"Put down your nets": Jesus' call to obey him even when it doesn't make sense

One of the most subtle temptations followers of Jesus face is the tendency to filter his commands through a lens of what makes the most sense. We too often look at what God tells us to do and then decide whether to obey based on what seems best to us.

Why do we do this? Because we don’t think that some of Jesus’ commands seem particularly wise, practical, or possible. His teachings challenge our expectations and leave us saying, “How could obeying this ever make my life any better?”

But if you filter Jesus’ commands through a grid of what feels rational and reasonable, you’ll never experience the abundant life of God’s kingdom. God operates at a higher level than us, which means we need to trust him even when obedience makes no sense.

A miraculous catch

Jesus displays this principle during the disciples’ miraculous catch of fish. In Luke 5, Jesus was in a boat with Simon Peter and some others, having just finished teaching the people from the seashore. He then told them, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”

Simon Peter, the owner of the boat, had to break the bad news to their new rabbi. “Master,” he said, “We toiled all night and took nothing!”

You can imagine the look in Peter’s eyes as he tried to warn Jesus about the futility of his request. Peter was a professional fisherman who knew the Sea of Galilee, and this new teacher, who had spent his life as a carpenter, was telling him how to fish? Didn’t he understand there was nothing to catch?

But in a credit to Peter’s mustard seed of faith, he was willing to complete the assignment and humor Jesus. “But at your word,” he said, “I will put down the nets.”

What happened next surprised everyone in the boat, other than Jesus. When they drew their nets back up, they’d caught so many fish that the nets were breaking. So they signaled for help from their fishing partners, and filled both boats until they started to sink.

Jesus performed this miracle again, this time after the resurrection, at the end of his earthly ministry. This second time, which is recorded in John 21, the disciples had been out fishing all night but hadn’t caught a thing.

Then, a mysterious man called out from the shore, “Have you caught any fish?” When the disciples replied no, he said, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.”

Again, what a strange command! How could switching the side of your boat make any difference at all? All of us know that that’s not how fishing works.

But God provided another miraculous catch, as the disciples caught 153 fish, which again overwhelmed their boat. They then recognized that it was Jesus and went onto the shore to have breakfast with him.

So what’s the point?

So what’s the point of these miracles? Jesus is trying to teach us how our obedience connects us to the unfathomable abundance of God’s kingdom. When you obey God, your simple obedience becomes the channel through which his power can flow.

You see, Jesus wants his disciples, and us, to understand that he has the power to do more than we could ever imagine. That’s why Jesus first does this miracle when he calls the disciples to ministry, and again when he’s about to send them out on their own. Jesus wants to show them that overwhelming spiritual fruit is possible if they’re willing to surrender to divine power, rather than cling to human ingenuity.

And so we’re called to obey Jesus, no matter what he asks us to do, so he can bring his kingdom through us. We don’t obey so that we’ll earn God’s favor in some quid pro quo arrangement, but because it opens us up to be the avenue of God’s kingdom abundance.

Our problem, like the disciples, is that we don’t believe that God wants to do much in this world. God seems distant and stingy, and we doubt that he is either capable or desirous of making big things happen on his behalf.

Because of this, we try to bring about spiritual fruit through our own ways, whether it’s social power or money or cleverness or technique, and then ask God to bless it.

But that’s not how God works. He wants us to obey his commands, even when they seem irrational, so that he can manifest his power in a way that he gets all of the glory.

We assume that God’s kingdom operates like an earthly kingdom, bound by what we can rationally understand and expect. In reality, though, God’s kingdom is a supernatural kingdom that’s not bound by the limitations of our human minds. God’s power works in God’s ways to usher forth God’s version of abundant life.

That’s why Jesus gives the disciples such large catches of fish. Fifteen fish would’ve given them more than enough food for breakfast. But Jesus was making a point: when he said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly,” he meant it!

A constant theme

We see this principle of simple obedience happen over and over in the Bible. When God’s people obey his strange and impractical commands, he does incredible things on their behalf.

Whether it’s the Israelites crossing the Jordan River by stepping into it, the widow who saved her sons from slavery through her miraculous jar of oil,¹ Naaman cleansing himself from leprosy by dipping in the Jordan River, or the servants at the wedding in Cana who filled the jars with water, these people followed God’s simple commands, even when they seemed foolish. But because of that, they were blessed with kingdom abundance.

The same thing can happen in our lives. When we surrender our lives in obedience to God’s commands, we become a conduit by which God works in the world. We shouldn’t judge God’s strange commands, but like Peter, should respond, “But because you said so, we will put down the nets.”

To respond like this, we need to believe three things about God:

1. That God has unlimited power and control over his creation.

2. That God wants to partner with us to build his kingdom.

3. That God doesn’t work in the ways we think he should.

When we trust God and believe that these three things are true, we can understand what Paul says in Ephesians 3:

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.

Where is Jesus calling you to obey?

So I invite you to consider: where is Jesus asking you to “put down your nets” in impractical obedience to him? Is it with your time, your energy, your money, your talents, your relationships, or your future?

I have to admit, working with disabled people one-on-one full-time is how I’m putting down my nets right now. From a rational standpoint, it doesn’t make any sense to spend the prime earning years of my life in a job that doesn’t offer more comfortable money, higher social standing, or greater opportunities for success.

But I believe this job is how God wants me to obey him in this season of life, despite how foolish it appears to my peers.

I’m not sharing this to get your pats on the back, but to provide an example of how this struggle is playing out in my life. I look at my paycheck and murmur, “God, this sure doesn’t seem smart,” but I’m trusting that my obedience will lead to his kingdom abundance.

Remember, our role isn’t to determine whether God’s commands make sense, but to trust him and respond in obedience. Because if you filter God’s commands through your lens of what’s reasonable, then you become an authority over God, and make him just your advisor.

So if you want to experience the abundant life of God’s kingdom, obey the nudges that God puts on your heart. You never know how God will use your simple acts of obedience as a conduit for his kingdom power.

1. This story from 2 Kings 4 is less familiar, but it illustrates the principle well. A widow told the prophet Elisha that she was deeply in debt and that her creditors were going to take her two sons as slaves for repayment. Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.” What a strange command. But after she collected every jar she could find, the oil from her jar miraculously filled every jar in her home, allowing her to sell the oil, repay her debts, and save her two sons.