Doing business in unusual way!

Luke 5:1-11

Jesus was standing one day by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the crowd pressing round him listening to the word of God, when he caught sight of two boats close to the bank. The fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats – it was Simon’s – and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water and pay out your nets for a catch.’ ‘Master,’ Simon replied, ‘we worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but if you say so, I will pay out the nets.’ And when they had done this they netted such a huge number of fish that their nets began to tear, so they signalled to their companions in the other boat to come and help them; when these came, they filled the two boats to sinking point. When Simon Peter saw this he fell at the knees of Jesus saying, ‘Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.’ For he and all his companions were completely overcome by the catch they had made; so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were Simon’s partners. But Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on it is men you will catch.’ Then, bringing their boats back to land, they left everything and followed him.

Food for thought!

Jesus knows how to challenge us; to pull our legs. He challenged Peter and his companions. Night is the time for fishing and the proper place to cast the net is near the shore. This is what Peter knew; but if Jesus wished to fish by day light in the middle of the Lake, Simon was not too weary to try. Jesus sometimes tells us to do the contrary, to do what's against the common practice, to go against expectations, to do business not as usual.

When we follow the guidance of the Lord in our lives, we achieve results that will blow our minds. This is what we see in Peter's miraculous catch of fish. He and his men toiled all night long and caught nothing; they were following traditional and time worn methods. They were following their tradition, their common practice, their own minds as to where and how to throw the net. The result, in one word, was failure. But when they followed the Lord's guidance which, humanly speaking, did not make much sense (fishermen do not set the net in broad daylight), the result was a resounding success.

Even for Jesus it is business unusual. Up to now Jesus has been preaching in synagogues; now he is at the lakeside. Jesus is now conducting his business in unusual way. His church is now the lakeside and the open road, and his pulpit a boat. Jesus would go anywhere where men would listen to him. When the synagogue was shut Jesus took to the open road. It is business unusual.

Simon got the lesson right: "Put out into the deep waters." All along Peter was fishing in swallow waters, just like many of us do. We are afraid to go further into deep waters; we want to stay where we have always been, doing what we always did. It is to people like these that Jesus challenges to risk going further, to go deeper, to leave the usual for the unusual. Whatever your profession, whatever your job, if you go deeper enough into it, living aside the usual, you'll catch a living. Dare to be and do things differently.