THE FISHING STORY YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW
My time with Momo and his crew on the boat proves invaluable, yet I glean as much from sitting on the shore, watching men cast nets along the docks and rocks, observing the changing weather patterns, and interacting with those who fish when they return to the harbor.
Before visiting Israel, the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Tiberias and Lake of Gennesaret in the Gospels, always sounded enormous to me. One rare lazy afternoon during my visit, I drive its perimeter in an hour. Afterward, Ido gushes that he knows “a fox of a driver” who can do it in twenty-seven minutes.
Jesus could have settled anywhere after leaving Nazareth. Yet he claims the shores of this harp-shaped lake as home. Here he launches his earthly ministry amid the boats and harbors. He handpicks fishermen as his first disciples. Jesus asks his followers to give their most valuable possessions: their livelihoods. Their boats, once used for profitable businesses, transform into floating pulpits and provide much-needed transportation. The nets now do more than form a wall for fish; they break down walls in people’s hearts. The linen netting becomes an instrument for expanding people’s understanding of the power of God.
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Table Discovery: If you live in a land-locked area and don’t have access to fresh fish, then shop for flash frozen fish that’s processed on the boat where it’s caught. The vacuum-packed fish stores well in the freezer until you’re ready to eat. For the best flavor, defrost the fish on the day you plan to enjoy it.
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One of the questions I most enjoy asking fishermen is about their best catch ever. Momo recalls an afternoon when his crew set their nets near Lido and worked all day. By evening, they brought in 2.1 tons of fish—the most he’s ever seen. Ido describes hauling in a 670-pound tuna from the depths of the Mediterranean with his handmade gaff. Fishermen, by nature, are people whose big fish tales spread fast. No wonder so many fish miracles fill the Gospels.
Yet it’s our doctor friend, Luke, who paints the most detailed pictures of how Jesus interrupted life on the shores of the Galilee.
After a long night’s work, a fishing crew returns to the harbor in the mornings. Without access to modern, clear, synthetic netting, they depend on a cotton-based linen for net-making. The white strands are easily detectable to the fish in daylight hours, so the men always venture out at night. In Luke’s story, the men return at dawn without any fish.
For fishermen, the return to port doesn’t end when the boat docks. They must still wash, mend, and dry the nets to prevent mildew. Then they wrap them in a sheltering cloth to prevent sun damage.
In this instance, Jesus approaches and the fishing boats sit empty. The crewmen busy themselves repairing and washing the nets on shore. Jesus climbs into an unoccupied vessel and asks Simon Peter to push out the boat. Then he instructs, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”
Remember, the disciples have already worked all night. They know it’s a waste of time and energy to set a linen dragnet during the day.
“But because you say so, I will let down the nets,” Simon Peter obliges.
One of the empty gourds, commonly used as floaters in antiquity, bobbles in the water. The men perk with excitement. Soon all the floaters dance. Peter flashes the signal to retrieve the net. Fish wiggle in the webbing until they create frays. Some lucky fish scoot away.
Simon Peter calls out to his partners, the sons of Zebedee, for extra hands. Soon both vessels become so weighed down with the enormous catch, they take on water. They return to shore with the most lucrative haul of their entire lives. Simon Peter can’t believe his eyes. The unlimited power of God displays itself in the nets, and even more in the person before him. He falls at Jesus’s knees and begs for his life. “Master, leave. I’m a sinner and can’t handle this holiness. Leave me to myself.”
Jesus refuses to budge and assures Peter that in the wake of his power there’s nothing to fear: he’s not going anywhere. Once ashore, Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John leave everything and follow Jesus.
We read this famous fishing story today with the advantage of knowing that those boats and nets will serve a purpose again. But in the moment, the disciples believe they’re leaving them forever. They give up their transportation, their livelihoods, their futures, not to mention the biggest catch of their lives. They’ve just won the fishing lottery, but they leave it behind for something far better. Scripture doesn’t tell us who cashed in that astounding catch. But the disciples’ sacrifices become the very things Jesus uses to display his power and glory. This is the first miracle the disciples witness in their boats. The Son of God unleashes his power in the midst of their daily routine, their daily work, their daily chores.
Because this mighty act occurs far from us on a map, we can start to think God prefers to move in faraway places. We can fall into the belief that God performs his greatest works in other locations, in other people, in other situations. We forget that Jesus wants to show up in our lives—here, now, today.
The disciples’ stories remind us this isn’t a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. Throughout their travels with Jesus, they encounter so many remarkable displays of God’s power they can’t write them all down.
So it’s no surprise that Jesus makes his grand exit in a similar fashion as his entrance. After his death and resurrection, the original fishermen return to their familiar livelihoods.
In the final chapter of John’s Gospel, Peter and the Zebedee brothers fish all night but catch nothing. Once again, Jesus comes to people disappointed in their work. Jesus calls from the shores of the Galilee to his friends who don’t recognize him. He instructs them to throw their nets into the water, this time on the right side of the boat, perhaps because they’re already in deep water.
The gourds dance, the nets overflow, and a few fish scuttle away.
The Gospel of John describes that after the fishermen haul their nets to shore, Jesus greets them with breakfast on the beach. One can imagine the allure of fresh baked bread and fish broiled over charcoal wafting through the air. Jesus asks the disciples to bring some of their catch, not because he doesn’t have enough, but because he has something else in mind.
I always thought the early-morning breakfast lesson was that even though God has everything, we are still invited to be participatory givers. While this remains true, after my time on the Galilee, I see it anew.
The disciples haul their seine nets ashore but still have hours of work ahead to disentangle all the fish, wash, mend, and dry their nets. Yet they leave their nets for an opportunity to break bread with the Bread of Life.
Only one disciple responds to Jesus’s request for more fish. The last time this disciple saw Jesus, he stood near a charcoal fire, too—and proceeded to deny Jesus three times.
Proud as ever, Peter refuses to repeat the same mistake.
“So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn.”
When Peter returns to the boats, he doesn’t disentangle fish from the nets already on shore. Instead, he climbs into the boat and likely reaches for a new net—a cast net, which is the only kind of net that can be handled by one man. He tosses it in the water and hauls in more than a gross of large fish, and among them his namesake, the St. Peter’s Fish.
Mendel Nun, a fishing expert in this region, suggests there were multiple catches on that day. The first catch with the disciples and the second catch with Peter. Catching that many fish with different methods layers miracle on miracle.
Peter experiences Jesus’s voltage in his life again through the abundant catch. These miracles provide the set-up for Peter’s warm embrace and recommissioning by Christ.
Just as the disciples’ first miraculous catch ushers them into an unforgettable journey with Christ, so too these catches launch them into uncharted adventure as faithful followers.
SURROUNDED BY MORE MIRACLES THAN Y
OU REALIZE?
On my final morning in Israel, I climb out of bed in darkness and make my way to the docks as the sun rises over the hillside. The birds, with their high shrills and steady chirps, form a choir in a nearby tree. Seagulls circle the harbor and pause mid-flight to make the occasional dive. A dog’s bark echoes in the distance.
I realize that I had to uncurl my fingers from the trip I envisioned to make space for the adventure God had preplanned all along. I don’t like being out of control—who does, really?—yet accepting our powerlessness is a sacred discipline.
When I relinquished, God flooded in and made himself known. I suspect he wants to do that a lot more than I allow. He longs to display his power and might in our lives, but he won’t kick us off the throne if we’re committed to wearing the crown of control.
The Sea of Galilee exudes a calmness that stills my soul. My eyes wander along the emerald coast. This is more than a spot where water meets land: it’s where heaven intersected earth; where Jesus displayed the power of God to mere mortals.
To the north, Jesus once fed five thousand with five bricks of barley and a pair of sardines. A few miles away he repeated the miracle for four thousand.
A little further and Peter caught the carp that provided the temple tax.
My eyes scan the lake where Jesus calmed wicked storms, not once but twice. And upon these waters, Jesus strolled with ease.
I’m surrounded by grand displays of God’s power. This landscape is marked by the miraculous in every direction.
This is easy to recognize when you’re beside the Galilee, overlooking the waters where Jesus lived. But the experience isn’t limited to people with the time and resources to make the trek to Israel.
Christ wants us to see these vistas in our daily lives. He wants us to awaken to all the places God unleashes mightiness—in our past and present, so we can look forward to a faith-filled future.
The provision supplied. The storms calmed. The relationships restored.
I catch this panorama in the ways God has sustained Leif and me. I remember the faces of those God has brought into my life to quell the pangs of loneliness. I look back to the many moves in my life and see how Jesus met and grew me through each one. I also remember the dark seasons, such as when the storm of financial ruin struck our lives; though it took years to repay, God provided all along the way. Then a cancer diagnosis that broke my body and my will, but even in that, God breathed new life.
If you look at your life through this panoramic lens, you’ll recognize the powerful displays of God’s presence through it all.
But if you stop looking to Jesus as your powerhouse, you may start thinking God is overlooking you, ignoring you, or worse yet, punishing you. If you close your eyes too long to God’s presence, you may convince yourself that somehow God has rejected you, or worse, has abandoned you altogether. You’ll grow deaf to the One who calls from the shore, the One who wants to fill your nets with the impossible and unimaginable.
Yet if you search your everyday life for the presence of Christ, you’ll begin to see the extra provision, extra might, extra grace that he’s slipping you. The way he provides an unexpected compliment from a friend. Or a familiar face that you weren’t expecting in a crowded place. Or a breathtaking sunset. These displays of God’s power are good and beautiful, like the fish the disciples caught. But the greatest miracle remains the One who sent them.
It’s holy irony that the first letters of the Greek words “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior” form the word ichthys, meaning “fish” in Greek.
That’s one reason early believers, amid persecution, chose the fish as their secret symbol. The common image didn’t raise any suspicions yet carried the memories of Christ’s power and calling to become “fishers of men.” Archaeologists have discovered pictures of fish carved in the stone and painted on the walls where early Christ-followers gathered and prayed in secret.
It’s even said that when a believer met a stranger in the road, the Christ-follower might draw an arc of a simple fish in the dirt. If the stranger drew the other arc to complete the fish, both knew they were in safe company.
For them and for us, the fish reminds us to live on high alert for the power of Christ to invade our daily lives in something as basic and everyday as our food.
The sun rises higher, and I know my time is coming to a close. I drag my finger through the sand of the shore, forming a fish. Thank you, God, for your power, I whisper.
When it’s time to depart, I give Ido a bear hug to thank him for his hospitality. He seems sad to see me leave.
“I hope you got what you came for, Margaret,” he offers.
“I got all I needed and so much more,” I reply. “Only God could have orchestrated such an adventure.”
And so it is with us all.
AROUND THE TABLE
At the end of each chapter, you’ll find a simple activity to share around the table after a meal with friends, family, and soon-to-be friends.
For this chapter’s activity, find an outline of the Sea of Galilee that you can photocopy, one per person. (If you’d like to download a free printable map to photocopy, simply visit www. margaretfeinberg.com/tasteandsee.) Now imagine you’re sitting on the bank, looking around the coast at the miracles that Jesus has done in your life. People you met. Jobs you landed. Provision you needed. Healing you desired. Grace you experienced. On the map, note places around the lake where Jesus has displayed his power in your life. Then share some of these miracles with one another.
MOM’S ALMOND-CRUSTED TILAPIA
I grew up on a boat, and this fall-apart-in-your-mouth fish recipe will become a family favorite. Best served with roasted veggies or steamed rice.
PREP: 10 minutes COOK: 4 minutes COOL: none
4 tilapia filets
1 egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water
½ cup ground almonds
½ cup panko
¼ cup grated Parmesan
½ teaspoon garlic salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
lemon and parsley for garnish
DIRECTIONS
1.Mix almonds, panko, parmesan, and garlic salt in small bowl.
2.Dip filets in egg mix. Press coating onto fish.
3.Sauté in olive oil and butter on one side until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Turn and cook another 2 minutes.
4.Garnish with lemon and parsley and enjoy.
Serves 2–4.
LEIF’S BAKED HALIBUT
My husband, Leif, is from Sitka, Alaska, and has cooked fish countless ways. This tasty recipe is best served with fresh vegetables, salad, and rice or baked potato.
PREP: 10 minutes COOK: 25 minutes COOL: 2 minutes
1-pound halibut filet, divided into four pieces
¼ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup Dijon mustard
½ cup grated cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste
DIRECTIONS
1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2.Rinse fish, then salt and pepper both sides of the filets.
3.Mix mayonnaise and mustard.
4.Spray baking pan with oil. Place fish skin side down. Spread the mayonnaise and mustard mixture over the top of the fish. Sprinkle cheese evenly over the four pieces of fish.
5.Bake between 18–23 minutes until cheese melts and starts to brown. Fish should flake easily with a fork.
Serves 2–3.
LEIF’S SPICY SMOKED SALMON DIP
This tasty dip is best served with a variety of your favorite fresh veggies and bagel chips, made into a sandwich, or just eaten with a fork.
PREP: 10 minutes (more depending on veggies served with the dip) COOK: noneCOOL: none
8 ounces of cream cheese
4 ounces of smoked salmon (not canned in oil)
½ cup of plain Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice
3 green onion sliced (reserve the whites for another use)
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bsp; ½ diced jalapeño or Sriracha sauce to taste
salt and pepper to taste
bread, crackers, or veggies to serve
DIRECTIONS
1.Using an electric mixer, blend the cream cheese until smooth.
2.Add the remaining ingredients and mix using a fork until well blended.
3.Taste and then season with salt and pepper and additional jalapeño or Sriracha.
4.Chill and then serve with bread, crackers, or veggies.
Makes 1 ½ pints.
WES’S GRILLED FISH TACOS WITH BAJA SLAW
Fish tacos are a great addition to your weekly menu. They provide a fun and nutritious way to introduce kids to fish and consume healthy Omega-3s.
PREP: 45 minutes COOK: 15 minutes COOL: none
FISH:
1 pound of favorite fish (tilapia, snapper, or whatever is fresh or flash frozen)
2tablespoons taco seasoning
2 tablespoons olive oil
BAJA SLAW:
3cups shredded cabbage
½ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup of sour cream
2 tablespoons Sriracha
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon taco seasoning
TACO TOPPINGS:
1 8-ounce jar pico de gallo
salt and pepper to taste
Package of 6-inch corn tortillas
1 lime cut into 4 wedges
8 ounces shredded Mexican-style cheese
DIRECTIONS
1.To prepare the fish, pat dry with a paper towel and cut the filets into strips approximately 1 inch wide and 5 inches long. Add 2 tablespoons of your favorite taco seasoning and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Mix gently to evenly coat all sides of the strips. Let sit for 15 minutes.
2.While the fish is resting, prepare the Baja Slaw and preheat your grill to medium heat. Mix all ingredients for the Baja Slaw into a bowl, cover, and let sit in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
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