Might as well go fishing

That's where we find the disciples at the end of John's gospel: fishing.  Not terribly surprising since that is what most of them did either for a living or to provide food.  Not only that, what else were they to do?  They went back to what they knew, what was comfortable, what put food on the table.  They hung out with the folks they knew and felt comfortable with.  They went fishing.

Although, after hours of night time fishing, they had caught nothing.  I guess that happens even to professional fishermen.  Checking with our local fishing expert, that indeed happens to him.  But the strange/amusing/unbelievable part of the story comes next:  Jesus tells them to put their nets down on the right side of the boat.

Now I can't help but think that this is metaphor since I doubt if fish are that discriminating about exactly which side of a boat they swim under.  What, however, could this metaphor be pointing us to?

Well, right could mean the opposite of wrong.  You were putting out your nets on the wrong side of the boat.  Could that mean that they were seeking to tell the Jesus story in the wrong places?  In the wrong manner?  Wrong technique?  I don't know.

This shift to the 'right side' could also point to efforts that are made without the cooperative energy and direction of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus, therefore, empowers the fishermen to catch their fish by directing them to the 'right' place.  Maybe.

Of course, 'catching fish' is also probably a metaphor since at his calling Peter was told to Follow and learn how to be a 'fisher of men'.  So I'm thinking that 'catching fish' is really leading folks to Jesus.  Note that the net was filled with fish (153) but it was not torn.  Remember how Jesus said he did not lose even one that was given to him by the Fathr (except the one destined to be lost) John 17.12.  I like the interplay of these two images.

What do we have in the end?  We have folks who are doing what everybody does: working to provide a living for themselves and their families.  Apparently, hidden in the metaphors, is the message that our work goes beyond just catching halibut.  We also are given the task of gathering in those who have not heard of Jesus and bringing them to him.

Third, there are lots of 'uncaught' fish in the sea and netting them for Jesus is a part of our work.  When we wrap up this story and Jesus tells Peter to 'feed my sheep' he is not giving him a different task - something other than catching fish - he is simply giving Peter a different picture of what his work looks like.

In our fellowship, our every day work, our ordinary activities, even the stuff we need to do to maintain ourselves, we are not to lose sight of our larger calling as people of faith:  go and find the lost ones and bring them to Jesus.  It's a different kind of fishing.