“Come, follow Me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19
We are all called to be “fishers of men”. Jesus recruited fishermen to exchange the object of their vocation from fish to men, to recruit men to God’s side with the Gospel, the good news that God loves and saves. In a wider, universal view, all men have in their nature, a calling to fish men, to encounter and influence men. That call is a two-sided coin. At any given time: men who fish, are themselves, fished. This week, I was fished, rather, I was baited.
I picked up a hitchhiker with thumb out and gasoline can in hand. Why? I know what it means to be stranded that way. In fact, I had been on this same stretch of the road with gas can in hand. So, I turned around and picked him up, even though it was out of the way. With my n-95 mask firmly in place, he accepted my muffled invitation to get in. He wasted little time in baiting and casting.
“I see you’re wearing a mask. I tell you that masks and vaccination stuff is a bunch of conspiracy. Right?”
I smelled the bait and spit it out. “I mask-up and have been shot-up out of an abundance of caution for the kids at the school where I teach and for the residents at the nursing home where I preach. Argument averted.
“So, you’re in education. I wouldn’t work in education with all that critical race theory and black life matters indoctrination going on. Surely, you have run into that crap?”
Again, I spit out the bait to argue when it was clear that my rider had contentious intent. I mean, what man would broach such sensitive subjects so blatantly and bold-faced without building an air of civility first. It’s important to note he is white and I am black. Bait. Bait. Bait. I came back, “I really like teaching. Just being present makes a difference.”
This went on for another ten minutes until I dropped him off. He had the unmitigated temerity to ask if I was able to give him a lift to his next destination. “No, I’m afraid I’m going in another direction. God bless you. By the way, my name is Olin.”
The point of the story is this: You’re either fishing or being fished. My rider clearly tried to bait me into an unproductive, corrosive debate that had no path to truth and community building. But we should not abandon “men” fishing. We just need to cast our nets on a better side—the right side.
That was the fishing tip Jesus gave his disappointed disciples the morning they fished all night and caught nothing. They were disappointed that the Jesus they believed in and followed as their Savior and Messiah, was MIA. The resurrection he promised was a ruse. They, once fishers of men, were abandoning their greater calling. They were returning to a lesser purpose. Then, a lone unrecognizable figure on the shore, shouted out:
"Cast the net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you will find a catch." They cast therefore, and then they were not able to haul it in because of the great number of fish. John 21:6
What’s on the right side?
Blessing are on the right side. When we trust and obey, especially in our disappointment, God blesses in ways that exceed our disappointments. Jesus said that He came that we might have life more abundantly.
Paul told the Ephesians that Christ is able to do more than we can ask or think (Eph. 3:20).
Christ did more than my friend Marilyn could ask or think when she trusted and obeyed in her disappointment when she learned she couldn’t have children. She heard Jesus say, “Cast your net on the right side.” She adopted three kids from three different families. God made them one family. What a blessing. But that’s what you catch when you cast your net on the right side and are obedient out of faith.
Love is on the right side. It’s not easy casting your life on the right side, fishing out of faith, but you will not fail. Ask the disciples. Their catch was so great, it took an effort to get their catch in the boat, but they did. And the nets were not torn. It wasn’t easy for Marilyn and her husband Tom, raising three adopted children, but their nets held, their family was not torn by the burden. She was strengthened with more love with each and every challenge. Love did the heavy lifting. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all thing. Love never fails when you fish on the right side (I Cor.13:4-7).
Finally, Christ is on the right side. And when Christ is on the right side, so is life because Christ said of Himself, “I am the way, the truth and they life.” The disciples found more than fish that morning of disappointment. That stranger tending to a fire on the beach was the resurrected Christ. He told a discouraged Peter to get back to the high purpose of fishing men with the gospel. “If you love me, feed my sheep.” He regained his life’s calling.
My friend Marilyn Hubbard lived a life that evidenced Christ. She poured out her life into her children, now men and women led by faith, forged by love. At Marilyn’s homegoing, her children spoke of the life they now have that could not have been unless their mother, Marilyn, had not cast her net on the right side. They will see her again because Christ—the resurrection—is on the right side.
We are all called to be fishers of men. We can be fishermen like the ignorant rider who tried to bait me into a conversation that had no path to truth and community. Then there are fishers of men who encounter and influence men, who cast their nets on the right side like my friend Marilyn, where there is blessing, love and life.
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