Fishing, Floating, Rising to the Lure
“As they were saying this, Jesus himself stood among them. But they were startled and frightened, and supposed that they saw a spirit.
And he said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do questionings rise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have.’
And while they still disbelieved for joy, and wondered, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.”
Luke 24:36-43
just floating on the water
left the fishing spot, and the geese nesting in peace
Why did Jesus go to fishers, to men and women who were part of an intensive regional fishing economy? They didn’t have much. What they had, they traded fish for. And they had fish, and they dipped into this commodity for their travel provisions for the journey to Jerusalem with Jesus.
Jesus appears to his disciples in his resurrection body, as told in this text read in worship during the Easter season. He recognizes their inner troubles, grief, confusion, and invites them to see and feel, to feel him with their hands no less, in order to know his true presence with them.
And he asks if they have food to eat. In the face of hungry, itinerant people, Jesus had once directed his disciples ‘you give them something to eat.’ (Matt 14:16; Mk 6:37; Luke 9:13) Now Jesus asks them to feed him. Why, I wonder. One reason may be that sharing such food among friends, partners in work and prayer, would be a most convincing sign, and heart-nourishing reality, for the disciples with the risen Lord. The disciples give Jesus a piece of fish, his share.
Why did Jesus go to fishermen, and other men and women involved in a region whose economy was so dependent upon commodity fishing? What did he see and love in the fishing habits of the net menders, fishing families and cooperators, fish transaction tax collectors and fishing-rights brokers, and other residents of towns like Magdala and Capernaum, making livings off the economy of a heavily exploited lake? Why did Jesus seek disciples and fellowship with them?
There are little bits that lure the mind and heart to wonder in the prophets, like this one from Jeremiah:
“Behold, I am sending for many fishers, says the Lord, and they shall catch them; and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks.” (Jer. 16:16)
The scholar KC Hanson describes the economic, political and technological world of Galilee fishing. He challenges biblical scholars and theologians on why this most evident reality about Jesus and the early disciples does not enter more biblical and theological scholarship.
In his essay, Hanson notes in passing a word Luke’s gospel writing that indicates Jesus worked among cooperative fishermen.
And when they had done this, they enclosed a great shoal of fish; and as their nets were breaking, they beckoned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. (Luke 5:6-7)
‘Partner’ suggests that Peter, Andrew, James and John were working within a customary and cooperative business arrangement. A worthwhile inquiry about the disciples should point in the direction of cooperative economics, or the collective management of common pool resources, as found in the work of Ostrom, Berkes or McKay. Something practical for life on earth might be gleaned from where Jesus made his home, sought disciples, began the forming his body the church: within a cooperative community of fishers, people part of the regional fishing economy, and its ecological and institutional world.
But this word ‘partner’ also points me in the direction of fellowship and friendship. Fellowship and friendship are currents moved by the upwellings and winds of divine love. Living, working, in fellowship and friendship and cooperation, with its difficult graces, makes us part of one another.
You can hear the burning, excelling love all through the 24th chapter of Luke. A heavenly ecology comes fearfully, joyfully near. The women at the tomb run to tell the other disciples that they have seen the Lord. Jesus meets two others on the road to Emmaus, asks as a stranger about their grief and the recent events, shares an evening table with them. He speaks peace amongst them, gives himself to be felt and known, shares final meals (even after ‘the last supper’) and opens their hearts and minds to the scriptures. Jesus’ love occurs in the bonds of fellowship and friendship. Such bonds of love can give new birth, freedom to be, living more truly and lovingly with the others, of whom we have become part.
The 13th century Christian Meister Eckhart must have meditated upon Jesus and the fishing habit of his disciples. They mostly fished with nets, though John’s gospel-writing refers to hook and line. And Eckhart speaks of hook and line in an arresting image of the love of God. (A big thank you to my friend, Dr. Emily Hein, for helping me locate the sermon where this is found.)
Eckhart addresses what is best for a person learning to trust in the presence and work of God within them, walking a more contemplative, unknown road of faith. Prayer, reflection, study, service, activism and advocacy, penance and self-denial won’t do them any good. At that point what helps most is trusting in God’s love. That love is given within the bonds of life here and now, when we become more able to live with a gentler and more loving heart. We do what we can, from love.
“That is why God lies in wait for us with nothing so much as love. Love is like a fisherman’s hook. Without the hook he could never catch a fish, but once the hook is taken the fisherman is sure of the fish.
…And so too I speak of love: he who is caught by it is held with the strongest of bonds and yet the stress is pleasant. He who takes this sweet burden on himself gets farther, and comes nearer, than he would by means of any harsh ordinance ever devised by man. Moreover, he can sweetly bear all that happens to him; all that God inflicts he can take cheerfully.
Nothing makes you God’s own, or God yours, as much as this sweet bond. When one has found this way, he looks for no other….
Therefore wait only for this hook and you will be caught up into blessing, and the more you are caught, the more you will be set free.
That we may all be so caught and set free, may He help us who is love itself. Amen.”
lures made by a friend
good for the next trip out