wisely equipped us with four Gospels because we learn far more from hearing several accounts of anything especially noteworthy. The facts one writer included may not have been noted by another because each point of view was tinted by the individual’s perspective and priorities. While writing Jesus the One and Only, I learned I could almost always expect Luke to be a little more specific than the other Gospel writers, which made perfect sense to me. He was a doctor, and a good doctor pays attention to details. You’ll find this principle to hold true in the passage at hand.

In his fifth chapter, Luke recorded the call of Peter, Andrew, James, and John. Simon Peter told Jesus that they had fished all night. Obviously our little band of fisherman worked the graveyard shift at times. I can only think of one thing worse than fishing in the cold. That would be not catching anything. It happens to the best of fisherman. When it happens to my husband, Keith, I always ask him the typical sanguine woman question: “But did you have fun with your friends anyway?” My personality is given to the philosophy that the question is not so much whether you succeeded or failed but if you had fun in the process. I wish I had a picture of Keith’s face when I ask him that question. I’d put it in the margin for your amusement.

I can go no further without musing over Christ’s divinely uncanny ability to waltz right into a life and turn it upside down, inside out, and every which way but loose. Just think how many times those fishermen had prepared and cast their nets together. Picture how many years they had practiced a routine. They weren’t fishing for the pure enjoyment of it as my husband does. Fishing was their job. I don’t doubt they loved it as most men would, but don’t think for a moment it wasn’t work. Hard work.

Hear them declare it so. Upon Jesus’ suggestion that they “put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch,” Peter answered Jesus, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night long and caught nothing” (Luke 5:4–5 hcsb).

Yes, they worked hard. Day in. Day out. Then one day Jesus walked up. And everything changed.

Oh, beloved, isn’t that exactly like Him? Jesus walks right up, catches us in the act of being—again today—exactly who we were yesterday, and offers to turn our routine into adventure. Hallelujah! Have you allowed Christ to do that for you? If you’re bored with life and stuck in a rut of routine, you may have believed in Christ, but you may not yet have agreed to follow Him. Christ is a lot of things, but boring? Not on your life! Life with Him is indeed a great adventure.

You don’t necessarily have to leave behind what you do if He proves your present course to be His will, but I assure you He will have you leave the boredom and routine of it behind. When Jesus Christ takes over our lives, things get exciting!