Once Jesus was standing along the edge of Lake Gennesaret teaching God’s word and the crowd started pressing in around him so they could hear better. 2 Jesus noticed two boats sitting by the lake. (The fishermen had gone ashore to wash their nets.) 3 So Jesus hopped into one of the boats -- the one that belonged to Simon -- whom he then drafted to row him out a bit from the shore. Jesus sat in the boat and taught the crowds. 4 After he finished the lesson, he turned to Simon and instructed him, “Row out into the deep water and drop your nets. Let’s go catch some fish!”
5 Simon replied, “Master, we’ve worked our tails off all night and caught nothing -- zippo -- zilch. But if you say so -- we’ll try again.”
6 So they rowed out -- dropped the nets -- and soon the nets were bursting with fish -- literally -- they were starting to split under the weight. 7 The crew signaled for a second boat. And once their partners arrived both boats were quickly so full that they were starting to sink.
8 When Simon Peter saw the catch, he dropped to his knees in front of Jesus and said, “Lord, don’t get too close to me. I’m such a pathetic sinner!”
9-10 Peter and his posse (including Zebedee’s sons James and John) were blown away by the size of the catch.
Jesus responded to Simon, “I’ve got a new assignment for you. But you don’t need to fear the change. From now on, you’re going to be fishing for people -- rescuing them from drowning and into life.”
11 As soon as Peter and the guys got the boats to shore, they turned and walked away from it all -- boats, nets, fish pile, success... And they followed Jesus.
