Summary

On a summer afternoon in AD 27 in the busy fishing town of Capernaum, Galilee, Jesus searches for a specific boat, and upon finding the empty vessel, he enters and waits for a fisherman in his early twenties who is named Simon. Simon met Jesus the previous summer where Jesus called him and his brother, Andrew, to be “fishers of men” (page 137), but their commitment to Jesus flagged in comparison to their familial responsibilities.

Having come to the right place for an audience, Jesus orders Simon to anchor offshore, and from there, Jesus regales the crowd with his insightful words. When Jesus tells Simon to cast his nets in deep water, Simon objects since his nets have been empty, but unable to say no, he heads to deeper waters, and soon, his nets break from the weight of so many fish.

Falling to his knees...