Bible Secrets Revealed: Peter

One of the many things I find intriguing about the Bible is the subtle way the writers tell the readers about someone or something without actually stating the point. Lets take a look at Peter the apostle who is also a fisherman. Peter is probably the most outspoken apostle of all the apostles chosen by Jesus. We know him to have many opinions and see him as a leader because his name is constantly mentioned in the gospels. However, we do not know what Peter looked like; or do we? John 21:1-11 tells the story of Jesus appearing to several of the disciples after His resurrection. The disciples are fishing and Jesus asks them if they have any fish. They reply no. He then suggests they cast their net on the one side of the boat. They did and caught many large fish.

At first read one would not see my point about the description of Peter. Since Peter’s physical description is not provided in any of the verses unless, of course, you look deeper into the verses and find the clues. The one clue I believe emphasizes Peters size is found in John 21:11. Peter goes into the water and drags the net full of fish all by himself right up to shore. I’m going to paraphrase the story in my own words. You can read it for yourself in John 21:3-11.

Peter says to his chums, “Hey guys, I’m going fishing. Anybody game?” His chums say, “You betcha, we’re game.” They all go out to the Sea of Tiberias, or Sea of Galilee as the locals call it, and fish all night yet catch nothing. They are tired and more than a bit irritated. These guys are professional fisherman and when they go out to fish they expect to bring home the bacon. But, like I said, they have been at this all night and, nada.

By now dawn is beginning to break and there is a man standing at the shore. The man says to them, “Children, did you catch any fish?” The disciples look at each other and think, “What is this guy, a comedian? Why would we have stayed out all night if we had caught fish? What a screwball.” But being honorable men they answer, “No.” Then the guy says to them, “Cast your net on the right hand side of the boat and you will find a catch.”

There are seven men in the boat and they are all facing in different directions depending on how they are casting their nets. So four look over one side of the boat and three look over the other side. One of them says to the group that he will cast a net on his side while those on the other side say if you do you will make the guy mad because he wants us to throw the net on this side. “What are you talking about,” he complains, “ he said the right side of the boat and that is this side here.” Now a near scuffle results as they began arguing incessantly about which side of the boat is the right side.

One of them, tired of the whole situation, throws a net over on his side of the boat. He then feels the net fill with fish and calls his friends to help pull it over to the boat. All the men join in and pull the net close to the boat and tie up the net so the fish can’t escape. John, who only knows of one man who can do something like this, looks over to the shore and sees that it is Jesus. He says to Peter that it is the Lord. Peter looks over and sees it is his old friend and wants to get over to Him as fast as possible. So he jumps in the water and swims to shore.

The other disciples begin rowing the boat to shore, as they are about one hundred yards away. As the boat nears the shore the net, laden with fish, begins to start dragging on the bottom of the sea and acts as an anchor. Then the obvious takes places. Some in the boat start complaining that the others aren’t rowing hard enough and that’s why the boat is not moving. The others say they are rowing hard and the fish net is dragging one the bottom of the sea and that’s why the boat is not moving

They are still about 50 feet from shore and the water is knee deep. The time is early spring and the water is cold, so none of the guys in the boat want to get wet. After all they heard Peter scream when he jumped in so they know its cold. One of the disciples says to the others, “Let’s unhook the net from the boat and row to shore.” The others agree and they untie the net and let it loose from the boat and then row to shore.

When they arrive at the waters edge they all step from the boat to the beach without so much as getting their tootsies wet. They see Jesus standing there with Peter who is nearly shivering because he is soaking wet and the air is cool because it is early in the morning. There is a fire and fish are cooking on it.

Jesus say’s to the group, “Why don’t you bring in the fish?” The disciples look at each other and then look down. They have no intention of getting as wet as Peter. Then Peter, who has nothing to lose, walks out into the water and grabs the net by himself and drags it to shore, a feat six other men could not do.

This should tell you a little about just how powerful the man was. The fact is he dove into the cold sea when the other disciples would not even get their feet wet even though they all knew it was Jesus who was on shore. That alone speaks volumes about his commitment to the Lord. Then he goes back into the water to retrieves the net the other disciples refused to bring to shore also speaks volumes. Peter is a large and powerful man with a large and powerful heart.

Funny that none of the writers of the New Testament mention that, or did they?