Shayne Looper: God speaks your language

There is a wonderful story in the Gospel of Luke. Peter, who would later become one of Jesus’s apostles, was at the time a commercial fisherman on the Sea of Galilee. He and his coworkers had been out all night — Galilee fisherman worked the night shift — and were now washing, repairing, and stowing their nets before going home to get some sleep.

Jesus was only a few yards away, standing on the beach, teaching and Peter listened as he taught. Because the crowds were right on top of Jesus, he wished to teach from Peter’s boat and asked him to push it out a few feet from shore. He didn’t demand; he asked.

The rule of Jesus’s kingdom is to ask, and he follows his own rules. He tells us to ask: “Ask and it shall be given to you,” but he asks, as well. And when he asks, he lets us choose for ourselves whether we will respond to his request. If people wait for Jesus to make them do the right thing, they may wait a long time. We have choices to make, and our choices really count.

Peter made the choice to respond to Jesus, to do what he asked. It wasn’t a big ask, though it meant it would be a little longer before he got home and into bed. But when the teaching time was over, Jesus said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch."

This was a bigger ask. The nets were already clean and stowed. This meant a time investment and hard work at the oars.

That is the way of faith. People start with small things and move on to bigger things and then on to yet bigger things. We don’t start big, which is why people who are always looking for big experiences to sustain their faith do themselves a disservice.

Jesus commands but he doesn’t beg. He doesn’t, like some parents, repeat himself over and over in an effort to coerce or guilt people into doing what he wants. He doesn’t say to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets. I’m not telling you again. If you don’t put out into deep water right now, Simon Peter, you’re going to regret it!”

Peter had been out all night. For the last hour he had been stowing away equipment and washing his nets. It was time to go home. It was certainly not time — only a carpenter would think so — to go fishing.

Readers need to try to hear Peter’s response the way he said it. “Master, we've worked hard all night...” He pauses, waiting for Jesus to say, “Oh, you’re right. How thoughtless of me,” but Jesus says no such thing “… and haven’t caught anything.” Another, longer, pause. He wants Jesus to know that he’s tired and that he thinks this is a bad idea. He doesn’t want to say no, but he is hoping that Jesus will change his mind. But Jesus does not change his mind. Now comes a big sigh: “But because you say so … I will let down the nets.”

The result was a miraculous catch of fish. Peter may or may not have understood a studious exegesis of the Hebrew text of Isaiah, but that’s not what Jesus gave him. He may not have understood a philosophy of ministry course, but Jesus didn’t give him that either. He did understand fish, and that’s what Jesus gave him.

God knows how to speak to people in ways they understand. He speaks to the poet in meter, to the architect in blueprints, to the child in games and laughter, to the wise in wisdom, to the fool in folly. He speaks to Isaac Newton in mathematical formulae, to Francis Collins in ribonucleic acids and to fisherman in fish.

This is one lesson of the incarnation: God comes to people where they are and speaks to them in a language they can understand. There is no language that God cannot speak, but everyone must choose whether they will listen.

— Find this and other articles by Shayne Looper at shaynelooper.com.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Shayne Looper: God speaks your language