Suggested Scripture: Luke 5: 1- 11
Scripture Emphasis: Luke 5:11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.
It has long been said, “that the darkest hour is the hour before the dawn.”The darkest hour” has been used figuratively to describe ‘ the lowest ebb in human affairs.’ There are many conditions present in Simon Peter’s life that might well place him, according to this scripture account, at his lowest ebb. Peter is not devoid of religious consciousness at the time he has his first physical encounter with Jesus here.
One’s encounter with things eternal is never dependent upon any physical vessel. It is God who chooses when to make His Presence known within a human being. No person is ever a purely physical entity, ” And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.”( Genesis 2:7)
” Religion goes back to the beginning of culture itself, and the spiritual is that which makes us human.”
Simon Peter is of the Jewish faith. He would have been conversant, in at least some of the topics of the Old Testament, as Jesus was. Granted, not to the same intensity as Jesus was, yet in the way most Jewish people were. In truth, there was too much of a consciousness of God for Simon Peter to dismiss God from his thoughts completely.” What does God want with me? Is the fact that I toiled all night with my partners, and got nothing to show for it, a possible sign of something more, encroaching upon decisions already made? Have I set my horizon to end on the fishing ground, when there is something beyond that horizon that God is waiting for me to undertake?” A million such questions battered at the door of his soul. As it often is still, it is a deep-rooted fear that keeps him from answering that door. Fear is darkness! And inner darkness breeds graver fears! The darkness creeps at snail-pace towards the dawn!
Happily, for Simon Peter, the fishing nets demand his immediate attention. Paying close attention to the washing of his fish-nets provide a distraction from what was happening on the beach in front of him. Peter could see on the faces of many of his fellow townspeople, that the young Prophet’s teaching was enlightening them. In truth there it was, the very thing he longed for; Someone to bring light to the darkness of his inner self! ” But, I am not that kind of man,” he quickly interjects, as he seeks to defend his inner darkness from a straying sun-beam. And the darkness grows darker.” Who knows what will happen to you, Peter, if you join in with that beach crowd?” a sinister voice from within insists.” Would you substitute your fishing partners whom you have known for years, for any of those, you see there; and Peter, for WHAT? A career change; Peter, what will become of your family?” And ‘the dark night of the soul’ grows darker still! Then, while the doors and windows into Peter’s inner sanctum are strongly fortified, Jesus comes and speaks to him! From among all that company present at the sea-shore, Jesus picks the one who deliberately tries to avoid his attention. Jesus climbs on board of Peter’s boat with him.
The crowds on the shore grow yet larger in number, but Peter knows, it was just the two of them now: Peter and Jesus, Jesus and Peter. However, the keeper of the darkness is not yet prepared to relinquish his prize. The darkness intensified with every passing second. ” Peter, are you not being forced to play the part of a fool? Everybody knows that you must depend upon only what is given to you by this world. All of this talk of Jesus, about the Father supplying our needs, is just that, “talk.” What you see is what you get, man! Open your eyes and see!” “Peter, let’s go fishing! Let’s go out into the deeper water, and put down the nets, and catch fish! ,” said Jesus, piercing Peter’s reverie. There is a moment of intense silence! Never in his entire life does Peter struggle more intensely with the self-evident, undeniable fact. ” There is nothing out there! What You see is what we caught this whole night!” comes Peter’s muffled response. And the keeper of the darkness smiles his insidious smile. “But since You asked me,” says Peter,” I will go!”
Now I believe that it is Jesus’ deliberate intention to demonstrate, first to the tempter, and secondly to Peter, that God has more treasures hidden beneath the surface of what is visible than one can ever know until he surrenders to Him. The catch, resulting from what seemed to be the lifeless sea, sends fingers of the dawn into the eastern sky!
But the ruler of the darkness makes one more brutal assault to immortalize the indecisive darkness that envelopes Peter. From deep inside himself, words, as heavy as lead slowly escape Peter’s lips: ” Jesus, I am not worthy of all of this! I am a sinful man. Depart from me.”
But Peter meets the thrust of the demonic with the drive of the divine!
The darkest hour is shot through by a shaft of golden sunlight. Peter never witnessed a more beautiful sunrise on the Sea of Galilee in all his life than this morning’s; and he heard Jesus say: ” Neither do I condemn you, rise and let us go and we will catch people together.”
A PRAYER TO FOLLOW THIS MEDITATION
Father,
Heaven’s dawn announces a new beginning.
Even though the darkness determines to hold on to the hills, and to creep with intensity into the valleys below; You speak emphatically, ” Let there be Light,” and behold the darkest hour is fear-mongering no more.
Your newly commanded sun concentrates its brilliant beams so as to shine directly into my soul, and behold, Your light offers to dance with me, to welcome a day of rich new experience!
Upon the walls of my soul’s ‘inner sanctum,’ I am hanging the picture of my return from my own far country, and thereby will daily remind myself of Your love that makes this miracle mine. (see Luke 15:11 – 32)
Now, Father, may that same love be the driving force to carry me out into the world where there are people still wrestling with the darkest hour. Make me, my Father, a true herald of the coming dawn. For the sake of Your love, I pray. Amen
HYMN: O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go
EDITORIAL NOTES
- A careful reading of the suggested Scripture may prove helpful in more fully understanding the meditation.
- PHOTO: I am deeply indebted to my friend William Tibbo, of Grand Bank, Newfoundland, for this moving image.