Fishing
The recent news reports don't fully connect all the dots of what transpired, but apparantly at some point someone who had seen the bowl recommended that the family get it appraised.
"Hey, this looks...old. Maybe it's worth something."
They did go ahead and get the bowl appraised and to their everlasting astonishment learned that the bowl was actually 1000 years old and from the Northern Song Dynasty, which, if you are a smart specializing-in-old-stuff human, should make you all tingly inside. It's estimated worth was $200,000 - $300,000. Wow. The bowl went to auction at Sotheby's in New York City and ended up selling to Mr. Guiseppe Eskenaze, a London antiques dealer, for $2.2 million dollars.
That's a heck of a lot of Starbucks.
What a tragic story. No, seriously. Tragic. Yeah, okay...so two unnamed garage sale groupies had temporary, accidental taste and ended up multi-millionaires when they thought they were completing their cereal bowl set from Ikea. Yay them. But what about the folks that had that sucker out on the garage sale table to sell in the first place? Aren't you feeling a little sorry for those people? They didn't see the worth of that little white bowl and they basically passed up a life of financial worth that would have made Donald Trump take notice. (Okay, maybe not Donald Trump, but some other less-rich-than-him-but-still-rich guy.) They didn't understand what that vessel was worth and they lost. Big. That is seriously tragic.
Good thing there's no chance of us being like those dummies, right? Hmmm.
Peter, AKA Simon, is one of my favorites of the Bible. Definitely in the top two. After Jesus. Peter was a rock star for God. He was bold. He was full of living-on-the-edge, get-me-out-of-this-boat-so-I-can-walk-on-the-water awesomeness and His love for Jesus collided with these attributes to make him the perfect "Rock" for Christ to build His church on. Aside from the denial incident that happened on the day of the crucifixion, and, okay, maybe the cutting off of the ear thing, Peter, in many ways, is who I aspire to be.
But Peter almost put it all out on the garage sale table because initially he didn't understand his worth in Christ.
Luke 5:1-11 paints an amazing picture of what happens when light meets darkness and my biblical hero (at least in the top two) is right in the middle of it. A discouraged Peter and his fisherman buddies had spent the entire night on their boats searching, unsuccessfully, for fish.Their livelihood depended on "the catch," and this morning there was nothing to show for their efforts. What a disappointment. As he wearily cleans his nets and secures his boat to go home Peter looks up to find Jesus standing there. Jesus tells a fatigued Peter to take the boat out again into deep water and to let the nets down once more.
"Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught a thing. But because you say so, I will let down the nets."
Peter knew the deal. He knew about Jesus. His brother, Andrew, had excitedly raced through the door one day claiming that he had found the Messiah and that Peter had better come. Peter did and had followed Jesus ever since, watching him and listening to him teach. Yes, Jesus was quite a teacher. He was wise. He had "a way." Peter would follow his instructions and throw out the nets, tired or not. If there was any chance at nabbing some fish, he'd better go.
And at Jesus' hand the fish came. The nets were full, overflowing, breaking. The boat became so full that it started to sink and the crew had to signal another boat to come and relieve them of some of the bounty. What in the world? This isn't possible. There was nothing out here hours before. This is crazy. This insane. This is...miraculous.
And it clicked.
In that moment Peter recognized that he was smack dab in the center of a miraculous work brought about by the true Messiah, the Lord, God in the flesh. There, standing in his boat, was Light in its purest form, side by side in stark contrast with the darkness he knew existed within himself. Light meets darkness. In that moment, coming face to face with the real depth of Christ, for the first time maybe, Peter experienced the depth of his own sinfulness. The contrast had never been more blinding. He knew he was not worthy to keep this company and he fell to his knees.
"Lord, go away from me. I am a sinful man."
Have you ever been here? It's pretty much guaranteed that as we grow closer in our relationship with the Lord we will have a deeper understanding of how righteous and holy He is and how not those things we are. And it can be frightening.
"Who am I to talk to you? Who am I to walk alongside of you? Who am I to benefit from the blessings you distribute? Who am I to try and lead people to you? I'll tell you who I am. I'm nobody, Lord, and you should just leave me here and move on to your less sinful followers. Go away."
I wonder sometimes if there was a particular sin that plagued Peter. Was he a cheat? Was he caught up in some sexual sin? Did he hang out with his fisherman buddies drinking all night and come home abusive? Whatever dark secrets he had been living with, they tormented him now at the feet of holiness. Maybe for the first time he got a firm grasp on how far gone he really was.
Jesus responded with this:
"Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men."
Jesus looked a broken, aware-of-his-sinfulness Peter in the eye and in ten words conveyed His omniscience, His power, His ability to forgive, His ability to restore and His ability to empower. Jesus was fully aware of every detail of Peter's life, including the deep, dark sins that had been hidden way down beneath layers of denial, secrecy and lies. Jesus knew it all. And He still saw Peter as totally qualified not just to follow Him but to be the cornerstone of the Church.
Remember this?... It's pretty much guaranteed that as we grow closer in our relationship with the Lord we will have a deeper understanding of how righteous and holy He is and how not those things we are?
A comprehension of our sinfulness is key to our success as followers of Christ. I think so many people see it differently. If we live a perfectly sinless life forever we will become good Christians. But that's backwards. Sin is in us whether we like it or not. "There is no one righteous, not even one" (Romans 3:10). No...we have to grasp how far gone we really are in our sin to understand how incredible a gift it is that God rescued us from it. This is such a significant part of our ability to fully commit ourselves to God. This is the key to our boldness. This is the key to our ability to be used by Him. When we firmly grasp just how "not those things" we are, and can then look Him in the eye and really grasp the fact that He still loves us and still wants to use us, it changes everything.
That blinding contrast between light and darkness and the awareness and belief that God still finds us worthy, through Christ, is such a thing to be celebrated that it leaves us with no option but to turn away from our sinful past with every ounce our being and commit our lives fully to Him. What other option is there? This supernatural acceptance and love despite ourselves is what propels us to live so boldly that we can endure persecution, we can endure weariness, we can endure the loneliness of being a Christian in a lost world. Love conquers all. Love fills up. Love restores. Love makes us want to be closer and closer to the Holy One, no matter the inevitable costs.
This is how Jesus called Peter...making Him aware of his sinfulness by pulling him into the presence of holiness. Peter lived the rest of his life living boldly for Christ. He died a martyr's death. He gave it all. His ministry wasn't always perfect. Peter wasn't Jesus and neither are we. But he was worthy. Through Christ, he was worthy.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy, so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe in Him and receive eternal life."
-1 Timothy 1:15-16
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