I'm going through a study by Doug Greenwold called, "Encounters with Jesus: The Rest of Their Stories." I highly recommend it. He takes 12 well-known passages from the book of Luke and puts them into context of 1st century Israel.
I think we too often forget that the Bible, though I whole-heartedly believe it is the word of God, was not written with 21st century people in mind. It was written for the people of that day and age. There are nuances that we miss because our way of thinking and our way of life have changed dramatically over the last 2,000 years. That doesn't mean the Bible loses it's relevance to us... as if that were ever possible. But it does, unfortunately, mean that sometimes we miss the finer points of what the author was saying.
We see the same thing happen in modern day literature. You cannot take a book written for an American, with Americans and the topography of America in mind, translate it into Zwahili, take it to Africa and expect the reader to get all the nuances and treasures hidden by the author in the words. Sure, the reader could probably understand the large picture, the main theme if you will, of the book (just as we understand the larger picture and main themes of the Bible). But, street names, cities, landmarks, etc. would mean nothing to them. Slang would seem like nonsense. (Think... "Can you dig it?"; "Dude! That is sweet/dope/rad/bad/kick___/cool, etc."; "Chilax"; "I'm tired. I'm going to hit the sack", etc. etc. etc.) Portions of the book would make no sense - and that's taking it to someone in the same time period. Now, hold onto it for 2,000 years and see how much sense the translation makes.
Sometimes, you just have to dig deeper to fully understand something. And that is what this study is about.
The whole reason I wanted to write today was to share what struck me today... because I think it's something we (as Christians) need to think about.
The scripture is Luke 5:1-11 - it's where Jesus tells Peter that he will make him a fisher of men. To save you a lot of reading, (and me a lot of writting) I'm going to just give the bullet points that give this story more meaning. I'll leave it to you to reread the story with fresh eyes.
Important Points:
- Peter was fisherman (we all knew that). It was his livelyhood. If he didn't catch anything, he didn't eat.
- Peter had already seen Jesus' healing powers at work (see Luke 4:38-39)
- Peter ALWAYS fished at night because
- - the type of fishing net used in that time period were linen trammel nets
- - fish could see these nets in the water during the day, but not at night
- The nets had to be cleaned and completely dried after each use to prevent weakening
- Jesus request to use Simon's (Peter) boat comes at a very inconveient time (he'd been up all night, had not caught anything, the nets were still being cleaned and dried and possibly mended)
- fishing in the deep required 4 people
- The people of Galilee (those on the shore listening to Jesus as well as Peter's partners) would know that you only fished at night and would think anyone fishing during the day was a fool.
- If the nets were not fully dried, they would likely break.
- Jesus' request to fish in the deep puts Peter in the place of looking like a fool and possibly could cut off his source of income for several days due to damaged, unusable nets if he submits.
Lessons learned when reading this passage in context (quotes taken from directily from Doug Greenwold's book):
- "Our submission to Jesus during conflicted times always has transformational repercussions for those around us who are closely watching." (remember the people on the shore who saw this happen?)
- "...if Jesus can be trusted for the catch, He can certainly be trusted to bring that catch to shore."
- "[Jesus] frames the issue of submission right at Simon's core competency. Jesus does not direct the issue of submission at any of the peripheral areas of Simon's life, but brings it to bear at the one thing Simon knows best - fishing. Jesus knows that unless Simon submits and is broken at the one thing he knows and does best, the one thing he would always depend upon to provide for his needs, he will never become Peter, the rock, fully and fruitfully dependent upon God for everything."
- "Jesus uses this day-fishing lesson to pulverize Simon's fishing paradigm. The Gospels document a consistent pattern of Jesus pulverizing every religious and social paradigm that His disciples had been taught from their ealiest years to be 'true.' ...Everything these Twelve held to be 'right' in their religious culture was removed from them - pulverized before their very eyes. Jesus knew this was necessary if they ever were going to be useful in His inbreaking Kingdom of God."
The questions I find lingering in my mind today are these: What social or religious paradigms has God been trying to tear down in my life? Are those paradigms still there because I haven't submitted to God at the core of my being?
How about you?
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