"Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men."
Jesus tells Peter in Luke 5, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” Peter fished for a living and he had been fishing all night with no success. Peter initially protested. I wonder if Peter thought to himself, “Doesn’t Jesus, the carpenter, know this is not a good time to fish?” “I am so tired, not right now Jesus!” Whatever Peter might have thought, he had a change of heart and said to Jesus, “But at your word I will let down the nets.” Peter did what seemed at first to be unreasonable. He initially opposed Jesus’ word, but then obeyed.
Sometimes I can reason myself right off the path of obedience. One minute I seem to be a humble shepherd, the next a wandering sheep. I sometimes go my own way because I have my own good reasons! To be sure, we should use our limited power of reason to make wise and informed decisions. Our faith in Christ is indeed a reasonable faith, Peter himself said so (1 Peter 3:15). Jesus commanded his followers to love God with all their mind, didn’t he (Mark 12:30)? Yet, there are those times in my own life, more than I care to admit, that I reason myself right off the path of following Christ. It seems to me, that Luke 5, among other lessons, warns us about the limits of human reason and our experience and the blessings of obeying Christ’s commands. Luke’s fish tale gives us good reasons to obey, don’t you think?
