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When people went fishing in the time when Jesus was on earth, they mostly used fishing nets. When you think of fishing, you probably think about a hook on the end of a long string that catches one fish at a time (if you are lucky). But fishing with a net is different.
Have you ever gone to the pet store to get a new fish for a pet? If you have, you probably remember that the clerk in the store went over to a large aquarium full of fishes and asked you which one you wanted. Then she took a little net on the end of a long handle and dipped it into the aquarium. You pointed to the fish that you wanted, and she chased it around the aquarium for a while untill she caught it. While she was chasing your fish, she probably had to shake several other fishes out of the net. The other fish were crowded around your fish, and the net caught them too!
Maybe you have gone to the creek in the spring to catch tadpoles. You could see the tadpoles in the creek, but you still had to chase them around with your little net, and when you scrapped the bottom, you would probably get some sand or pebbles or twigs in the net along with the tadpoles.
In our story here, some fishermen went out in a boat and dropped a real big net down into the lake. They wanted to catch many fish, not just one. Because the lake they were fishing on was deep and not very clear like the aquarium in the pet store, they couldn't see the fish they wanted. When the fishermen in our story pulled the net back up, it had many fish in it. Some of the fish were the tasty kind they wanted to take home, but there were also many fishes in the net that they did not want to eat. Maybe there was even some seaweed, pieces of grass, or even an old boot in there! So the fishermen had to sit on the beach and separate the fishes in their net. The good, tasty ones they put into baskets and took home for their dinner. But the fish that were not tasty, or the other junk that got into the net had to be taken out and thrown away.
When Jesus asked Peter to come with Him, He said: Come with me and I will make you fishers of men.
You remember the song from Sunday school. You see, Peter and his brother James were fishermen just like the guys in the story! But when they went to work for Jesus, He wanted them to catch people, not fish.
Jesus told His disciples this story to tell them what they should do for Him. The fishermen are people like us who want to work for Jesus. The net stands for the good teaching from God that we find in the Bible. The fish that we catch are those people who listen to the words of the Bible and come with us to Sunday school or fellowship. We don't know who God will want to go home with Him. When Jesus returns to set up HIS Kingdom, HIS angels will separate the people HE wants to come home with HIM. We should never try to decide who HE will want. We should treat everybody we meet as if God wanted him or her. And no, silly, God doesn't take the people HE chooses home for lunch! He takes them home to live with HIM forever!
Fishers of Men
I will make you fishers of men,
Fishers of men, fishers of men,
I will make you fishers of men,
If you follow Me.
If you follow Me, if you follow Me,
I will make you fishers of men,
If you follow Me.