Fishing for People
January 24, 2021

Fishing for People

Passage: Luke 5:1-11
Service Type:

NOTE: Prayer for Illumination, Scriptures and Sermon begin 2:02

Fishing for People
Have you ever known a fisherman? I do not mean people who enjoy fishing as a recreational sport, but a person who earns his or her living by catching fish. I have only known one such person in my life, and it was many, many years ago. Captain Saunders operated a small fleet of wooden boats out of the marina at our village in Sharps, Virginia. Sharps is located on the Rappahannock River that feeds into the Chesapeake Bay.

In the summer, Captain Saunders set out crab pots to catch the Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs that filled the river. In the fall, he tonged the oyster beds of the river. He had a small fish house with an ice plant. He employed a number of women for the seasonal work of picking crabs and shucking oysters. Captain Saunders also put out gill nets in the fall to catch Rockfish, a delicious sea bass that make their way up the brackish waters of the river in the fall and early winter.

The captain’s face and neck and arms and hands were weather beaten by the elements. His stocky frame was strong but stiff from years of hard labor. But he was a kindly soul to young boys like me who visited the fish house to see the day’s catch or to watch the women picking crabs or shucking oysters with remarkable skill and speed.

Captain Saunders is who I think of when I try to imagine Simon Peter, his brother, Andrew, and their co-laborers, James and John. Only Simon is named initially in this morning’s text from Luke, but we can safely infer the presence of Andrew too. The sons of Zebedee are mentioned by name at the end of the passage.

The lake Gennesaret was the Sea of Galilee. It was famous in the ancient world for its rich commercial fishing. The lake was fished mostly from boats, at night, close to the shore, and with the aid of cast nets. One of the fishing boats from the period was discovered by archeologists and now resides in the Yigdal Allon Museum in Israel. The boats were about thirty feet long, relatively broad in the beam and flat-bottomed for stability. They also had a shallow draft so they could maneuver close to shore.

Peter and his companions had fished all night. No doubt they were exhausted from their labors. They had not managed to catch anything, and so they busied themselves washing their nets.

Jesus was standing near them on the lakeshore. A large crowd assembled to hear the Word of God. The crowd sensed something unique about Jesus. He had done many wonders in Capernaum. He healed the sick and liberated people oppressed by evil spirits. But he also taught the Word of God with authority.

Jesus’ presence created a spiritual hunger in the crowd. They were like the psalmist who prayed, “As the deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?” (Ps. 42:1-2). Luke tells us that the people were pressing in to be near Jesus, to touch him. The wonders and the Word of God were slaking their spiritual thirst. In Jesus they were glimpsing the face of God.

In order to continue preaching the Word of God, Jesus was forced to get into a fishing boat and put out a little way from the shore. For this, Jesus enlisted Simon Peter’s help. Jesus and Simon had met previously. Look at Luke 4:38-39. “After leaving the synagogue he entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked him about her. Then he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. Immediately she got up and began to serve them.” Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law and enjoyed a meal in Peter’s home. And so, Peter was glad to be of assistance to the Master.

When Jesus was finished speaking to the crowds, he spoke the Word of God to Peter. “When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, 'Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch'” (vs. 4). Now Peter was a fisherman. He knew that the time to fish was at night near the shore, but in deference to Jesus, Peter agreed. “Simon answered, ‘Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets’” (vs. 5). They gathered their nets and set out for deep water

Then something completely unexpected happened. “When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So, they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink” (vs. 6-7). This was far more than our daily bread. The huge haul of fish was enough to sell and feed the multitudes. Imagine two thirty-foot boats brimful with fish. This was no subsistence living. It was like winning the lottery!

The catch was something completely out of the ordinary. The maker of heaven and earth, who could command the storm and walk upon the billowing waves, also commanded his living creatures, and the fish obeyed. James and John and Peter and Andrew and the others were amazed by the catch of fish that threatened to burst their nets and sink their boats.

But only Peter uniquely grasped what he was witnessing. “But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’” (vs. 8). The Lord God Almighty had appeared to him and was standing in the boat with him. In the presence of the holy God, Peter became aware of his sinfulness. Peter’s response to the epiphany of God is akin to the prophet Isaiah’s experience. “The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. And I said: ‘Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’” (Isa. 6:4-5).

Peter first addressed Jesus as “master” (cf. v.5). Now Peter calls Jesus “Lord.” “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Essentially, Peter was saying, “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner” or “Forgive me” or something like “What is the Holy One doing here with a sinner like me?” Peter felt profoundly unworthy to stand in the presence of God.

Unlike Isaiah’s experience of seeing God in the Jerusalem temple that was followed by the seraph touching his unclean lips with a burning coal and declaring, “Your guilt has departed, and your sin is blotted out” (Isa. 6:7), Jesus pronounces no remission of sin. Instead, Jesus says to Peter and the others, “Do not be afraid” (vs. 10b)! It was, after all, the year of the Lord’s favor, the year of Jubilee. Debts were forgiven, and people were set free and restored. The work of liberation was what really mattered now.

And so Jesus says to them, “From now on you will be catching people” (vs. 10c). Many people have observed that this is a problematic metaphor. The image of luring people to bite a baited hook or of entangling them in a net against their will is off-putting. But such qualms overtax the metaphor and miss its main point. Jesus was calling and commissioning Peter and the others to bring people by the boatload into the kingdom of God.

Just as the crowds sensed the presence of God in Jesus Christ and left off their normal endeavors to follow him, listen to him, and draw near to him, Peter and his companions, having witnessed God manifest in the flesh, abandoned their former lives and found a completely new purpose for being a creature of God. “When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him” (vs. 11). They did not bother to cook some fish or to sell their boats and the catch. They did not take time to wash their nets. They did not rest after laboring night and day. They left everything and followed Jesus. They became fishers of men and brought boatloads of Jews and Gentiles into the kingdom of God.

They were not afraid of rejection or persecution. As I read and studied and prayed over this text, the words of the relatively obscure hymn “They Cast Their Nets in Galilee” came to me again and again.

They cast their nets in Galilee,
Just off the hills of brown.
Such happy, simple fisher-folk,
Before the Lord came down.

Contented, peaceful fishermen,
Before they ever knew
The peace of God that filled their hearts
Brimful, and broke them too.

Young John who trimmed the flapping sail,
Homeless on Patmos died.
Peter, who hauled the teeming net,
Head down was crucified.

The peace of God, it is not peace,
But strife closed in the sod.
Yet, Brothers, pray but for one thing –
The marvelous peace of God.

After that moment in the boat, the lives of Peter, James, John, and Andrew were never the same again. One holy passion filled all their frames. Their purpose was to catch ordinary people up into the kingdom of God and bring them safely into the boat of the Church. A ship or a boat is an ancient symbol of the Church. Look at the rafters of the ceiling in the sanctuary. They are like the ribs of a boat turned upside down. This is a place of safety where people can experience the living God. God is our Father. The Church is our mother. Jesus Christ is the unchallenged Lord of this place.

It is hard to imagine during a pandemic, and truth be told, even before the pandemic, but God would have this building teaming with people of every age, gender, race, and nationality. We should begin now to pray for the countless people who have been traumatized by the pandemic, by sickness, by death, by isolation, by economic hardship, and by political turmoil, that they will return to God. People are still like the thirsty deer longing for flowing streams of water, but they may not know how to slake their thirst. People are still like the crowds that pressed in to hear the Word of God and be near to Jesus, but they may not realize it is Jesus who satisfies the hungry heart. People are still like Peter, who said, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful creature.”

And what Jesus said to Peter he says to all who follow the master who is also the LORD: “Do not be afraid!” It is the year of the Lord’s favor. There is forgiveness and freedom, Jubilee and liberation. There is a new purpose for being human.

Have you ever known a fisherman? I have, and it is not just Captain Saunders. They are seated before me and watching on Facebook. Like Peter, we feel our unworthiness, but God sees our usefulness in his kingdom work. Let us find our purpose -- catching people up into the kingdom of God and bringing them safely into the church. Let this be the one holy passion filling all our frames. And by God’s grace and power may this place teem again with people hungering and thirsting after Jesus Christ, who is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30).

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All glory be to God. Alleluia! Amen.