Monday 27 July 2015

Psalm: Psalm 50

Background

The writer places this among a number of stories about Jesusteaching and healing, and people being very impressed. He isdefinitely the current celebrity to see and hear. So he needs somespace and some sort of platform to cope with the crowd. He relieson folk he already knows a little (see Luke4:38 for instance), but takes it for granted that theseexhausted men will respond. They have been working all night, andhave just got in, as it were, and presumably want to clear up andgo home.

This is also one version of how Jesus called his firstdisciples, within a context of work and crowds and semi-publicteaching, not during individual conversations, as some of the othergospel writers appear to imply. So their willingness to do what hesays is made public.

Presumably, then, this miracle is not meant to help us thinkabout how these fishermen might be helped in their daily work ifthey respond to Jesus. But if it is about their possible future, itmight explain Peter's fairly extreme reaction. Certainly, it mightinvite the reader to consider how just this one episode revealedthe power of the presence of God seen in Jesus.

In terms of the immediate nature of the response to follow, I amalways left wondering who dealt with the catch - and clearing upthe nets and the boats. Poor deserted Zebedee, or the employees,who were probably even more tired that the brothers and theirfriends?

To Ponder

• Have you ever walked away from a task others expected you todeal with, because you felt profoundly called to something else?What did that feel like?

• Or do you always finish what you start? If so, how do you feelabout those who walk away - and about yourself?