Try the other side!

”Then he [Jesus] said, “Throw out your net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you’ll get some!” So they did, and they couldn’t haul in the net because there were so many fish in it.”
John 21:6 NLT


The text for this week’s sermon at our local church was John 21:1-14. For much of this year we have been chronologically working our way through John’s Gospel, and here towards the conclusion of the book the narrative introduces some very familiar characters - Peter and a few other disciples, doing what came naturally for them – fishing from a boat.

You may well be familiar with the scenario here – Jesus has been raised from the dead and has already appeared to his closest followers on several occasions. After Peter and Co had spent the night fishing with nothing to show for it Jesus turns up on the shores of the Sea of Galilee and engages with them from a distance; still close enough to be heard.

When Jesus hears the disciples had caught nothing all night he encourages them to throw their net off the right side of the boat to see what might happen.

The disciples (surely they were tired and well and truly over their all-night fishing adventure by now?!) decide to do what Jesus suggests and we know the result – there are so many fish in the net that they are unable to haul their miraculous catch into the boat.

Peter, recognising Jesus, leads the group with the catch of fish in tow back to shore where they are treated to a freshly cooked breakfast with Jesus.


God  has been catching my attention through this passage - I’ve been pondering over the emerging insights and expect I will continue to do so for some time.

Here’s what I’ve come to conclude thus far;

There will be times in our own experience when we will find that the combination of our hard work, experience and skills for some unexplainable reason bring us nothing in return; when, despite our best efforts we are unable to achieve the desired outcome we are seeking.

It is on such occasions that we need Jesus to break-in to enable us to break-through to achieve a tangible result. For, unless Jesus turns up to intervene, we have no hope of seeing break-through come about.

Furthermore, I would suggest that we need more than the presence of Jesus to see break-through in our circumstances – we need (as Peter and friends experienced) the voice of Jesus to direct the work of our hands. Jesus told the disciples where to throw their nets. The disciples responded promptly to his directive and saw an undeniably tangible result in their midst.

The disciples, after their night of fishing didn’t have to do a lot of things differently to see a different result. Nor did they have to leave their boat to achieve a better than expected outcome (153 fish seems like a lot of fish – more than enough for a hearty breakfast feed!).

What Jesus asked them to do was to simply attack the problem from a different angle; from the other side of the boat. Peter and friends remained in the same boat, in the same body of water, using the same net. The only thing we’re told was different was that they cast the net from the opposite side of the boat – it was a 180 degree turnaround that immediately netted a different and distinctly measurable outcome.


Perhaps you are presently at that place of feeling tired and over your seemingly unsuccessful pursuits having laboured through-the-night with little or no return…you’ve been working hard, applying your experience and skills to achieve a desired outcome, yet for some unexplainable reason you are not seeing the results you’re hoping and praying for.

For those times when this is our present reality, then I hope we will choose to remain in the boat, in close proximity to our co-workers and our intended objective (eg catching fish); listening for the voice of Jesus, ready and willing to follow His instructions…it might be that all it will take is to simply turn around and cast our net from the other side of the boat.

What does the other side of the boat look like for you?