The Dawn Of ChristianitySample

A Fisher of Men

On this particular autumn day, Jesus sat on the hillside above the large crescent bay at Tabgha, about four miles south of the fishing village of Capernaum. Just to the south lay the town the locals called Magdala but which others referred to as Taricheae or “Town of the Salt-Fish.”

Large groups of people were making their way to the area from many different villages in the region. Jesus stepped slowly down to the lakeshore where the well-known fisherman named Simon bar Jonah had been repairing his nets. Simon had been listening attentively to everything the rabbi had said and, like most people, was transfixed by his words. When Jesus asked Simon if he could borrow his boat for a time, Simon agreed and helped him ease the boat off the pebble beach out into the lake.

Jesus stood in the bow, speaking to the crowds who had formed a large semicircle on the rocky beach. Jesus had been speaking about something he called the kingdom of God. He had invited his listeners to join him in a kind of crusade. This young teacher was giving these hungry people on the lakeshore something they had not had for a very long time: hope, and a new sense of purpose.

Still in the boat, Jesus told Simon he should push off and take the boat out into deeper water to catch some fish.

“Master, we toiled all night and took nothing,” Simon said gently. “But at your word, I’ll let down the nets.”

Simon and his partners moved the boat out into deep water and did as the rabbi bid. When they had lowered the nets, suddenly a great shoal of tilapia, the most common fish in the lake, moved into them and filled their nets to the breaking point. Simon and his partners yelled at men in a nearby boat to come help them. As quickly as they could, the men brought the boats back to the shore. Simon leapt out of his boat and fell at the feet of the rabbi.

“Depart from me, for I am a sinful man,” he said, bowing his head. Jesus walked away, up the hillside toward the road back to Capernaum. But then he stopped and turned back to Simon.

“Come with me, Simon,” he said simply. “And I will make you a fisher of men.”