Rabbinic teaching styles create visual images for abstract ideas to better communicate their thoughts. Think of the Biblical descriptions of people (sheep, goats, white washed walls), God (Father, Rock, Shepherd) and even places (far country, abyss, land of the twelve).
Across the Sea of Galilee from Capernaum, where religious Jews were plentiful, was a Greek/Roman city called Susita. The lifestyles of those in this pagan town were quite different from the God-fearing Israelites living within eyeshot a few miles away. Their worldview was so opposed to that of God’s people that it influenced what they were named. The region came to be called “far country”, as the values were so far from what the Jewish people believed. It was also called the other side. Yes, it was the other side of the lake, but it was also opposite of the Galilean faith in God.
Jesus spoke to His disciples in this language. They were lifelong fishermen, had grown up on the edge of the lake, and knew when, where and how to fish. But on one particular night they hadn’t caught a thing. Jesus walks up and tells them to try the other side after which the caught a large haul of fish. Shortly after, Jesus calls them to be fishers of men.
Jesus also told these disciples to do something that didn’t make sense to them – drop your nets on the other side. To their experienced eye - that’s not where the fish were. But they obeyed. Sometimes God calls us to do things not as the world does them. He says do it My way. And they were successful.
Could Jesus have been hinting that His Kingdom was also for the Gentiles across the pond? That His good news was to be preached to them as well? I think so. Jesus came for everyone. Those I don’t agree with or would consider themselves an enemy are in that group. That He would have to tell me to go to them reveals my heart and mindset.
I’m sometimes asked to go to the other side. It’s uncomfortable, can seem unreasonable, or even scary. But when I realize that I am also one who has been on the other side, I’m grateful God fishes there as well! Let’s learn to be fishers of men, disciple makers of all people, and not neglect “the other side.”
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Romans 1: 16
