When Jesus says ‘Don’t be afraid’

Here is a fishy story; well it’s about a fisherman really, whose name was Simon a.k.a. Peter. He shared in a fishing partnership together with his brother Andrew and their mates James and John. Between them the business owned two boats.

One day they were on the beach cleaning their fishing nets, having had an unsuccessful fishing trip the night before. Nearby, Jesus was teaching on the beach. The crowd pressed in closer and so, in order to give him a platform from which to continue speaking, Jesus asked Simon to take him on board his boat and push away from the shore a little.

Afterwards, Jesus blessed the fishermen by instructing Simon to take the boat out to deeper water and lower the nets for a catch. Simon pointed out that they had been out all night with nothing to show for it. Nevertheless, as an act of respect, he obediently lowered the nets.

The result was a large catch. In fact, so big was the haul of fish that Simon ordered the others to bring their boat so that they could get all of the fish back to shore.

A man’s conviction of his own unworthiness

What had happened caused Simon to wonder in astonishment. He had just witnessed an awesome thing. The implications of the words and power that Jesus had exercised went straight to his very soul. Instinctively, Simon seemed to understand just who and what he himself was when faced with the reality of one from God; the God of purity and power.

He fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" Now, Simon wasn’t what some might consider ‘the religious type’, just an ordinary manual worker. Nonetheless, Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men." So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

A new employment with Jesus

Simon’s encounter with Jesus changed the direction of his life completely. Within a few years, this unlikely character would be a leading light in the spread of Christianity, teaching and preaching about salvation i.e. sin, forgiveness and the promise of a life with God for ever.

When we are faced with Jesus, we may be fearful of being drawn into his net but he says, ‘Don’t be afraid’.

Jesus instead of us

A German bomber, which was bound for London, had been damaged by the local air defences. The engines were malfunctioning and the crew elected to turn back before reaching London and bomb Brighton instead. I wish to draw your attention to that word ‘instead’ (more accurately, ‘in-the-stead of’).

In the spring of 1941, a specific part of London’s commercial and economic buildings were to be destroyed together with people that happened to be in the way. When the bomber changed course, those particular buildings and people probably survived the night. In Brighton, however, buildings and people were to suffer the dangers from which London had been spared. Brighton suffered in-the-stead of London; we can even say Brighton was substituted for London.

Substitutionary death

In the Bible, there is the recurring theme of substitutionary death: an innocent party being offered in-the-stead of the guilty. In the millennia before Jesus, God taught the Jewish people that they might atone for their wrong-doings by following a sacrificial system. This involved the slaying of perfect specimens of goats and lambs as a substitute for their own far-from-innocent lives; lives that were in peril. Actually, God was not really pleased with such sacrifices but it was his way to get the people used to the idea of an innocent life atoning for those living careless and Godless lives.

The final substitute

A month ago, Christians celebrated Easter, recalling how the innocent Jesus was killed and his life-blood drained away. This event is what the whole sacrificial system had been leading up to.

At the end of the age, there will be a reckoning, a judgement with a penalty to pay. We may choose to disbelieve such a thing, or hope that we will pass muster by our own merits. The wisest thing, however, is to consider Jesus: his sacrificial death followed by his rising from the dead. One New Testament writer says that Jesus, ‘the righteous one’ died for unrighteous people in order to bring them to God. Another says about Jesus that he, the only ‘just one’, died for the unjust ones.

To make a positive response to this, we can turn about so that we face towards God. Then we may receive, in an act of trust, what Jesus has done in our stead.

God isn't aloof to our sufferings

Eighty five years ago on the night of 9^th April, Germany bombed Birmingham with nearly 240 aircraft. One bomber was brought down by the air defences. As the aircraft descended earthwards, bits of burning wreckage fell away causing a row of houses to catch fire resulting in the death of 75-year-old Sarah Davies and three-year-old Anthony Smith.

Now out of control, the German bomber plunged to the ground careering into the rear of two adjacent houses both of which were occupied. In the one, Amy Hanson and her daughter Doreen were killed, while next door a family of five were also killed. These were Doris Smart and her two schoolboy sons Albert and Brian plus brother-in-law Alfred Smart and his infant son Malcolm.

Just names on a grave stone

I mentioned these by name to personalise them, for each will have had their own life-story, which would have been precious to them, even the two 3-year-olds, Malcolm and Anthony. Doreen Hanson was to have been married in a fortnight’s time. Yet it is a fact of life that, 85 years on, they are just names on a once respected but now grimy and overrun grave.

As with current wars, people of all ages are losing their lives which were precious to them. Each will have had their own back-story of hopes and fears.

How can we make any sense of it all? The easiest thing is to not try and simply turn our minds to something more pleasant. When the questions persist, however, are we going to resort to speaking of fate, chance or luck?

A man of sorrows and well acquainted with grief

Fundamentally, our pain and that of the world is one of estrangement from the God who made us but He isn’t aloof to all of this suffering. In the person of his son Jesus, God identified with us and immersed himself in our life-experiences, even being described as a man of sorrows and well acquainted with grief. He willingly subjected himself to the evils of humanity, which culminated in his being crucified by men.

This self-sacrifice of Jesus is the means of our reconciliation to God. As Jesus identified with us, so we are urged to identify with him and enter into the family of God. This is both difficult and easy. Difficult because we have a natural reluctance and easy because all that’s required is to turn towards God and trust Jesus (i.e. repent and believe).