Anxiously Awaiting On Everything Eternal…

Fishers of Men

Ancient fisherman did not fish the same way their modernized descendants do. Hebrew fisherman would take a light out to sea and shine it into the ocean with their nets dropped. As the fish would come up to the light all the fishermen needed to do was pull in the nets and haul their catch home. Modern fishermen have a much different method. The can have hundreds of shiny lures specially crafted to look exactly like the fishes prey, and they have developed special techniques and ploys in order to get the fish to bite.

How is this related to Matthew 4:19? Let's look at both types of fishing as applied to the Kingdom of God.

The ancient fisherman relies on faith and the light. He has nothing else but himself, his boat, and perhaps a few friends. He may need to wait patiently while the fish congregate over the light, but there is very little effort other than simply waiting. Conversely the modern fisherman uses his lures and his perfected technique to catch the fish. He relies on his own wisdom or his special gadgets. This reminds me of how many modern churches are. They have so many programs and shiny things developed to bring in the largest crowd, or they have the most articulate and theologically educated teacher speaking at every event. Matthew 9:35-38 says:

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."

Emphasis mine. In order for there to be a harvest to gather, some sort of work had to have occurred before the workers were sent out. In the same way, this points in every way towards relying on the Lord for our catch instead of ourselves and our own cleverness. The catch is ready, we just have to be diligent workers and obey the voice of the Lord!

The heart of the second related point I wish to make lives in 1 Corinthians 1:17:

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

And to take it a step further--and consequently make it even harder to swallow--Paul says in 2:1-5:

When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

First we must address "emptying the cross of its power" through our "words of human wisdom." How often we bank on our own cleverness to deliver the Word of God, and how often we come up short. To me, emptying the cross of its power is a pretty serious allegation, and that makes me want to shut up more (see Ecclesiastes 5:1-2). As Paul says in the second passage, let our messages be preached not with wise and persuasive words--including five point acrostic and/or alliteration employing sermons with coma inducing power point slides, but in demonstration of the Spirit's power. Why? So that the converts faith rests on God's power not man's wisdom. We should be relying on the light that shines from Christ through us to attract those that the Lord has prepared instead of our own intelligence and gimmicks.

So does all of this mean that we can collectively as a church sit back and do nothing? Absolutely not. It simply means that we should move our focus from being Martha to being Mary (Luke 10:38-42). Our chief goal is to maximize the amount of glory the Lord receives. What better way to start things off than to sit at His feet, listen to what He has to say, and be obedient to that instead of concentrating on what we think we should be doing.