Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen!
The preaching continues! Again our Lord Jesus is preaching the word and proclaiming the Kingdom of God. He preaches in Nazareth; He preaches in Capernaum. Today He preaches at the shore of the Sea of Galilee, which Luke calls the Lake of Gennesaret. Same body of water. Here the ‘synagogue’ is an informal gathering. There is a a crowd that has formed and is pressing in on Jesus, eager to hear the Word. His pulpit is Simon’s fishing boat which Jesus presses into service. The fishermen were mending their nets after a frustratingly fruitless night of work, and the boat would provide a little distance between Jesus and crowd so everyone could hear, like an amphitheatre across the water.
Now Fishing, like farming, was potentially lucrative and always difficult! And Fishermen tend to be rather leary lot of people and for good reason. If you stop and think about it for a second, you can see why. Fishermen can’t see what they’re trying to catch. It might be an old boot or it might be Jaws! You have no idea! You’re at the mercy of the wind, the waves, the seasons, the unpredictability of fish. These guys in the Gospel didn’t have sonar to locate the fish or GPS to guide them reliably to a location. They had to rely on experience, instinct, and a lot of random chance. And it seems the chance wasn’t too productive the night before.
The boys had laboured through the whole night and caught nuttin’. Totally skunked. It’s frustrating, tiring, tedious. You’ve likely been in the same boat once or twice in your day too, I’d reckon. You slave away like crazy and have nothing to show at the end of the day, or sometimes longer. I’m sure the fishermen were not in a terribly good mood on the seashore that day as they cleaned their nets for the next night. They were probably just eager to get the chores done so they could grab a meal and catch 40 winks. But here is Jesus to disrupt their plans. He wants to borrow Simon’s boat so he could use it as a pulpit. It’s time to go to church! What’s a fisherman to do?
So they push Simon’s boat out a bit, and Jesus sits down and teaches the people. And here’s another example of the Bible not telling us information we’d like to know. Luke doesn’t record a word of Jesus’ boat sermon. All he tells us is that when Jesus finished speaking, He turns to Simon and says, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch” (LK 5:4). I imagine that the fishermen kind of stopped, looked at each other, and muttered to themselves, “What does He know about fishing, anyway?” He grew up a carpenter for cryin’ out loud! And now He’s a travelling rabbi, not a fisherman! Real fishermen knew that it’s easier to fish in the shallows rather than the deep. And, you wait until nightfall, when the fish come up to the shallows to feed. You don’t cast your nets into the deep water at midday. That’s just a waste of time and energy.
“Master, we toiled all night and took nothing!” (LK 5:5) Peter says. It was quite literally a copious experience! But we see that Simon trusts Jesus’ word. He believes Him. And that’s the point of this miracle and indeed all miracles: trust the Word of Jesus. “But at your word I will let down the nets.” We see that Simon trusts the word of our Lord even over his own years of experience as a fishermen. Tired. Hungry. Grouchy. Against all knowledge and conventional wisdom. Simon Peter believes.
This is the faith point, taking Jesus at His Word. Just like Abraham believed the Lord and He credited to him as righteousness. Just like the servants at the wedding feast at Cana who filled those clay jugs with water and then shared it to the guests. They took Jesus at His Word. So, down go the nets, and lo and behold! Against all logic and reason, the fish swim into the nets like moths to a flame! The nets are busting-full of fish, and the boats are in danger of sinking under the weight of all of them. And for a moment at least, Simon and the rest of the fishermen must have been thinking, “Whaaaaaaa?! This is awesome! Jesus’ new nickname is Humminbird! He is the ultimate fish finder! Boys, we’re gonna be filthy rich!” But Simon Peter’s eyes shift from all the flopping fish in the boat to Jesus, and this big tough fisherman falls to his knees in humility and says, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (LK 5:8).
It’s like that scene from Wayne’s World when Alice Cooper invites Wayne and Garth to hang out. “We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy!” And this is exactly how Simon responds. It’s the same thing with Isaiah when he has his vision of the Lord sitting upon His throne surrounded by the seraphim! “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!” (Isa 6:3). And God truly is holy and people truly are not. This is why Peter hits his knees in humility and repentance. He fully recognizes it. Notice Simon doesn’t say “I have sinned, O Lord” or “I have made bad choices, O Lord” or “I forgot to return my library books, O Lord.” No, no, he confess “I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Right to my very nature I am sinful in thought, word and deed. My essence and core are unholy in contrast to this thrice Holy God who stands before me. Isaiah says the same thing “I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips.” Isaiah knew that an unholy sinner may not look upon a holy God and live. He knew what he was – a sinner, whose lips and life were anything but pure and holy. And yet here he is standing in the presence of Yahweh Sabbaoth, the Lord of hosts. But the Lord of hosts is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. A fire angel takes a burning coal from the incense altar and touches it to Isaiah’s lips. Did it hurt? Isaiah doesn’t say. This is Gospel fire, like the burning bush that did not burn up where the great I AM was revealed to Moses. This is a fire that purifies the unclean, that declares the sinner righteous, that speaks the absolving word “your guilt is taken away, your sin atoned for” (Isa 6:7).
This is how a sinner can stand in the presence of the Holy and the Almighty and live to tell about. Your guilt must be taken away, sin must be atoned for. Jesus, standing in the boat on the Sea of Galilee, is the atoning sacrifice. He is the guilt-bearer, the Lamb who takes away not only the sin of the world but also yours. All we can do is what Isaiah and Simon Peter did – admit it, own it, confess it. We are sinful and unclean, in thought, word and deed. Simon Peter knew it; Isaiah knew it; you know it too. Our Lord Jesus does here for you what He did for Isaiah in the temple that day. He baptizes you with the fire of the Holy Spirit. He burnishes your lips with the hot coal of forgiveness in His body given into death to save you; His blood shed for you as the atoning sacrifice of your sins. He puts the Word of forgiveness into your ears which are the doorway to the heart, as faith comes by hearing the Word.
“Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men” Jesus tells them. Career change is on the horizon, boys! Apostles. From fishin’ to Clergy! From ordinary to the extraordinary! This is yet another reminder that God doesn’t call the qualified. He qualifies the called. No longer would they be finding fish with nets. Now they would be netting people for the kingdom of God, fishing for men, casting out the net of Jesus’ death and resurrection far and wide. In likely places and in unlikely places, in the shallows but also in the deep. And trusting the Word and wisdom of Christ our Lord. His way, not our way. His time, not our time. His Word and His ways of Baptism, Communion, forgiveness. Snatching sinners out of the depths to life and freedom. Don’t be afraid, He tells us. For not death or life, nor angels, nor powers, the past, the present, the future, not height or depth or anything in all creation. You are in the same boat with Jesus, now and forever more. Amen!
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