We Are Not The Same

Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net. And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken: And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him.

Luke 5:4-11

We are not the same, I think I have heard this expression all my life, we use it to make a difference and make it clear that one is not equal to someone else. With this expression we make the difference between what I am and what another person is. What women often say when a man disappoints them is that "all men are the same".

Now, in these verses that we read a few moments ago, Peter had already been called by Jesus, Jesus had already changed his name from Simon to Cephas or Peter; this means that Peter was supposedly already known to Jesus, also He had already seen Jesus heal his mother-in-law, immediately after that, Peter saw how Jesus healed the sick of all kinds, he saw how Jesus released the demon-possessed, he  had already heard several teachings of Jesus and he surely marveled at his way of speaking, of his courage, of his words.

But until now all he had seen were experiences that other people had with Jesus, even the miracle that Jesus did on his mother-in-law was not personal, it was personal for his mother-in-law, for his wife, but not for him.

With what happened all that night of work where Peter and his helpers had not caught anything, one night of so much effort, so much sweat, so much frustration and not receiving a single fish to reward all their work and all their attempts; this it feels bad, when you're working you expect a pay, a reward for work, because that's what that job deserves, a pay, but when the pay is not so good or when they don’t even pay you, you'll feel fed up, desperate, and for sure mad, and it is understandable.

Peter felt this way, his own strength had not achieved anything, his work had not been paid, and suddenly he heard Jesus, that man who taught so well, that man who had healed his mother-in-law, that man that without having seen him before, he had changed his name, that man whom he had seen many other people perform miracles, Peter listens to Jesus as he tells him; go back into the sea, and once again throw your nets into the sea, and Peter reacts as we would all react; Lord we worked the whole night, we haven’t caught anything, but by your word I will throw it out, and immediately when the nets fall into the water the fish fell into the net, and when this happens, Peter had his first miracle of his own and believed in Jesus and He began to know and know who Jesus really was. 

What do I want to say? That Peter needed his own experience, he needed his own miracle to understand who the man was in front of his eyes.

And I want you to know this; YOU NEED YOUR OWN MIRACLE, YOUR OWN EXPERIENCE WITH GOD, many times even though we have seen Jesus work miracles in our family we say how powerful God is, what incredible things he can do, but that does not transform us. What the Lord does in the lives of others does not change us, it surprises us, of course it does, but it does not change us. Even then we do not know the full power of Jesus, the only thing that can change us is to have an experience of our own with Jesus, that the Lord will make a personal miracle for us, so we will be transformed and we will begin to really know Jesus. 

Young man, maybe you have grown up in church, maybe your family knows God, but the experiences between God and your parents, your grandparents and your family, will not change you, you need one of your own.

There are moments in life when great changes arise, there are moments when Jesus does something for us personally and that transforms our minds immediately, this was one of those moments that changed Peter's life, because here he saw a miracle of his own, this miracle, this miraculous catch wasn’t special for the other people but for him it was, this was not the same experience that he lived when he saw that other people received a miracle, this was a transformative moment for him, because it was something personal, there are things that the Lord has done for me that for you will not be important, they might not be special things, and vice versa but you have to say; for me they have been transforming moments, leave me with my personal miracle, do not underestimate the miracles that God has done in people's lives because they mean a lot to them.

We could say if God transforms a drug addict, it's nice but that's not something that changed me but it changed the drug addict. the same thing happened with Pedro, his life was transformed here.

We can all say that when we see a miracle in our lives we know God a little bit more, and we understand his power a bit more. When we do not see a miracle we know that Jesus is powerful, that Jesus is good, but we really get to know him when he does something for us, before being saved we already knew that Jesus is powerful and merciful, but we did not know how much until he saved us, until we had our own experience.

And also another thing that we need to understand when Jesus does the miracle for us, is that Him and I are not equal, that our condition is sinful and that He is of a Holy Being, here I go to the point of this post ...

Peter realizes after this miracle that Jesus and he were very different even though they looked physically similar.

Jesus was a man? Did Jesus have literal skin? Jesus was flesh and blood like me? Yes or no? YES, BUT HE IS NOT LIKE ME.

God was manifested in flesh, lived among the men and women of this world, walked on this earth, lived in a mortal body like ours, was born, grew up, worked, ate, tired, laughed, cried, slept and in the end He died, everything like you and me, but between Jesus and me there is a small difference (as I would say) there is a word that we know and he never knew it, there is something he never practiced and we have practiced it, The difference between Jesus and us is SIN, and for this reason Jesus and I are not the same.

This is the message of today; we have mouth and He also had it, the difference is that my mouth has insulted, condemned, lied, spoken things that never had to have spoken, has hurt, with our mouth we have all sinned, and Jesus with his mouth spoke but words of eternal life, words of love, words of forgiveness.

We have eyes and He also had them, the difference is that our eyes have looked at things that they should never have looked at, our eyes have coveted, our eyes have contaminated our thoughts and our whole life, with our eyes we have all sinned, and Jesus with his eyes yes, he looked but his eyes looked at the man's needs, his eyes looked with love (like what I shared with you two weeks ago), and for the joy that he saw through his eyes so different from ours, he suffered at the cross (Hebrews 12.)

We have hands and He also had them, the difference is that our hands have stolen, our hands have touched things that should never have been touched and taken by our hands, our hands have hurt, they have even cursed, and Jesus, his hands He stretched out to heal people, and the last thing he did with his hands as a man was to spread them on the cross to give us salvation.

We have a heart and He also had it, the difference is that our heart carries with resentment, pain, bad intentions, bad experiences, a heart full of many bad things and Jesus with his heart felt compassion, a heart full of mercy and the last thing his heart did as a man is that it stopped beating for love of us.

Do you realize the differences? Do you realize that we are not the same? I have the same things but I am a sinner.

Peter realizes at this moment that although he looks like me, although he has a body like me, I am a sinner and he is not.

Peter, Paul, all the apostles, all the biblical characters for whom God did great things felt like this next to God, they did not feel worthy to be looked at by God, they did not feel worthy of God's love and for Him to rescue them.

Here we all have sinned, we are not saints, we strive, some strive more than others to be it, others do not strive, but next to Jesus we are not equal, we are not worthy of Him to look at us, David said in Psalms8:4: what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? I am not worthy.

Get away from me, because I am a sinful man, I am not worthy of you even standing in front of me, I am not worthy of the things you have given me, I am nothing, I do not deserve this opportunity. I feel this way every day, I stop and I look at the blessings and all that the Lord has given me and where He has taken me and I say to the Lord, I am not worthy.

I believe that all of us today must reconsider and with the attitude of Peter, a humble attitude, capable of confessing; I am a sinner, I am a simple man, a simple woman who deserves nothing of what you have given me.

Do you know what I like about Jesus? Peter saying I'm not like you, I'm not the same as you, I do not deserve to be near you, stay away from me, Jesus responds, yes, you're like that, but I will not turn away from you, on the contrary I want you to work for me and I want that you are closer to me.

I hope that after reading this you realize that we are not like Him but from this moment you can leave everything as Peter did and follow Jesus completely.

Abner Garcia

Translated by Abby Salgado.