They put out sometimes at nightfall when there was a moon, and came back
early in the morning just after the setting of the moon and before
sunrise. Often Jesus was waiting for them on the strand and was the
first to greet them. But the fishing was not always good, sometimes they
came back empty-handed, tired and depressed. Jesus greeted them with
words which cheered them, and the disappointed men, although they had
not slept, listened to Him willingly. One morning two boats came back
towards Capernaum while Jesus standing by the lake was talking to the
people who had gathered around Him. The fishermen disembarked and began
to arrange the nets; then Jesus entered into one of the boats and asked
them to put it out a little from the land so that He might not be
pressed upon by the crowd. Upright near the rudder He taught those who
had remained on the land, and when He had left speaking He said to
Simon, “Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.”
And Simon, son of Jona, owner of the boat, answered, “Master, we have
toiled all the night and have taken nothing, nevertheless at thy word, I
will let down the net.”
When they were only a short distance from the bank, Simon and Andrew,
his brother, threw out into the water a large net. And when they drew it
back it was so full of fish that the meshes were almost breaking. Then
the two brothers called their partners in the other boat, that they
should come to help them, and they threw out the net again and drew it
up again full. Simon, Andrew and the others cried out “a miracle!” and
thanked Jesus, who had brought them this good luck. Simon, impulsive by
nature, threw himself at the knees of their guest crying, “Depart from
me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
But Jesus, smiling, said, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of
men.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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