Catches of Fish
Basic Info
Luke 5:1–11, John 21:1–14
Luke reports a miracle of a large catch of fish at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. John reports a similar miracle after Jesus’ Resurrection.
In the Lukan story, Jesus is teaching a crowd and asks a fisherman, Simon Peter, to take him out in the boat a short way so he can teach in a way that the whole crowd can hear him. When he is done teaching, Jesus tells Peter to pull out into deep water and lower the nets. Peter challenges Jesus a bit, saying that they had been out fishing all night and caught nothing (Can you imagine what he was actually thinking?). But Peter does as he is told and ends up with a huge catch. His willingness, first to take the stranger Jesus out on the boat and let him use it as a teaching podium and then to put the nets in the water, is his act of faith.
John tells of another unsuccessful night of fishing and Jesus’ standing on the shore, unrecognized at first by the seven disciples present. He tells them to lower their nets on the right side of the boat, which they do. The result is a huge catch that they can’t even haul into the boat. As soon as this occurs, John realizes that the person on shore must be Jesus. Peter swims to shore and the others come along in the boat, dragging the net. Jesus and the disciples then share a breakfast of fish.
What to Look For
- The interaction / relationship between Jesus and the disciples
- Jesus’ attitude
- The disciples’ attitudes
- The abundance of fishes
Questions to Focus a General Interpretation
Regardless of Peter’s words, his actions indicated faith. Does the artwork reflect this willingness to act even when the cognitive mind expresses doubt?
Does the artwork seem to emphasize more the faith, the power of God, or the abundance of new life in God?
Questions to Guide a Personal Interpretation
What good actions or practices have you undertaken that appear thus far to be fruitless? Does the artwork inspire you to double your efforts in some direction that God’s will would point you toward?
Questions to Suggest a Historical Interpretation
What actions of the Church or the populace might have seemed fruitless and unsuccessful in the artist’s place and time (e.g., the Crusades) but may have just needed one more burst of faith to break through to success? Could these have motivated the artwork?
