Luke 5:1–16
A sermon preached at Geraldton Anglican Cathedral 9 May 2021
After the St James Massacre there was a lot of follow-up to be done. Eleven people had been killed and fifty wounded and all the families and friends needed serious attention. And there were any number of others. Some were traumatized just by having been there. Some were completely unharmed, but had sat next to someone who was shot. There was even someone who hadn’t attended church that night, but usually did, and the person who sat where they normally sat, was wounded by shrapnel from a hand grenade. So, Ross Anderson, whose command on the night I will never forget, set about organizing the follow-up. There was too much work for the church’s ministry team, and he had to call on different members of the congregation. Two brothers had died side-by-side, and a woman was asked if she would visit the family. She had never done any formal ministry, thought she might run into some deep hostility towards God, doubted her ability to do any good, but prayed that God would go before her, and phoned to make arrangements for a visit. There was one remaining brother in his teens who answered the phone. When he learned who she was, he asked could she tell him how to become a Christian. Over the phone she explained it as best she could. A person needed to see that they had offended God: they had ignored him, lived life as though he didn’t exist, broken his laws. Everyone stands under judgement. She repeated the Bible-verses she had been taught. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” “The soul that sins shall die.” “There is no one righteous, no, not one.” Then she explained that God loves us despite our rebellion, that Jesus was the Son of God, and came into the world to save us. He had died on the cross in our place, carrying our guilt on himself. Because of the cross we can be forgiven and set free for a relationship with God and eternal life. Again, she repeated the Bible-verses she had learned: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” “Jesus himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Next she explained how salvation was a free gift, but had to be received. We can do this by a simple prayer to God, acknowledging Jesus’ rightful lordship over our life, admitting our sinfulness, thanking him that Jesus died in our place, and asking him to help us turn to him and accept his gift of forgiveness. Again, she had verses: “If you confess with your lips, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you shall be saved.” “Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” This is something like what she explained to this boy over the phone. “Could you pray with me? he said, “I want to be a Christian.” Over the phone?” she said. But that was what he wanted, so she did her best. Then he said he had a friend with him who also wanted to become a Christian; could she explain that again for him. Having helped two young men make their peace with God, she eventually got to arrange the visit. In the end eight members of that family came to Christ because of the death of those two boys.
God works in mysterious ways. But let me ask, if someone asked you, “How can I find peace with God?” or “How can I become a Christian?” would you know what to say? For although no one’s story is the same as anyone else’s, still, if we read the Bible we can see a pattern.
We pick it up in today’s reading where Peter becomes a disciple. So far in Luke’s story we have heard nothing of companions, only that Jesus healed Simon’s mother-in-law after the synagogue service.
In the Gospel of Mark Jesus is walking by the Lake Galilee when he comes upon some men cleaning their nets after a night of fishing. He orders them to follow him, and they do. You scratch your head and wonder what was it that caused them to leave everything for an uncertain life on the road. In Zeffirelli’s movie, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus fixes them with his piercing eyes and orders them in his authoritative voice, “Come follow me!” and they get up like zombies to obey. However, in the Gospel of John we learn that they had met some time before, at the time of John’s revival mission. and had been getting around together for a while. Luke gives us Peter’s story of how he and three others became full-time helpers.
I don’t know whether Luke had met Peter. Or he could have got the story from his colleague, Paul. Three years after his conversion Paul spent fifteen days with Peter in Jerusalem, and as one scholar put it, they would have talked about more than the weather.
Peter and his friends were cleaning their nets in the early morning when Jesus asked if he might use one of their boats to teach from. Peter was pleased to be singled out. There was no need for James and John to come, but they got into their boat and followed anyway. They pushed offshore a bit and Jesus was able to teach without people treading all over him. His voice reflected from the water and he could be heard by a big crowd up the bank. How long he taught on this occasion we are not told; he was an entertaining speaker and could hold people’s attention for hours. When he finished, he gave orders to row out into the deep water and drop the net. At this point Peter begins not to be happy.
Jesus was a great teacher, and no doubt he had been a competent builder in his earlier life, but he was no fisherman, and besides, this was Peter’s boat and he was the commander here. Besides, they had fished all night and caught nothing. Then they had to sort out the boat, and clean their nets. They have been listening to Jesus for hours, and now he wants to fish. That means cleaning the nets all over again. When will they ever get some sleep? Peter was having dark thoughts about Jesus. Still, he kept them to himself. Jesus is an important person, so he has to be polite; besides he is flattered by the interest. But he must warn him they are not going to catch anything; you don’t catch fish in daylight in that part of the world. They put out the net.
I don’t know how long it took before they realized there was action down below, but from the moment they felt the weight excitement took over and all they could think of was fish.
In Cape Town they have a spotter on the mountain. When he sees a school of fish, he signals the men on the beach and they launch their boat and row out to enclose it with their long net. Then they row back to the beach and start pulling. It is exciting. Cars stop and people rush to help. It may take an hour or more to get the net to shore. I have seen a pile of fish weighing perhaps half a ton, before they load it into their utility. In all the excitement Jesus was forgotten, and all Peter and his partners could think about was hauling in the net.
It was about twenty kilometers from the coast, and dark. My uncle was a professional fisherman and always fished at night. We dropped our lines and for a while there was nothing. Then, one line jerked and then the other, and we knew the fish were on the bite. And then I tangled my line, and the swearing started. My uncle could swear, and I don’t imagine Peter was any different. When you get a fish’s spine in your finger—I can guarantee, there was much swearing and shouting that afternoon. They got so many fish they had to signal James and John to help. Not until the last fish was in did it hit Peter how it had all happened. And suddenly he was afraid—and ashamed. He didn’t know what to say. He fell on his knees: “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” That was when he began to be a true Christian.
I always look for a title for my sermons. I couldn’t get anything better for today than, “Jesus Gathers his Team:” pretty uninspiring, I thought. But during the week it hit me: “Commander.” From the very first moment, Jesus was in command. He was always in command. Peter thought he was commander, but God showed him otherwise. At the beginning of the story he is addressing Jesus respectfully; at the end he calls him Lord.
A lot of people manage to avoid God most of their life; they especially avoid Jesus. A few years ago I heard that one of my Dad’s friends had died. I knew him from visiting him with my Dad. He was a tough businessman, not always honest. He had no time for God or Jesus, though his wife did. “Peter—that’s my dad—you know how hard I work for my money. And she gives it all to the bloody church.” I knew the minister who would do the funeral, so I phoned to encourage him. “But don’t you know, he became a Christian two years ago, and has been coming to church regularly. We are burying him as true believer.” I was stunned. It took Parkinson’s disease, and then cancer, and a struggle with the fear of death; God just broke him down until he would face him. He had heard the gospel as a schoolboy and knew the way to God was through Jesus. When he finally faced Jesus, he found God.
You may be a teacher, or a boilermaker, or a businessman, or you may be studying, or retired and doing more than ever. But whatever you do, you get good at it. You like to talk about it. If you get the chance you will happily show someone else how to do it. My son-in-law gave me a tee-shirt: “Just retired. Knows a lot of things, and likes to talk about it.” Most of us have somewhere—something—where we feel we are in control. Then something happens and things are out of control. Will we let God take control? That is the question. I remember struggling against it, thinking that if I gave him an inch he might take over my life, and that would be awful. And then you realize that you are fighting your own Creator—that you always have been. You are not good, like you thought you were. We call this “awareness of sin”. Peter got it that day. You want him to go away, but at the same time you want him to stay. It can be frightening.
Simon was overwhelmed with the sense that God was in his boat. Not that he could explain that. The presence of the holy. It was the affect that Jesus had on people. Somehow, when he was present, God was present. And now Jesus says to him, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch men.” From now on his life would be under a new commander.
Picture yourself for a moment as commander of a boat, captain of your life. Many people are out there on the ocean: captaining their own ship, but they don’t know where they have come from, or where they are going, or what they are there for. They will have some fun—surfing, sailing, diving, days of perfect weather. There will also be storms and danger, and periods of endless boredom. But all too soon the voyage will be over and they will sink to the bottomless depths. Or, is it possible to hand over command to the risen Lord Jesus, and to discover where you come from, and where you are going?
Where are we going? With Jesus you are on your way to doing what you were created for, and eventually arriving at the promised kingdom of God. There will be days of fun and laughter, and you will not be spared the storms. And there is a task. Jesus told Peter that instead of fish he would be catching people. In a way that is true for every Christian. Jesus once said, “Whoever does not gather with me scatters.” Each one of us is a gatherer or a scatterer. We are either pointing people to Jesus—he is where life is to be had—or we point somewhere else: life is having fun, or fame or fortune or family, or sex or success, or whatever. Jesus promises that the end of the voyage with him will be life in a healed body in a healed universe. That is the choice before us all.
I must finish, but first let me remind you of the how this story fits in. At his baptism Jesus was appointed to conquer the world and rule it for God. He is immediately driven into the wilderness to face the Devil. He emerges the winner. He proclaims his kingdom in Nazareth and just escapes with his life. In Capernaum he teaches with authority and backs it up by commanding the demon to leave a possessed man. He orders the fever to leave a sick woman and heals the townspeople. Everything he does speaks of authority, and now he is commanding his followers.
There is one thing missing from Peter’s story: Peter realizes his sinfulness and the story jumps straight to his new job. There is nothing about forgiveness. It is one of the things that convinces me the story is real. Surely it should follow the pattern: sin, forgiveness, call—like in Isaiah’s story. “I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” That’s awareness of sin. Then a red-hot coal is brought from the place of atonement: “ See this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sins are forgiven. That’s forgiveness. And then comes the voice of the Lord: “Whom shall I send and who will go for us,” and Isaiah responds, “Here am I; send me!” Luke knows this pattern and follows Peter’s story with the story of the leper. Peter himself may have made the connection. A man comes to Jesus full of leprosy. It is how Peter felt when he realized the man in his boat was Lord of all. “If you want to, you can make me clean.” “I do want to,” Jesus said. “Be clean!” Sin – forgiveness – discipleship: you may have experienced it. If so, learn the pattern, and be ready to help someone else.