Today Luke takes us to the Sea of Galilee. This sea has had different names at different times, and it is actually a freshwater lake. In today’s text, Luke refers to it as the Lake of Gennesaret.
Imagine that you’re walking along the shore. It’s not a comfortable walk in places, as small rocks grate and crunch underfoot. A cool breeze blows across your face and now and then birds happily shriek overhead. Looking to the horizon your gaze fixes on the impressive hills of Galilee and the mountains of the Golan Heights. You notice how steep their slope is to the lake, and the brown of the dry hillsides contrasts with the beautiful deep blue of the water.
As you approach some fishermen you hear bustling activity as they attend to their nets and boats. A short way away, a crowd has gathered, listening to Jesus, but your focus is still on the fishermen. Despite their patient hard work overnight, it sounds as if they haven’t done so well. “Looks like these guys won’t be on the cover of the next edition of Fishing monthly” you think to yourself with a grin.
Jesus tells a fisherman named Simon to go out deeper and lower their nets for a catch. You can hear the simmering frustration in Simon’s voice: “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything.” You would think Simon would know what he’s doing, right? Surely much more than Jesus—after all, Simon’s the fisherman and Jesus is a carpenter.
But Simon puts his frustration on hold and respectfully adds: But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” Perhaps he figures that nothing else has worked, so it’s worth a try. When they had done what Jesus said, they caught so many fish that their nets began to break, and they had to call their mates from the other boat to come and help them. Both of the boats were so full of fish they began to sink under the weight. Imagine that astonishing sight! I wonder what the reaction was of the people who had crowded around Jesus to listen to him teaching the word of God.
Now Jesus is teaching them with an object lesson. This isn’t just Jesus the carpenter, this is Jesus the Son of God. The One who spoke all things into existence in the beginning and said, “Let the water teem with living creatures” (Genesis 1:20) now causes the fishermen’s nets to teem with an abundance of fish.
Today’s text isn’t about supplying big catches of fish to haul off to the cannery. This is about Jesus’ creation of his church, and the continuing spread of the glory of God throughout the earth, by his word—God’s glory that has reached us even here, as the same Jesus who stood on.
Back then, on the lakeshore, was a new beginning—the beginning of Jesus calling ordinary people to participate in his mission of sharing the gospel. Just as fishermen gather fish in nets, Jesus gathers people into his church. He said to Simon: “‘From now on you will catch people.’ So they pulled their boats ashore, left everything and followed Jesus.”
This is the miracle arguably greater than the huge haul of fish. When Simon saw what Jesus had done, he recognised that he was in the presence of the Son of God, and his sinfulness was exposed by his holiness: “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man!” It’s the same confession of Isaiah in today’s Old Testament reading, when he realised he was in the presence of the Holy God: “Woe to me…I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips…and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” (Isaiah 6:5).
You might remember from last week, when we heard Jesus preaching in the synagogue of his hometown Nazareth, how deep this problem of human sinfulness is—the bondage of the will in rejecting Jesus. But we also heard how Jesus rescues people from this condition, by setting them free through the gospel—recreating spiritually alive hearts out of dead ones to receive his word in faith. This miracle had happened for Simon—the miracle of faith from a changed heart.
Simon demands that Jesus depart from him—not because he rejects Jesus, but because in faith he realises that he, a sinful man, is unworthy and undeserving of remaining in the presence of a holy God. Jesus brings a great miracle to Simon, again by the word he speaks: “Do not be afraid, from now on you will catch people.”
“Do not be afraid.” This is in effect an absolution; a washing away of Simon’s sin. For the opposite of fear is peace. The opposite of separation from God is reconciliation into God’s favourable presence to be blessed by him. Jesus gives Simon peace by what he says to him: “Don’t be afraid.” Jesus is the one who proclaimed in the Gospel reading a few weeks ago that he would set the captives free. In today’s text, we see that he really does.
I think that what is most astonishing about today’s gospel reading is that Jesus not only forgives sinners, but calls them to share in his ministry to be his witnesses. I began by asking you to imagine you were on the shore of Lake Gennesaret. Now picture this: you see the water, but now it is clear and still, and a much smaller body of water than before. It is in a silver bowl that you see as you look towards the front of the church. It has been sprinkled over you, by Jesus. As he washes you clean, he says: “Do not be afraid, from now on, you will catch people.” He calls you to follow him.
Now…how does that sound? Unrealistic? More unbelievable than the miraculous catch of fish? Do you find yourself thinking a person is only worthy of God’s grace by how righteous they appear, or how well they worship? By how often they serve on a roster? By how nicely they speak? By how hard they work or how much they give? Do you find nagging doubt at the back of your mind—that there is something you still must do in addition to Jesus’ work to earn God’s approval, and be deserving of his calling of you?
There is nothing special at all about those whom Jesus calls in our text. They’re just ordinary human beings, blokes who fish for a job, who have done nothing special to earn the favour of God. In fact, Simon Peter would later deny Jesus three times, during Holy Week. Jesus knew that would happen…but he called him anyway. When we hear that the fishermen pulled their boats up on shore, left everything, and followed Jesus, it’s easy for us to marvel at their terrific obedience, and dedicated faith. We think this is why Jesus must have been pleased with them, and perhaps we try to work towards the same.
Simon and said: “From now on you will catch men.” So that’s what happened. Simon followed Jesus only because Jesus first called him—not because he deserved it, but because of God’s grace.
How does this change your view of God’s forgiveness and calling of you?
Jesus calls you to follow him in sharing the same message of forgiveness of sins that you yourself first received. He has worked his miracle in you as well. Jesus first called us with his powerful word, all the way back through the word and water of our baptism. This is true for you. And it is true for everyone else who sits in the pews today as well. The church goes on and the astonishing surprise is that God uses ordinary, everyday, sinners who he has redeemed to bring his grace to others. This is how Jesus builds his church. That I am here today is proof of that.
The miraculous haul of fish would teach the fishermen some valuable lessons about the ministry they were following Jesus in. And there are also some valuable lessons for us, the church today, as Jesus calls us to follow him in his mission and ministry to the lost.
We must rely on Jesus. In John 15 Jesus says: “I am the vine and you are the branches; apart from me you can do nothing.” At no time in the church’s history was the church more vulnerable than it was at Lake Gennesaret—some fishermen following Jesus. There was no church council, pastoral support team, ministry programs, youth groups or financial grants. Just some fishermen following Jesus. Everything would be dependent on him. Despite being professionals who had worked hard all night, the fishermen in our text hadn’t caught so much as a sardine. But when Jesus came on the scene and told them what to do, their nets were full—just like that.
May the church today not forget that despite our vision planning, goal setting and efforts at resourcing, the future of the church still depends on Jesus and his word by which the Spirit comes. For what Jesus says, happens. I wonder if those at Lake Gennesaret would have remembered the creation account: God said let there be…and it was so. Jesus still speaks in his church today, still teaching God’s word, still at work through what he says, still bringing freedom for the captives and sight for the blind.
So hear Jesus say to you: “Do not be afraid.” For nothing will overcome Jesus and end his church—not Satan, who Jesus overcame in the wilderness in chapter 4, not the crowd at Nazareth who tried to throw Jesus off the edge of a cliff, not even the incapability of sinful humans who by human strength just can’t do what God wants us to do.
“Do not be afraid.” Jesus has freed you to follow in his strength, to tell others that there is hope in the midst of darkness and gloom, that there is a loving and forgiving God, to tell of the peace the Saviour brings, to tell of the new beginning we have as his children, to tell of the ever present help of God in a world in bondage to decay—of light in the face of darkness and new life in the face of death. To tell that this is all, and only, through Christ—in whom God has revealed the fullness of his grace, love and glory to the world, and to you. Amen.
