2026 JAN 25. Reflection on the WORD of Matthew
4:18 As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea for they were fishers. 4:19 And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fisher of people." 4:20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him.Fishing of People
Recruiting people as fishermen who will gather people as fish in their net is obviously a metaphor, though today it has not a pleasant connotation. However, according to the Gospel story, as the physical version of the metaphor, Jesus told them, fellows, let's go fishing. Peter said we have been fishing for a whole night and we caught nothing, which can be even less than nothing, regarding the repercussions in the kitchen at home and in the fish market regarding our pockets.
Just like the famous mathematical anti-puzzle. It goes like this: not in the real world, but on a mathematical bus, though the reasoning is very similar to the tax agencies.
So, if five people ride on a mathematical bus, and seven people get off the bus at the next stop, then how many people should get on the bus in order that nobody will be on board. Math says, two people should get on the bus in order that nobody will be on board.
Nonetheless, the fish species, according to the Book of Genesis, were created on the Fifth Day, and got generalized in the Old Testament, as not even a single particular fish species was mentioned by their name, like shark or tuna, just fish.
One of the main issues in the Old Testament, regarding fish species is, which underwater creatures are allowed to eat.
The criteria, given in the Book of Leviticus is quite simple, as it is written in chapter 11:
"Of all the creatures that live in the water, whether in the seas or the streams, you may eat any that have fins and scales. But anything in the seas or streams that does not have fins and scales, among all the swarming things and other living creatures in the water, you are to regard as unclean."
According to the old tradition, the fourth commandment, which says, that you shall remember and celebrate the Sabbath day, because that day is Holy to God, as God in the Book of Genesis kept creating the Universe through six days or six billion years if we need an extension, but on the Seventh Day the Lord took a rest.
In the popular view the Shabbat is celebrated by not doing any work, as it is, indeed, mandated in the Commandment, but that is not all. Practically, in order to honor the Day of the Lord, you shall eat the best meal on the Shabbat Table, you shall wear your best clothes, your house must be neat and impeccable, etc.
It is quite interesting the fish as a dish or dishes became a highly appreciated part of the Shabbat Table, and interestingly the value of the fish stood on multiple legs.
For example, it is maintained by the sages, that when the Flood came, for a practical reason or not, the fish under the water were not destroyed like all the other species on the surface.
If God would have wanted the wipe away the underwater creatures, definitely, he would have done it, by whatever method.
He did not, and there was no reason for Noah to take any water creatures into the Ark or into his DNA lab spaceship as some SCI-FI fans trying to understand what happened through this incredible rescue mission.
Nonetheless, the sages held, that the underwater creatures were not much involved in the sins of the surface populations, and surprisingly, although no other water creatures are allowed to be eaten, other than the ones who had/have fins and scales, which means practically real fish, still the fish dishes have hardly any other dietary restrains in the kosher rules, moreover, fish dishes, almost on a delicacy, festive level are eaten on Shabbat.
There is a well known old story about a certain Joseph who regularly ate fish on Shabbat, which was not only a dietary choice, but also a choice, which spent extra money on at that time expensive meal to honor God’s Shabbat.
It came to happen, that in Joseph’s town lived a very rich Greek, who wanted to move away, and he sold his everything, and for all his money he bought a pearl, and he placed it in the inner side of his Greek hat.
When he was crossing the Jordan river on a boat, a sudden wind blue away his hat into the river, it sank and a fish swallowed it. Later on, the fish was caught at night time, and the fisherman wanted to sell it immediately, so he went to Joseph’s house, as he knew him for a long time via selling him fish regularly, and Joseph bought it in the middle of the night.
When they prepared the fish for the Shabbat table they found the pearl inside the fish, and Joseph became a rich man. Since then the saying has come into life that: “One who lends to Shabbat, Shabbat repays him.”
It means that who honor God, Heaven will repay him.
This old story has a parallel one in the New Testament:
Once upon a time, written in the Book of the Exodus, there was an institution of the so called Temple tax. Actually, it was called the sanctuary tax, because at that time the Exodus narrated about, the Temple was not yet built, but the tabernacle, which was an Egyptian styled mobile sanctuary.
The tax had to be paid by all adult males in the tribal confederacy and later in Israel, by the amount of a half shekel. It can be interesting that how exactly they came up with half a shekel, or why not a full shekel, but it looks like as all the economy related laws presented in the Mosaic tradition, were extraordinary fair, just, and wealth redistributing toward to poor, thus we can assume that the temple tax half shekel was quite a reasonable amount, and think about it, it was never inflated or raised through a millennium.
In the New Testament story, the scribes demanded that Jesus and the disciples also must pay the Temple tax. Jesus asked Simon Peter, "What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own sons or from others?"
Peter answered, "From others," to which Jesus replied, "Then the sons are exempt" (Matthew 17:26).
However, to smooth the issue out, Jesus told Peter to go to the sea, cast a hook, and take the first fish he caught. Jesus told him, "Open its mouth, and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for My tax and yours" (Matthew 17:27).
Nevertheless, when sooner or later Jesus told Peter and Andrew, that let’s go fishing, Peter answered Jesus, complaining: that they caught nothing during the whole night and the daylight is not fishing time in the Lake of Tiberias, so catching nothing again that's the most likely outcome of the action. Anyhow, he added, if Jesus says so, we'll go and fish desperately, which means without hope of catching anything.
However, in the boat when they drew their nets filled with fish, Peter realized that it was a supernatural catch and Jesus told him don't worry, I will make you all fishermen.
The supernatural fishing event may have made the disciples, who had already been fishermen by profession, understand that the very person who will make them metaphorical fishermen, for whom they will fish people into nets of the kingdom of God, that very person must be the chief fisherman of God. He must have the power to rule not only over the fish under the water, but he is the Crown Prince of the Kingdom himself, for whom they kept waiting for millennia. May his name be Blessed, in the Holy Spirit.
Amen
