Jesus has advice for us about our work.
Jesus’ work history
There is a reason, the people who interacted with Jesus said, “Behold, He does all things well!” (Mark 7:27). When Jesus assumed the role of winemaker (John 2:1-10), He made excellent wine. When he assumed the role of a physician, He healed blindness and raised people from the dead (See John 9:1-7, 32), two things no doctor in history had ever done.
And, when Jesus taught, He taught like no teacher the people had ever heard (See Matthew 7:28-29; Mark 1:22; Luke 4:32; John 7:46) (“Never has a man spoken the way this man speaks.”).
We sometimes forget that Jesus had a job. He noted His father had been working and that He was also working. John 5:11. In fact, the night before He was crucified, Jesus prayed and mentioned that He had glorified God by completing the work He had been given to do. John 17:4.
An example from Jesus’ work
It is appropriate then for us to look at how Jesus did His job as advice on how we perform better at work A great illustration is Jesus teaching a crowd on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, as recorded in Luke 5:1-3.
1 Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret; 2 and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. 3 And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the people from the boat.
Luke 5:1–3 (NASB)
In inspiring Luke to write about this incident, it’s interesting there is no mention of the content of Jesus’ teaching. I think that’s because what Jesus taught was not as important as how he taught.
The crowd was pressing in around Jesus when He was teaching on the shore. When people press in around a speaker it becomes more dense near the speaker ,making it harder for everyone to hear. As a result, people move in closer, making it even denser and more difficult to hear for those who are behind.
As a “professional” speaker, Jesus knew if your message is not being heard, you are not doing your job very well. The raison d’tre for a teacher is to communicate a message.
So, Jesus does something innovative. I say “innovative” because I can not find any example in ancient literature of someone teaching from a boat. It is, however, a brilliant solution to the problem that confronted Jesus.
By getting into the boat, Jesus prevented the crowd from pressing in closer to Him, thus further impeding the sound of His voice. And by pushing away from the shore, He created a situation where His voice could carry more clearly over the water than it would over land.
In short, Jesus found a better way to do His job than those who had come before Him.
Jesus’ workplace instruction for Peter
The good news for you and me is that Jesus is willing to share innovative ideas about how we can do our jobs better. This is demonstrated in the very next verses:
4When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 Simon answered and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.” 6 When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break;
Luke 5:4–6 (NASB)
Peter was a professional fisherman. The best time for fishing on the Sea of Galilee was at night. If you fish all night and catch nothing, I’m guessing the conventional wisdom would say you are not going to catch any during the day.
Peter, however, reluctantly took Jesus’ advice about how to do his job better, and it resulted in a great catch.
Our work is the way King Jesus manages the planet and ensures the world functions the way He intended it. It shouldn’t surprise us then, that Jesus has good advice for us about how to do our jobs better.
He is only waiting to be asked. GS
