Jesus Kind of Fisherman

              Jesus Kind of Fisherman
by John H. Yoder
The purpose of a figure of speech is to make a point
more meaningful or memorable by anchoring an idea
in the broader experien~e of our culture. Yet as we
move from one culture to another, and especially if we
do this uncritically, that very strength of the figure of
speech can be transformed into a source of positive
misunderstanding. To speak of evangelism as " fishing
for men" is one such case.
People who live away from the sea, whether urban
or rural, when they think of a fisherman think of the
angler. But Jesus spoke about "fishers of men" to
fishermen at the seaside. When we uncritically transport
this figure of speech to the preaching of a suburban
church, or to the Sunday school of a rural community,
how do we unconsciously change its meaning?
Jesus' listeners at the edge of Galilee knew that
fishing is done with a net. One may catch many fish
or a few, but in any case they are caught together.
The net has remained through church history a symbol
of the church as community. On the other hand the
angler catches one fish at a time. He makes that particular
fish the object of his attention. Often the fish is his
adversary in a kind of game of maneuvering to plant
the hook and struggle to bring in the victim. Are there
not some dimensions of how we have come to understand
"personal work" which are more like the angler than they
are like the fisherman?
The fisherman finds his fish by taking his net into the
medium where the fish naturally move, namely the sea.
He gathers them by being where they are, really present
with the net which then holds them together and brings
them to the boat. The angler on the other hand catches
May 1, 1973
his victim by deceit. He dangles before the fish a fl y
which is not really a fly or a worm which hides a hook.
He gets hold on the fish through the violence of the
hook and pulls him out of his element by the con-straint
of his line. The fisherman accepts and works with
the sea as medium: the angler violates the stream and
fools the fish .
The fisherman fishes for a living. His motivation is
the need of his family for support and of his market for
food. The angler fishes for the fun of the struggle, for
the sense of victory in finding a bait that will lure the
fish , and (especially for some categories which are called
"sport fishing") the thrill of the combat. Often he will
not eat the fish: sometimes he will even throw it back
to the sea for the enjoyment lies in the struggle itself.
Or he may have it stuffed to hang on his wall as a
trophy. Are there not times when the focus in evange-lism
comes to be more on bringing them in than on
keeping them? More on the victory of having won one
than on the joy of ongoing fellowship with the newly
won brother or sister?
Whether the angler, whom we consider typical, be the
farm boy going down to the creek or the prosperous
suburbanite taking a weekend off to fight with a trout
or a tarpon, the entire enterprise is thus more a recreation
and a sport than it is a building of community and an
essential for survival. Fishing is an alternative to real
life, not a source of sustenance.
It might take us a good way down the path to an
understanding of the theology and practices of evange-lism
if every time we repeat that Jesus called us to be
fishers of men" . . . "and not anglers." ~
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