Articles
At Your Word I Will
At Your Word I Will
Having fished all night (the normal fishing time for them), Peter and his partners have put into shore and are cleaning and repairing their nets (Luke 5:1-11). Jesus comes and instructs Peter to get back into the boat, load up his nets, go out to the deep part, and start fishing again. They are done. They are tired. They are unloaded and working on other things. This is the wrong time of day to do that type of fishing. To top it off, Jesus is not a fisherman. What would He know about this?
Although it is not apparent in reading Luke, Peter, Andrew, James, and John have been with Jesus off and on for about a year at this point. They have seen and heard him. This was enough for Peter to do the 'unthinkable' - he goes fishing again. The simple statement is in fact a profound one: "At your word I will." It is the Word of the Lord. It is the Word of a master teacher.
The results are more fish than he can land. Even with the help of his partners, the fish break the nets. We know the command and we know the results but we have no clue to how Jesus brought such to pass. No doubt He could have instructed and arranged for such catches every day and they could have had a VERY profitable fishing business! Jesus has other purposes behind this.
He now calls them to fulltime discipleship. He will make them 'fishers of men'. Their time and energy will be for bringing people into the kingdom of God. They immediately left all and followed Him.
Such is trust in Jesus. People often speak of 'faith' and then narrowly define it to believing a fact about Him. Jesus asked them to TRUST Him - to trust Him enough to DO what He says BECAUSE He says so. That was Peter's faith. Several times in the next year with Jesus, Peter will show this same trust.
When you learn what Jesus asks of His disciples, you need to have the same mind that Peter did. "At your word I will." It is that simple. It does not require a discussion on whether such is necessary to salvation or not. It is not a matter of collecting the popular opinion about such things. It does not require understanding WHY Jesus would ask such. It is a matter of faith. Hugh DeLong
