SERMON – “Are we working hard…for nothing?”
Have any of you ever gone fishing with real rods and bait? Were you ever any good at it? What was the biggest catch you bagged?
I went fishing periodically with my dad but I was never particularly good at it. I always remember that such a lot of preparation was needed: checking the rods, preparing the right tackle—threading swivels, sinkers, and hooks, getting bait, buckets for the fish, eskies with ice, stocking the tackle box with pocket knives, lures and other equipment needed. If we were lucky enough to catch anything, the scaling, gutting and filleting seemed to take forever and by the time we had finished, there was something the size of a fish finger in the frying pan. So much work for very little reward!
It’s not so bad when a day of recreational fishing turns out like that, but if fishing was your livelihood, working so hard for no return would be extremely stressful, putting your business at risk. That’s what happened to Simon Peter. He’d been fishing with his colleagues on the Lake of Gennesaret (more commonly known as the Sea of Galilee—a freshwater lake nestled among the hills of Galilee and Golan Heights). They had worked all through the night, but hadn’t bagged as much as a sardine.
On that particular day, Jesus happens to be standing on the shore of the lake. A large crowd had surrounded Jesus, listening to the word of God. The crowd is so large that Jesus needs some breathing space. So Jesus gets in one of two unoccupied boats at the water’s edge—the one belonging to Simon—and teaches the crowd from the water. When he had finished speaking, Jesus told Simon to move into deep water and let down the nets for a catch.
You can hear the frustration in Simon’s voice: “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything.” But Simon respectfully adds: But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” Nothing else has worked, so it’s worth a try.
When they had done what Jesus said, their catch was so great that their nets began to break, and they had to call their mates to come and help them. Both boats were so loaded with fish that they began to sink under the weight. Imagine that astonishing sight!
By this miracle Jesus reveals himself as not just Joseph and Mary’s son from Nazareth, but the Son of God with the same divine nature as his Father in heaven. 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 these fishing nets to be filled with an abundance of fish.
Such a plentiful catch would have saved Simon’s fishing business! But today’s text isn’t about supplying big catches of fish to haul off to the cannery. Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch people.” Today’s text is about saving people so they inherit the Kingdom of God. So what does this episode teach us, here, today, at St Paul’s?
First, our text teaches us to put first things first. How does Luke 5 begin? “One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God…” Listening to the teaching of Jesus is essential for life as God’s people. We cannot know God, his will or follow him without first listening to his word. It was only because Jesus instructed Simon what to do that they made their massive catch.
Second, we must depend on God to work faith in people. In our text, all human efforts for a catch had failed. Simon and co had worked hard through the night for not even a tiddler. Yet at Jesus’ word, the boats start sinking under the weight of the catch. Jesus waited for the fishermen’s efforts to come to nothing, to teach Simon to rely on him. Jesus is teaching us too. We might work hard, putting our energy into what we think is right, exerting great effort, night and day…yet our nets still seem empty. But rather than going to Jesus last, when our efforts come to nothing, we must go to him first. We cannot apply worldly, business strategies to mission and expect converts. Our own efforts will not fill our empty nets, for the church is not ours to build. Only Jesus is the author and perfecter of faith (Hebrews 12:2). God goes to work through his powerful word:
As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:10-11)
Third, Jesus is to be trusted to provide what we need. Our text concludes with the disciples leaving everything they had and willingly following Jesus. That doesn’t mean that they didn’t need money at all, or a place to stay. But it meant they were not to trust in their own abilities of providing what they needed, trusting instead in God alone. If Jesus was able to overload their boats with fish, he was able to provide their daily bread. They were to trust that God would provide what was needed, and they would never be without. That is true for our congregation too—God will provide our finances, our resources and equipment, the people we need, and the converts he wants us teach and care for. Jesus brought Simon to the end of his abilities—an empty net. Our empty nets in the congregation are a test of faith; to teach us to prioritise God and trust him alone. When we are in that position of vulnerability, going to God each day as beggars for what we need, then we are truly more blessed than the most wealthy on earth.
Fourth, we are not called to achieve results or outcomes but grow in faith. The large catch of fish demonstrated Jesus’ authority and power in working so miraculously, but this is not his benchmark by which to measure the success of the church. We are simply called to follow Jesus. That is the first thing we are to concern ourselves with, following Jesus by coming to his word, coming to worship, coming to Holy Communion so that he can go to work in us. In Matthew’s account of this, Jesus says: “Follow me and I will make you fishers of people” (Matthew 4:19). “I will make you”. As Simon and the disciples followed Jesus, they were mentored by him, learned from him, and were taught the Scriptures by him, to see the world less through human eyes and more through eyes of faith; to see what the Kingdom of God is like and how he works, growing to be more like Christ and less of themselves. So too this is God’s will for us; for this congregation. That is what Paul pictures when he says in Ephesians that we “…all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature adulthood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ…” (Ephesians 4:13).
Fifth, God uses ordinary people, freeing them for a new life for him. One of the greatest anxieties we can have about participating in God’s mission to the world is that we don’t know enough; we won’t do well enough, we are not good enough; not holy enough or spiritual enough, or that it won’t work, or that we’ll mess things up. God doesn’t choose super-spiritual, super-good people, who have all the theological answers. God doesn’t want us to be super spiritual with people, he wants us to be normal with people, real with people. He wants us to be ourselves with people, because that’s what people really need, in the fears, failings, brokenness and pain they have. Jesus chooses to use ordinary, everyday people like us, with everyday jobs and life situations. Jesus doesn’t choose the qualified but is in the business of qualifying those he has chosen. He said: “I will make you fishers of people.” He uses what we have, even when we think it would be too little for God to work with. Notice that Jesus used Simon’s boat by which to preach to the crowd.
And because Jesus uses ordinary people, he uses sinful people to reach sinners with his salvation. There is nothing in our text to indicate that Simon or his partners deserved such a privileged calling in following Jesus. In fact the very opposite: when Simon saw what Jesus had done, he recognised that he was in the presence of the Son of God. He fell on his knees in humility before Jesus and said: “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man!” Simon realised that he was unworthy and undeserving of remaining in the presence of a holy God.
The same Jesus who stood on the lakeshore stands here in the sanctuary again today, in this seaside congregation. The crowd is different: today we are the ones gathered around the Son of God. For us who recognise our sinfulness and unworthiness to be in the presence of the Holy Son of God, for those in the midst of fears and anxieties for your life situations, for the church, for the global political scene, and your own conscience and standing before God, Jesus’ response to Simon is his same response to you. He is standing here and through his word proclaims to you: “Do not be afraid”.
“Do not be afraid.” This is in effect an absolution; a washing away of Simon’s sin that bring peace and a new beginning, in which Simon and his colleagues left everything and followed Jesus. It is the same peace of a new beginning with God through faith in Christ that he brings to you, here today.
Jesus has given up everything for you—his own life—to reconcile the world to God. He has already done all the hard work as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He has redeemed us by his precious blood. As a congregation may we always, together, rely on Jesus alone. May we prioritise following Jesus by coming to his word, gathering around him there, listening to him teaching us. May we never forget that the future of the church still depends on Jesus and not on us. It depends on him creating and sustaining the faith of his people by his powerful word which will endure forever. May you hear Jesus say to you: “Do not be afraid” as you follow him in his grace, strength and truth, to tell others that there is hope in the midst of darkness and gloom, that there is a loving and forgiving God, who has stepped into our world in bondage to decay—to reveal God’s light in the face of darkness and life in the face of death. Amen.
