Fish are eminently catchable out here, mainly because we have thousands of lakes, and the lakes have thousands of fish, and it's a match made in heaven for the amateur or even pro sportsman.
But fishing out here in the wilds of Saskatchewan is, well, it's angling, really. It's angling because you catch fish one at a time. One by one. And the skill at rod and reel fishing is that it's a battle of wits between you and a fish. Now, you'd think that this would be a very easy situation for you to handle, big smart human vs pea-brained fish, but the skill that goes into this fishing experience is that you're trying to fool the fish. You're going out of your way to deceive it, to trick it into biting down on that tasty tasty hook. You can't just sidehack your way out of this, you have to make your hook enticing, you have to make it something that the fish is going to want to bite down on, but it'll never bite down on a hook just hanging there by itself. You have to put bait on it, trout marshmallows, or little swimmers, things like that, that will hide or disguise the hook so that the fish will choose to bite down on it. And you're genuinely trying to get the fish to choose to bite down on your hook, overriding its will and tricking it into eating your hook. That's the skill, that's the strategy.
This is contrasted with the efforts at fishing that Zebedee and sons were doing. Simon and Andrew, James and John, they were fishermen, professional ones at that, and their whole work was grabbing fish from the lakes, and pulling them ashore for consumption. Because unlike today, if you wanted a tasty fish, you were really going to want to eat a fish that was caught that day. Sure, you could dry fish out, but realistically, fresh fish were only good the day that they were dragged from the depths. And Peter and Andrew, James and John, they'd been fishing all night, and had pulled up zero fish. At that moment, Jesus walks by on the shore, and tells them to continue fishing, to let down their nets for a catch. They dismiss him partially, and for good reason. After all, what does this carpenter know about fishing? Do you really mean, thou son of a carpenter, that you know more than we do about fishing? For shame, really. You make the table, and we'll put the fish on it, that kind of thing. Simon is more diplomatic than that, and elects to, essentially, humor Jesus 'Master, we toiled all night and took nothing. But at your word I will let down the nets.' He does, and when they let their nets down, they enclosed such a large number of fish that the nets are close to breaking.
This great miracle is the revelation of Jesus to these fishermen, the first of the disciples called to the service of Jesus Christ. They understand that he is the Lord when he has mastery over these elements. And as usual, when they are bringing the masses and masses of fish aboard, when they are dragging fish on board the boat so numerous that the nets are breaking, and the boats start sinking, they aren't just giving Jesus the thums up, they're not thrilled nor delighted. They're terrified. They understand the magnitude of what they have seen, they understand that what they're looking at is the power of Christ manifested in the world. And even though it had the result that they said they wanted, they were still, as the Authorized version would say, 'sore afraid.'
This is why when something majestic or miraculous happens, Jesus has to go out of his way to say 'Do not be afraid.' He has to tell them not to be afraid, not to be startled, not to be bothered nor disturbed, but they still are. When encountering the majestic power of the Lord, they are frightened, even though they understand that they do want this. They want to see God, to encounter and to approach him, but they are terrified when they do see him, because the presence of God is mighty and terrifying for sinful people. We sinful people cannot stand in the presence of God himself, his majesty is overwhelming. And every time he manifests his divinity, every time he is clear and shows himself, people are rightly afraid.
And when we evangelise, this is what we are trying to accomplish. We are trying to get people to bite down on the hook because there is no way that they would bite down on the hook of the Gospel unless they were tricked into it, right? Jesus tells the four fishermen at this moment that 'from now on, you will be catching men.' And we, as people living in the great commission, we are still working on this today. We are still called to evangelise the world, now perhaps more than ever. We are called upon by Christ to continue to bring the Gospel to a lost and fallen world, and we seem to think that if were to present the power of Christ in its full majesty, that no fish would ever bite down on it. So we feel as though we have to conceal that mighty power. We feel as though we have to hide the hook, right? If we're fishing for people, we have to bait the hook. We have to deceive that people that we are evangelising, to hide the Gospel in social justice or in community. We have to hide the Gospel in potlucks or teas, stashing it behind groups and gatherings. We don't present people with the naked Gospel, for knowledge that there is no chance in this world or the next that anyone would bite down on that hook if that is all that it was. And we're probably right! The Gospel is so other worldly that none of us would ever choose it. The Gospel of Christ is so other-worldly, telling us that the world we are living in is perishing, that God cares for us and wants to bring us from destruction. The Gospel tells us to be in the world but not of the world, and that the world around us is falling away. This is not a message that you have to hide, though, it's a message that the human heart is designed to need.
Now, I know what your temptation is, to try to hide the Gospel, or to conceal the hook, to try to cut holes in the net to make it not so hard for the fish, but here's the deal, which is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is exactly what the human heart craves, what it wants, and what it needs. To swap it out for other things to make it more palatable just makes it work less well. God's word does not return to him void, you know. It accomplishes the purpose for which it was sent.
So, to recap, the hard part of evangelism has been done for you. The net exists already, the word is already there, the Holy Spirit is already at work. All you need do is to know the net, be able to use it, and then go where the fish are. It seems so simple, but evangelism is simple. It's as simple as sharing the word of God, scattering the seed, casting out the net and letting the word of God do the work for you. That's what it's there to do, you know.
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