Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 108 · April 18
At Thy Word
“And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.”
The lake of Gennesaret, just after sunrise, and the nets are being washed. That is what men do when the night's work is finished and the verdict on it is already in.
Jesus had borrowed one of the boats, Simon's, and pushed out a little way to teach the crowd off the water. Then, with no warning and no obvious authority in the matter, he stops teaching and gives a fishing instruction. Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. A carpenter, telling professional fishermen where the fish are, at the wrong end of the day.
Simon's answer is worth reading slowly. Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net. He tells the truth about the night first and does not dress it up, and he offers no expectation of anything different. Master, there, is a word Luke alone uses, the ordinary term for whoever is in charge of a job. Then the hinge: nevertheless. A decision made without a prediction and without any burst of confidence.
What follows breaks the nets and starts sinking two boats, and Simon's reaction is not delight. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. He says Master in one verse and Lord in the next, and the first thing the miracle produces in him is a request to be left alone. Fear not, comes back. From henceforth thou shalt catch men.
Nevertheless is available to you today, and it costs nothing you have. You are welcome to say it with no feeling behind it at all, over the thing you have already given up on, and let down the net one more time.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 108 is Trust without Fear (Isaiah 12:2).