Last Sunday’s scripture ended on a bit of a sour note. Jesus is on his way to Capernaum, having avoided the wrath of his hometown after telling them that their covenant-god was extending grace to not only them but to all people, even the gentiles, even the oppressive Roman soldiers and leaders, even the imposter religious authorities. God’s renewed people are not a select few at the exclusion of everyone else, but a welcoming family that seeks out the oppressed, the poor, the marginalized, and the left behind of every people group and nation. In Luke chapter 4 just before our current passage this morning, the temptation of each character is to distract and hold Jesus back from his mission, his calling as Messiah. The devil, the people of his hometown, and even the crowds in Capernaum in Luke 4 are all trying to hold Jesus to themselves, attempting to keep the potential of God’s renewed people to their own little group. They want Jesus’s healing power and teaching authority to be theirs to control and extend as they want to, but Jesus reminds them that the mission goes much farther than the little towns of central Galilee. Cana, Nazareth, and Capernaum have all gotten a taste of how the will and way of Jesus will transform the world, but they have yet to realize that the message of Jesus cannot be held in or controlled. It will only spread as Jesus continues to wander, teach, and heal. The freedom from sin, brokenness, and evil that Jesus is bringing into the world is for everyone.
When we enter the scene along the sea of Galilee or what Luke calls the lake of Gennesaret, Jesus has not too long before been interrupted in his attempt to rest and find some peace away from the crowds. As will often happen throughout Jesus’ ministry, the crowds find him and expect him to teach and heal. Jesus responds with compassion and heals many people. At the end of chapter 4, we realize that even Jesus needs time to rejuvenate, to take a break, to allow his body to rest. In Jesus, God has chosen to be limited by the rhythms of a human body, the very body that God was integral in creating long ago. The crowds seek him out even in his attempt to find some time alone, and Jesus cannot seem to get away. On this particular day, probably not too far from Capernaum along the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, the crowd is nearly pushing Jesus into the lake in their intent to be near him. Jesus asks Simon if he can use one of his boats to sit out in the lake and speak to the people. Simon agrees and helps Jesus get to a good spot, in which everyone could probably hear him. Along this portion of the shoreline, the surrounding countryside dips down steeper hillsides into the lake, so the people can sit on the hillside, listening to Jesus preach from the lake. It is Jesus very own natural amphitheater, a great way for many people to hear him without all of today’s technology. According to one scholar, if Jesus was in the exact right spot in relation to the hillsides along the lake, he would not even have to raise his voice for the whole crowd to hear him.
We must remember that Jesus does not know Simon Peter too terribly well at this point. Peter’s house is one of the first places that Jesus goes in Capernaum to eat with the family. We learn toward the end of chapter 4 after Jesus heals a man oppressed by a demon that he also heals Peter’s mother from a severe fever. I wonder if this is why Peter allows Jesus to teach from his boat, even though Peter is ready to pack up all of the nets after they have cleaned them and head home to rest. Is there already a special connection between Peter and Jesus that Peter is sensing? After Peter and his fishing partners, James and John, finish cleaning their nets, they prepare them for the next night. The fish in the Sea of Galilee are most easily caught during the evening and nighttime hours because they come closer to the surface of the water to feed. The risk of predators is far lower when it is dark, so fishermen had learned that the best fishing was at night.
When Jesus finishes teaching for the moment, he tells Peter, James, and John to take their boats again out into deeper water. Knowing the general wisdom of something that they had grown up doing, Peter responds to Jesus that there is no point in doing so. They have already fished all night and caught nothing. Yet, Peter still follows Jesus’s request and takes the boat out with his now clean nets to try and catch some fish. Peter is surprised when he begins pulling his net in, that it is loaded down and nearly pulls him out of the boat. He can hardly hold onto it. He calls out for James and John who come over in their boat to help take in this huge catch of fish. Peter’s heart must be racing as he and the others continue to drag in the net. Jesus had healed his mother, and Peter had followed Jesus’s requests even when they didn’t make sense. What could this mean? What was Jesus trying to tell them? A part of me wonders if the large catch of fish tied to what Jesus had been teaching from the boat, but Luke doesn’t offer us much added detail.
When Peter and the others reach the shore again, exhausted and spent, having had little rest to prepare them for the grueling task of bringing such a large catch in, Peter collapses at Jesus’ feet, even more aware than ever that this Jesus is different, different than all of the other wandering and healing teachers and preachers of the land. For the first time in Luke, Jesus is addressed as Lord, a title only attributed in the first century to Caesar by the Roman Empire or to God Almighty, the ancient god of Israel that had called the people from Egypt into covenant. We must note here that something again has changed between Peter and Jesus in this third conversation. In verse 5, Peter addresses Jesus as master and obediently takes the boats out onto the lake, indicating Peter’s respect for Jesus’s authority as a rabbi or teacher. When Peter calls Jesus “Lord,” it is a religious, political, and social statement that flies in the face of all that the Roman Empire offered its conquered peoples. Not only is Peter beginning to realize that Jesus is far more than just a Rabbi, Peter realizes that someone as great as Jesus should have nothing to do with him, a fishermen and day-laborer with little to offer. What a contrast with the stories that we talked about in chapter 4. Unlike the devil, the people of Nazareth, and the crowds around Capernaum who want Jesus and his power to stay only with them and renew their communities, Peter tells Jesus to go away because such holiness cannot be stained by his sinful presence.
Yet, Jesus does not respond by walking away from Peter as if in triumphant acknowledgement of Peter’s reverence and honor, but by walking toward Peter, telling him to not be afraid as the ancient Israelites had been afraid of the holy presence of God Almighty. Jesus has a purpose and plan for Peter much greater than fishing. What the larger catch of fish is foreshadowing for us is the larger catch of people who will follow in the Jesus way as the good news continues to spread through these new disciples. It is as if Jesus is saying to these fishermen, “Look at what we have already done together, creating an amphitheater from a boat and hillside and catching a huge load of fish in broad daylight. If you follow me in catching people, you will see and hear and do even greater things as we journey together.” After this moment, Peter, James, and John leave their family businesses, their livelihoods, entirely to follow this wandering, healing, teaching, and preaching rabbi Jesus.
So many dimensions of this story can be teased out this morning to reflect on for the coming week. There is an insert in your bulletin with a blank side, on which you could take a few notes if you so choose. I encourage you this morning to note one or two of the thoughts that I will offer you in the next few minutes; carry it with you, and chew on it over the next week. First and foremost, I will start with the end of the story. Peter, James, and John are beginning to realize who Jesus really is, which requires them to make a choice. Will they follow Jesus, or will they go a different way, their own way? This moment leads me to my first question: is Jesus Lord of your life? Have you made a decision to follow in the way of our Lord? Jesus has chosen each of us, exactly where we are in whatever messes that we are in, and called us to something greater, more meaningful, and more life-giving. Like the young fishermen along the Sea of Galilee, will you say yes to Jesus?
When I reflect on the whole story, I realize that it took 3 conversations between Jesus and Peter for Peter to really notice who Jesus was and how Jesus might be calling him. The first conversation involved letting Jesus sit out on the lake in his boat. The second conversation required that Peter submit what he thought he knew best (how to fish in the Sea of Galilee) to what Jesus was asking him to do, and Peter responded in obedience, even though he very well might have thought it was a waste of time. Finally in the third conversation (remember that 3 is an important Hebrew number, signifying completion and life), Peter responds to Jesus’s true identity as Lord. How many conversations has it taken for you to notice Jesus for who he truly is and for what Jesus is calling you to do? Maybe you’re still in conversation with Jesus, trying to convince him that you know better like Peter first did too.
In the presence of Jesus, Peter seems fully aware of how he falls short of who Jesus is. Peter’s humility, though, is not met with disdain or separation or abandonment. Instead, Jesus moves closer to Peter with compassion, care, and love, asking him to follow. Do you realize that you are called and chosen by God even before you have your life put together? Jesus has chosen and called each one of us to be members of his body, his hands and feet in the world today, not after we get our lives cleaned up but right in the middle of all of the messiness and brokenness and frustration and lapses in judgment and everything else. The true grace of our Messiah Jesus is that he came for the sick and the sinner, as we will find out from the rest of the story, not for those who are already healthy and put together, or at least think that they are put together.
Most importantly, are you prepared for what might come from following Jesus’ call? The load of fish might be too big for you alone; the journey might require losing everything in order to really find true life in the way and will of Messiah Jesus. Will you still follow?
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