CATCHING MEN AT THE SEA OF GALILEE

LUKE 5:1–11

As Jesus taught by the Sea of Galilee, the crowds grew so large that some of the people were unable to hear him. So Jesus got into Simon’s fishing boat and asked him to push off a short distance from the shore. This allowed his voice to be amplified by the natural amphitheater formed by the hills sloping up from the lakeshore. It also allowed Jesus to teach his disciples aspects of “fishing” from God’s perspective.

The boat Jesus used belonged to Simon, who had been fishing all night with his partners James and John. The clues in Luke’s account help us picture the kind of fishing they were doing. The combination of washing nets, deep water, and night (Luke 5:2, 4–5) suggest that these men were using trammel nets, which are hung upright in the water like a wall. “Unlike other nets that have only one ‘wall,’ this is a compound net consisting of three layers held together by a single corked head rope and a single leaded foot rope.”17 The three layers were carefully designed to entangle the fish between them. This technique was particularly effective when it was used in the deeper waters of the lake and at night when the fish were unable to see the net. Once the night of fishing was done, the silt was washed from the nets on shore.18

Cast-net fishing at sunset on the Sea of Galilee.
© Direct Design.

Fishermen mending trammel nets (ca. AD 1900).
Courtesy of the House of Anchors Museum, Kibbutz Ein Gev.

When Jesus directed him to take his boat, net, and partners back on to the lake, Simon objected. They had worked hard all night and had caught nothing (Luke 5:4–5). But they did return to the lake, and their net filled with so many fish that they had to signal for another boat to come and help with the catch. Both boats were so filled with fish that they began to sink. The miracle had its desired effect on Simon, James, and John. Just as Jesus caught them at the Sea of Galilee, so his message and this miracle persuaded them to leave everything and follow him to “catch men” (Luke 5:11).

The fact that Jesus declared that Simon, James, and John would catch men further illustrates the great impact these men would have as Jesus’s disciples. If while catching fish under Jesus’s direction these disciples could find such great success, we can better comprehend what occurred later as they began to catch men. When the day of Pentecost came, Simon (whom Jesus renamed Peter) spoke, and thousands came to know Jesus in just one day (Acts 2:41). As those who believed met day after day in the Temple, united in purpose, the Lord kept adding to their number daily (Acts 2:46–47). Jesus’s brother James (not James the disciple)led believers in Jerusalem. And John, who led believers in Asia Minor, provided biblical writings, including a Gospel record, letters, and the book of Revelation, that have been used to catch people for two thousand years. Thus Jesus’s words to these disciples were fulfilled in ways they could never have imagined.

Fishermen on the Sea of Galilee.
© Direct Design.

Capernaum fishing cove (view looking southeast).