Almost all of us have driven by people fishing off of bridges, perhaps we’ve seen them in a small boat on a lake or pond, or on the end of a dock or pier. People who fish more than casually have their favorite “fishing holes” where they believe fish gather. They know the fish are there because they see the bubbles or tiny ripples on the surface of the water. But more importantly, seasoned fishermen can feel the presence of fish—they feel them in their bones when in the presence of fish. Many of these fishmen get up in the morning when it’s still dark, or they fish late into the evenings, especially if the moon is full, or a few days before and after a full moon. Or, during a new moon. It all depends where you get your information from. Others believe that fish are more likely to bite when it rains, so these poor souls hunker down under their ponchos. A fisherman will sit patiently for hours without a nibble, and when they do hook a fish, the long hours wiled away will have been well worthwhile. Fishermen (and women who fish) are tenacious and not easily discouraged.
As a Christian blogger, I can relate to fishing. I can spend long hours researching a topic or crafting it into a post that I think might be interesting, and I won’t have to drown a worm in the process. But after publishing it, I might not have even a nibble for the first few months. Then, another post from three years ago is suddenly and for some unknown reason very popular. Like a fishman, I may try different bait from time to time. My bait as a blogger is the topic or Scripture verse that I focus on. Occasionally, someone from another part of the world will contact me with some question or an encouraging word. But like a fisherman who talks wistfully about the “one that got away,” there has to be more than a creel full of trout to keep me hooked on the activity.
Fishermen understand the “long game” and they are patient. If a grandchild visits and joins them for the day, then they need for the child to catch a bluegill, perch or sunfish during the short time the child is there if the child is to ever fish later in life. That’s how instant gratification works. Delayed or deferred gratification comes with wisdom and over time. So, in a sense, a Christian blogger is fishing for souls. They fish for people hurting, who are lost in life with no hope.
In Matthew 4:19, Jesus says to His disciples “Come, follow me . . .and I will send you out to fish for people.” The word for “people” is preferred over other translations that use the word “men” because the Greek word that Matthew uses is anthrōpos, which does not strictly describe males, but both sexes of the human race. If Jesus meant to address his commission to males, the word would have been anḗr as opposed to gynḗ for female. Jesus, who was possibly familiar with both Hebrew and Greek, likely spoke Aramaic which was the vernacular among Jews in Judea and Samaria at the time. For the title of this post, I used the term “folk” to indicate the responsibility that every Christian has to evangelize.
Fishing for folk is most likely a lengthy process, since not everyone is immediately receptive to the message. So, this is a process that generally takes time. In I Corinthians 3:6, St Paul writes: “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.” Paul understood that someone who plants the seed of faith into another person’s heart may not actually see it sprout. And it may take years before it does if it does at all. And between planting the seed and harvesting a mature, fruit-bearing plant, someone must cultivate it, weed and water it. And finally, there is that moment in the wounded person’s life where everything comes together.
When I was much, much younger, I was part of a group planning for a Billy Graham rally. It was to be held in Washington or Baltimore if I recall correctly, but it doesn’t matter because both cities were easily a hundred miles away. And none of the dozen or so of us were even going. You know from having garage sales or some other event that publicity is important, so you get the notice out a good two weeks or even two months before the day of the event. In this case, countless groups were called to start two years in advance as they prepared for the crusade. It was wasn’t a planning group or a publicity committee. It was a prayer group. The ground that the stadium was on must to be prepared in a spiritual sense much as an army prepares a battlefield with artillery fire and other ordnance. I understood that dozens, perhaps a hundred or more groups were meeting and praying weekly for the success of the crusade. And then, on the day of the event, after the hype and the music and personality testimonies of famous people, sports heroes, pop singers, etc. the evangelist walked to the podium. Maybe more than 250 out of a stadium of 45,000 attendees become Christians that day. Maybe only 25. It is not about numbers and nor should it be a numbers game. And this is the same with fishing. If all a person wants to do is bring home fish, tossing some M-80 firecrackers into a school of fish would bring enough stunned fish to the surface to feed your family for a week. But that’s not how a true sports person fishes and God does not intend to blow you up in the process, either!
Early Christians were compared to fish soon after the time of Jesus. Partly it was because fishing was such a huge industry, and most people in the mid-east and Europe knew of or ate fish, either fresh, salted, or dried. Several of the disciples were fishermen, so that was a point of reference to them. Then, there was the Greek word for fish (Ichthus);
“The ichthys is also an acronym for “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior” (Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ) in Greek. Each letter of the Greek word ICHTHUS corresponds to the initial letters of these words: I = Iēsoûs (Jesus), X = Khristos (Christ), Θ = Theoû (God’s), Υ = Huiós (Son), and Σ = Sōtḗr (Saviour.[1]”
Early Christians during times of persecution might absently draw a fish-shaped outline in the sand with their toe while talking to a stranger along the road in order to discern whether that person was a fellow believer or not. Was he or she friend or foe? If you assumed that Christians were like fish in some metaphorical sense, then it did not take a big leap of faith to view the Holy Spirit as the water in which we all thrive, and to be removed from that medium means certain death, at least spiritually speaking.
Back in Jesus’ time, full time fishermen used nets on the Sea of Galilee, or perhaps when fishing on the Mediterranean. It was not cost effective to stand on the shore or in a boat with a pole catching fist one-by-one if you planned to sell them at the market. Today, it is not cost effective or even possible for a single fisherman to be able to catch fish with a net. When someone takes a one-on-one approach to sharing the Gospel, we call that personal evangelism. And whoever finds the lure on your line to be irresistible may ultimately fare better than someone who responds to an altar call in church, depending on the degree of follow-up (See my post on fish camps.)
These men and women who fish day in and day out pay no attention to what is happening in the world around them. They tend to be single-minded. They don’t know what the current inflation rate is, or the name of the Vice-President of the U.S. They may not be able to find Ukraine, Greenland or North Korea on a map or know how to tie a Full Windsor knot. But they are focused on what they do. In some sense, fishermen are almost timeless, wizened by the elements and hardened, like the ancient mariner in Coleridge’s Rine.) Days quickly become weeks and then months. Months become seasons of which simply means they may need to change their clothing to keep cool or warm as the climate dictates.
If you are a Christian, you should find out what role you have in the Kingdom of God if it is possible to know. You need not ask God to reveal to you whether you should share His love and forgiveness with those around you, because His Word already says you should! Once you find the place to be, then dig yourself and cast your rig far and wide.
[1] AI