The Economic Impact of having Jesus “in your boat.”
We are facing hard times here in America (April 2022). Rampant inflation has reduced our standard of living, shortages loom and economic projections are dismal. Needless to say, life today is unnerving.
For those of us who lived through the Jimmy Carter era, this is déjà vu. The only comforting thought is that this can be survived and ultimately things can change for the good. Still, we’re in for some suffering.
For a long time now, I’ve been thinking about the economic impact of some of Jesus’ miracles. It really was valuable to have him on your side, or in your boat. We all know that our Lord changed circumstances, and quickly; I want to estimate with you the dollar amount of some of these very familiar signs and wonders.
Let’s begin by considering how Jesus dealt with shortages:
The wedding reception in Cana ran out of wine. What an embarrassment! Perhaps the addition of Jesus and six disciples stressed the family budget. No worries, Mary asked her son to remedy the situation. Jesus wasn’t ready to “go public” so he performed a stealth miracle in John chapter 2. He had six water pots filled and the servants draw some and take it to the emcee. He declared the wine’s quality to be exceptional.
Now we calculate: the volume of each pot was 20-30 gallons. Let’s go with 30 for this example. Five bottles of wine per gallon. What’s the price of top-of-the-line wine? I’ll go out on a limb and figure $30 per bottle. We’re looking at a $27,000 gift to the families of the bride and groom! Besides relieving the hardship of a shortage – Jesus supplied unexpected value.
Then there are the two hunger crises; we normally term them the feeding of the four and five thousand. In each circumstance, people were very hungry, the situation was critical. Our Lord and God stepped up to “cater” meals for crowds.
How much does it cost to provide an all-you-can-eat meal (home cooking – aka bread and fish)? I’m going to place the value at $8 per adult and $4 per child. Each population was described this way: “x number of men; not counting women and children.” Being careful not to inflate numbers, I’ll stop at one woman and child per man.
Thus, we gauge the feeding of the 5,000 conservatively at $100,000. The event that involved four thousand would come in at a mere $80,000. Recall with me that each time the Christ insisted that leftovers be gathered, and that the amount leftover dwarfed his original supply of food.
Here comes the pertinent question; Can Jesus provide for our needs in times of scarcity?
Now head over to what we title “The Great Catch of Fish.” Luke takes us up close and personal in chapter 5 of his gospel. Jesus will finish this sign by inviting Peter, his brother, and their partners to step away from their businesses and focus on following him.
It starts with a carpenter having the audacity to tell fishermen to go out and throw their nets in the water at the wrong time of day. They humored him and soon found themselves overwhelmed! The weight! The sound of nets stretching to beyond capacity! A hurried call to their partners to bring another boat and help “land” this once in a lifetime catch. Two boats were swamped, filled to the max and barely avoiding sinking. That is a lot of fish.
I’ve calculated the displacement of these fishing boats – they were about 25 long by 8 feet wide and could easily hold 13 men. Jesus and his disciples made many trips across the Sea of Galilee. Leaving space for Jesus’ sleeping platform, I found that a boat would hold a cargo of 20,000 pounds. I’m not a nautical engineer – so let’s do the rest of our figuring at a lower weight, keeping our results on the conservative side.
The business partners (Peter and Andrew, James and John) each filled their boats to capacity. Our safe benchmark will make that a total of 30,000 pounds of fish. These men were commercial fishermen, so they had a ready market. Did they sell wholesale or retail? We don’t know. Being that it was a family enterprise, in much of the world the women and children would handle a retail side to the business. 30,000 pounds at $7 per pound turns into a profit of $210,000. Perhaps, after the guys left to follow Jesus, the rest of the family began marketing a new line of salted fish!
I did some research with my partners overseas (Africa, India, and the Philippines). Their market value for fish is even higher – compared to a day’s wage. Let this soak in: The context of Jesus’ invitation to four commercial fishermen, “Follow me and I’ll teach you how to fish for men,” was the biggest catch they had ever, ever experienced! Add to that, he gave their families front money to acclimate to the loan of their breadwinners to the Lord.
The one who calls us is more than capable of providing for us.
Can we begin to forecast the value of an end to doctors’ bills? We have one account where we’re told that a woman spent all her money on doctors before she touched the hem of Jesus’ garment and was healed. The Master’s healing touch stopped financial drain and often put key family members back to work.
He protected a “fleet” from damage when he stopped a storm and he even had Peter throw in a line and reel in the solution to a tax problem (Matthew 17:24-27).
I hope that you are beginning to grasp the value of having Jesus as a passenger in your boat.
Our Lord also contributed to the debit side of at least a couple of ledgers:
Two thousand pigs down the drain. Ok, not quite down the drain – but that is a huge farming loss! No wonder they begged him to leave their region.
The temple sacrifice and offering “market” was entitled during Jesus’ lifetime “The Bazaars of Annas.” An estimate of its annual income was $300,000 (not factoring in inflation). That’s a decent profit. Not one, but two temple “deep cleanings” during his ministry took a real bite out of that bottom line! Do you see why they were anxious to get rid of the prophet from Nazareth?
I am not going very far out on a limb to assert that Jesus wielded a great deal of financial impact when he walked this earth, am I?
Our Lord and Savior told us “Put God’s rule and reputation at the top of your priority list, and I’ll take care of your physical needs.” (Matthew 6:33 – paraphrased) When we surrender to Jesus, and serve him, we have a Limitless Supplier “in our boat.”
Think about it.