Put Out Into Deep Water

What depths are you afraid to face in your heart?

A voice says to Peter: cast out into the deep. The deep? Peter hesitates. He’s cast his net there before. It’s dark, cold, and empty. At the brink of despair, Peter objects “We’ve worked hard all night and have caught nothing…” But in the darkness of his doubt, a flicker of hope stirs within him; dim, but willing. “But at your command I will lower the net.” He lowers his net. Down to the depths. To the ugliness, to the darkness, to the shame and pain.

But as he tugs the rope for the pull, he can sense that something’s changed. He pulls, and the ropes resist. He keeps pulling. The net stretches and groans. His hands sting as the rope cuts into his skin. Finally, with the boat nearly capsized, he raises up an overwhelming catch, more than he has ever caught in his life.

But before such mercy, Peter sees the fallout of his sin. His poor little net, frayed from years of scraping the seafloor, tears thread by thread as it carries the weight of such a great catch. He’s exposed. He falls to his knees and confesses in shame: Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. Who could look at the wreckage of his soul and see his worth? Who could see his face and still find it worthy of love? Jesus. Looking down at him with his tender eyes, he says: “Do not be afraid. From now on you will be catching men.” Jesus takes his tattered net, and claims it for the next catch.

Do not be afraid to cast into the deep. Cast into the depths of your heart, with all its uncomeliness, and pull up the fount of mercy that Jesus has planted there. Let it tear up your wounded heart, because your God wants to heal you. Cast out into the deep, and listen to the words of Jesus: “Do not be afraid.”

Image: Raphael, The Miraculous Draught of Fishes, 1515, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons