In the first century AD the Roman author Pliny the Elder wrote about a sea monster. It troubled a town near the straights of Gibraltar, where it stole fish and lashed people and dogs with its tentacles. It had a body as big as a cask, a 135-gallon barrel. Its tentacles were 30 feet long and covered with suckers. The townspeople finally fought it with spears and killed it. It weighed 700 pounds.
Today there are a lot of people who think Pliny might have been giving the first description of a giant squid. Sure, it’s embellished a bit. Squids don’t come up on land to steal fish out of barrels and whip people with their tentacles. But what was thought to be a mythical monster for many years was finally caught on video in 2012, in its native habitat 2500 feet below the surface of the sea.
The sea has always been full of wonders and mysteries. But when Pliny was a child in the Roman empire a much greater wonder and mystery took place on the sea than any sea monster. God incarnate sat in a little fishing boat. He demonstrated his power over the sea and everything in it, and his love for sinners. We have been caught by Jesus.
Our Gospel for today from Luke 5 is from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, when he was first calling his disciples. Jesus had actually met some of these men already, down south near Jerusalem, by the Jordan River where John the Baptist was baptizing.
Now they were all back up north in Galilee. Jesus was beginning to preach the Gospel and Peter, Andrew, James, and John had gone back to fishing. Jesus went to Nazareth, his hometown. He wasn’t there for very long, because the people there didn’t want to listen to what he had to say. So left and went to Capernaum, a town by the sea. I don’t know if anyone ever claimed that there were sea monsters in the little Sea of Galilee, or Luke uses one of its other names, the Lake of Gennesaret. There was a lot of fishing that went on there though, and that sustained towns like Capernaum.
Jesus’ reception in Capernaum was very different from his reception in his hometown of Nazareth. Here people came to him in droves because they wanted to hear his teaching.
In that way, these early days of Jesus’ ministry were truly something special. Nobody was coming there expecting a show. They weren’t coming to see some miracles. It wasn’t like later on when the Pharisees and Sadducees were constantly coming to him with questions designed to trap him. No, this was plain and simple, people wanting to hear the Gospel. May that always be the focus of our church too, that we be a gathering of people who, plain and simple, want to hear the Gospel!
The only problem was that there just wasn’t enough space. They were by the sea and people were crowding in so that the people in the back couldn’t see or hear Jesus. And Jesus certainly didn’t want people to be neglected. So he just happened to be by a boat, and he asked that boat’s owner to paddle out from shore a little so that he could teach the whole crowd, and that boat’s owner just happened to be Simon Peter.
This was the same guy Jesus had met down by the Jordan River. He was the same guy whose brother Andrew had come to get him saying, “We’ve found the Messiah!” He was the same Simon who had been given the name Peter by Jesus.
What a coincidence! But, of course, with God there are no coincidences. Jesus wasn’t there by accident.
Luke tells us how Jesus taught the people for a while as they stood on the shore and then when he was done he had something for Peter. He told Peter to put out into the deep water and let down his nets for a catch.
These were strange instructions, and a good fisherman like Peter would have noticed immediately. These go against every bit of good advice a fisherman would normally follow.
Right now? In the middle of the day? Everyone knows the best fishing is at night. And in the deep water? These are drag nets. They don’t work in deep water. And not only that, but it’s clearly just not the right day for fishing. He informed Jesus, “Master, we worked hard all through the night and caught nothing.”
Obviously he’s not going to do it, right? Or at least he shouldn’t He’d be much better off getting everything cleaned up and put away and then getting some rest so that he’d be ready to go for the next night. Hopefully the fishing would be better then.
But that’s not what he did. Instead, he told Jesus, “But at your word I will let down the nets.”
What would lead a seasoned fisherman to respond like that to follow such bad advice? He wasn’t following his reason. He didn’t ask Jesus to explain himself and only then say, “Well, I suppose you make some good points, I’ll consider it.” Instead, it was faith, faith on the basis of Jesus’ word.
There are times when asking questions and putting to work all your ability to reason is a good thing. Far too many people never think twice about what it is that they’re taught. That’s a great way to get yourself led in totally the wrong direction. Even at church—especially at church!—you should pay attention to sermons with critical care. You should go to Bible study. You should learn God’s Word so well that if a pastor starts teaching something that’s wrong then you can be the one to point it out. As Jesus put it, “My sheep know my voice.” But when the voice of God is speaking we also ought to be ready to silence our reason and hold our questions and humble ourselves like Peter and say, “At your word, I will believe. At your word, I will act.”
After all, would God deceive us? Would he command something that is for our harm? So often we think that we know better than he does. We look at his law as a burden, or as something for other people, or as something that can be twisted and molded into what we want it to be. It’s as if we were in Peter’s place saying, “Look, Jesus. I’m the fisherman here. You might know the Word, but I know this lake. I know the fish. I know my life and what’s best for me. You stay in your lane. I’ll stay in mine.”
If Peter had responded that way, then there would be no catch of fish. What great blessings do we miss out on when we aren’t quick to heed Jesus and follow him at his word?
It was all by God’s grace that Peter didn’t respond that way. The Holy Spirit was working in Peter’s heart so that he was quick to trust Jesus and the miracle that resulted was a true wonder and mystery. He caught fish! So many fish that the nets were about to tear. So many fish that he signaled his partners to bring the other boat. So many fish that both boats were filled to the point of sinking. Jesus knew the Gospel and he had come there to preach. But Jesus also knew the lake and he knew every living creature above and below it. He’s the Lord of all Creation who put them there.
Peter had gone after Jesus before, after hearing that Jesus was the Messiah, but there’s something special about seeing what that means like this. Except Peter wasn’t jumping for joy at this miracle. He wasn’t even thinking about the fish. He was thinking about his own heart and who it was who was sitting with him in his boat. So Luke says
8When Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, because I am a sinful man, Lord.” 9For Peter and all those with him were amazed at the number of fish they had caught.
Peter was right. He didn’t deserve to have Jesus in his boat. He didn’t deserve to be in the same room. He was a sinful man, and Jesus the holy and righteous Son of God. But why stop there? He didn’t deserve to have Jesus on his lake. He didn’t deserve to have Jesus in the same country, or on the same continent, or even the same globe. But he was missing something important. Jesus wasn’t there in Peter’s boat because Peter deserved it. He was here to catch Peter for himself and make him his own.
And that’s what Jesus has done for you and me too. We’re no more deserving than Peter to have Jesus come into our boats or our cars or our homes or our lives. But he has, not because of our righteousness but because of his great mercy and love. He knew Peter, just as well as he knew all the fish in that sea. He knew Peter’s heart. He knew Peter’s sins. And he loved Peter with a love that was ready to die on a cross for him to reel him in as a catch for heaven.
“Have no fear,” Jesus told Peter. And that’s what he says to you too when you consider your sinful state and how very far you are from God, like a creature that lives out its whole life in the dark depths of the sea. He hasn’t come for you with the harpoons of the Law. No, he’s the one who was pierced for you.
Jesus caught Peter for himself and trained him and sent him out to catch people for the kingdom of heaven. He caught you too, and gives you a part in that same work, and a home in that same place. Praise God for such a great wonder, greater than all the wonders of nature, and for such a great mystery, more mysterious than all the creatures of the sea. In undeserved grace and mercy and love, you’ve been caught by Jesus. Amen.