In this bizarre and frightening time we find ourselves living in, we all find ourselves doing things differently. And as we consider the big picture, we may discover that we don’t really question the change in our normal pattern, and that we’re adapting to the new pattern with a lot less complaining about the specific individual change. In the strangeness we’re in, a small change doesn’t seem nearly as fraught with anxiety as just the overarching anxiety. An example—Susan and I have never shopped online for groceries, and never gotten them at curbside pickup. But now, that’s what we do. And rather than debate the pros and cons of that—which I am pretty certain we would have done if nothing in the world had changed, now with a global pandemic it’s not a debate. It’s actually a no-brainer.
In this passage from John 21 after Jesus has been raised from the dead and has been with them, Peter and six of the other disciples go fishing. At least three of the disciples had been professional fishermen before joining in with Jesus three years earlier, so it’s not like they don’t know what they are doing—in fact, their livelihoods had depended on them knowing what they were doing, and doing it well enough to earn enough to feed their families. And so it’s probably not a lack of skill that results in them catching nothing overnight. Lack of practice, maybe? A bad season for fish? In any case, no success. A college friend who loved to fish always told me that going fishing wasn’t about catching fish; I suspect that for professional fisherman it might have been, however.
So here they are on the boat in the lake, and John 21:4-6 tells us what happens next. “Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, ‘Children, you have no fish, have you?’ They answered him, ‘No.’ He said to them, ‘Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.’” At this point, they don’t know who this guy is, but things haven’t gone well overnight, so they try his suggestion, and get a massive catch, so many that the net starts to break.
Biblical scholars speculate variously on the whole “cast the net to the right side of the boat” thing. Some say that someone on shore could see better where the fish were, so this was just helpful in terms of locating the fish. Others say that this is not where the net is usually cast, based on how the boat is set up. In any case, this stranger who turns out to be Jesus suggests that they change their normal approach to what they know how to do. It must have been counterintuitive to them—but it worked. Jesus had a “different” idea, and it worked.
We are in a time where we need to consider those “different” ideas, some of which may very well be counterintuitive. And when we “get back to normal”—whatever that could possibly mean in a world that has already changed, and where some of our previously firmly held practices have already changed—it will be a “new normal”. We, too, need to get on board with what Jesus might guide us to do, in a new way of doing what we are certain we know how to do.
Let’s listen to Jesus. And let’s listen with open minds, and open hearts, so that when we get to again physically have open doors we will be even more open-minded and open-hearted.
John 21:1-7a
1 After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. 2 Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. 3 Simon Peter said to them, ‘I am going fishing.’ They said to him, ‘We will go with you.’ They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
4 Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 Jesus said to them, ‘Children, you have no fish, have you?’ They answered him, ‘No.’ 6 He said to them, ‘Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.’ So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. 7 That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord!’