Luke 5:1-11 - A Strange Fishing Story - February 6, 2022

There’s something about the sport of fishing that lends itself to storytelling. Countless novels and films have been written and produced about fishing and fishermen. Many lake homes and cabins have a sign indicating that “Fishing Stories are Told Here.” Maybe it’s the long hours of waiting and watching, maybe it’s because many days fishermen are left empty handed, or maybe it’s men trying to justify spending hours on a lake instead of completing their honey-do list that leads to the concocting (or fabricating) of stories. I’d love to be able to tell you a spell-binding fishing story from my life, but my track record is probably better described as “worm-drowning” than it is fishing. So it’s a good thing that you’re not here to listen to my fishing story but to Jesus’ – and, as we will see, it’s a rather strange fishing story.

There are two literary details we should cover before we get to the story; details that help us frame the story in its proper context. Where the EHV translates one time, the literal translation is and it happened – the very same phrase used twice in Luke 2, when it happened that the time came for Mary to give birth to the Savior. With this phrase Luke is trying to catch our attention, to tell us that something big is about to happen. The second is that Luke makes it clear that this story isn’t about Jesus fishing for people in general. This is about him fishing for one particular person. Five times Simon (Peter’s Hebrew name) is used. James and John are called Simon’s partners and when Jesus issued the formal call into the apostolic ministry, he addressed Simon directly. This story is about Jesus fishing for Peter, the man who would become the leader and spokesman for the apostles – in good ways and in bad.

Here's the strange part: this wasn’t the first time Jesus had gone fishing for Peter. In fact, this story probably takes place about a year after Jesus had first called Peter (John 1:35-42). That time, on the banks of the Jordan River, Peter had left John the Baptist to follow Jesus because his brother Andrew had told him that Jesus was the Christ and John had pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God (John 1:36). In the following weeks and months Peter had witnessed Jesus turn water into wine (John 2:1-11), cleanse the temple (John 2:13-25), and reveal himself as the Savior of the world, to the promiscuous Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:1-42). And yet, a year later, when Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret (aka, the Sea of Galilee) – where Peter lived and worked – preaching and teaching the word of God, where was Peter? He was among the fishermen who were washing their nets. Jesus is using the net of the Gospel to draw schools of lost souls into the safety of the kingdom of God – and Peter isn’t interested. The Savior was proclaiming the saving Gospel, but Peter didn’t have time to listen or learn. He had left Jesus and gone back to his day job.

So Jesus goes fishing for this fisherman. Like a parent may try to redirect a misbehaving child, saying, “Can you help me with something?” Jesus asked [Peter] to put out a little from the shore. He sat down and began teaching the crowds from the boat. We aren’t given the text of Jesus’ sermon, but we know that he wasn’t teaching them “how to earn God’s favor,” or “how to have a better marriage or better behaved children,” or “how to have your best life now.” No, Jesus was undoubtedly teaching what he always taught: that these people were sinners who were doomed for hell and that there wasn’t anything they could do about it; that they were sadly mistaken if they thought that obedience to the Law of Moses could save them; that only he could and would keep the Law perfectly and offer the perfect sacrifice for sin; that only by trusting in him they could find life after death (John 11:25).

These lost souls eagerly fed on Jesus’ life-giving teaching – but Peter wasn’t biting. So when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water, and let down your nets for a catch.” And the story gets stranger. Peter is a professional fisherman. There were at least three good reasons that he was on the shore washing his nets that morning, not out fishing. First, he knows that you don’t use nets to catch fish in deep water – the deeper the water the more likely they will break as you pull them in (as the story itself proves). Second, he knows that the best time to fish isn’t during the day – when the bright sunlight reveals the net to the fish – but at night, when they can’t see it and swim right into it. Third, Peter had worked hard all through the night and caught nothing – and now that he’s just finished washing his nets, all he wants to do is go home and rest up for another night of fishing.

Two things tell you that Peter is upset; he’s not happy about this situation; he doesn’t want to be caught in the net of the Gospel. First, he calls Jesus Master – a term used in secular language for a slave master. “Ok, Jesus, you’re the boss. I’ll do whatever you tell me to do.” Second, Peter feels like the only reason Jesus has given this command is to berate him, to judge him, to condemn him – in other words, to bring the full force of the Law down on him for abandoning his Savior. Where do we see this? Jesus had commanded them to let down your nets for a catch (plural) and Peter responded (like a bratty child) I (singular) will let down the nets. Peter probably felt like a student who has been called into the principal’s office or a like a church member today when they receive a call or email from the pastor or elder requesting a meeting to talk about their neglect of worship and the means of grace. Ashamed. Guilty. Afraid. He’s adrift in the deep water of his own unworthiness and sinfulness.

Out in the deep water is where you find fish that aren’t hungry. Experienced fishermen know that you need to use different tactics, perhaps a special kind of bait to catch fish that don’t want to eat. And so that’s just what Jesus did with Peter. Peter had seen Jesus heal many diseases. He’d seen Jesus free people from demons (Luke 4:40-41). He’d seen Jesus cure his own mother-in-law’s fever (Luke 4:39). But he had still quit following Jesus. Jesus had been trying to lure him in with his words and works for a year. He had hooked him time and again, but he couldn’t yet land him in the boat. Muskie fishermen, especially, know the feeling. You fight a monster for 45 minutes or an hour, you get him right next to the boat – and then at the last moment, he shakes the hook and gets away. But what the bait of miracles, healings and exorcisms couldn’t do to land Peter – a boatload of fish (actually two boatloads) caught by a simple word from Jesus – did.

It may seem like the great catch of fish would be a good place to end this fishing story – but that’s not the real miracle in this story, and, as we read on, it just gets stranger. When Simon Peter saw [the great catch of fish] he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, because I am a sinful man, Lord.” Peter acknowledges Jesus as his Lord and God, but he commands – commands – Jesus to go away from him because he’s a sinful man. Isn’t that a strange reaction? Peter simply couldn’t believe what was happening. He was expecting a scolding and received forgiveness; perhaps expecting Jesus to toss him out of the boat in the middle of the lake in judgment and was given a boatload of fish instead. This is the irrationality of unbelief. Peter believed that Jesus had to get away from him because he was such a stinking, miserable sinner. He believed he wasn’t worth catching. He believed that Jesus couldn’t want anything to do with him – after all, he’d already abandoned him once.

Do you ever feel that way? Do you ever feel like the best place for Jesus in your life is far, far away? Do you ever imagine that your relationship with Jesus is that of a slave to his master – that coming to worship is more like reporting for duty, like punching a time-clock – than a break, a chance to rest, a vacation from the mundane work of washing your nets (or whatever your occupation happens to be)? Do you ever feel like Jesus just wants to expose all the things you’ve done wrong, rub your face in them, and then scream and yell at you to do and be better? Do you ever think the Gospel is only for better Christians, not for you? Or, do you know someone who feels that way about Christianity? Who imagines that Christianity is all about shame and guilt and laws and pulpit pounding pastors screaming at you to “be better and try harder”? It’s no surprise that Peter was afraid of Jesus – or that many people today still are. We have every right to be. He is God in human flesh. He is the Lord; he is holy. And we are not (Romans 2:9-18). Like Isaiah (Isaiah 6:1-8) and like Peter the only thing we deserve when we come here into the boat of the church, into the presence of Jesus, is to be berated, shamed, guilted and eventually condemned to hell. And yet, at the same time, that type of fear, that type of hopelessness has no place in a Christian’s heart. It’s despair – and despair is unbelief. It is a sin. A sin that shouldn’t result in commanding Jesus to get away from us but in repentance.

Repent of thinking that Jesus came to be a new Moses (John 1:17); a new Master with a sharper law and stricter demands. Repent of thinking that Jesus just wants to deprive you of rest on your day off and to double-down in your efforts to earn his love and grace. Repent of thinking that prayer, meditation on the Word, reception of the sacrament, Sunday school and Bible class are just additional tasks that Jesus gives so that you can earn your salvation. Repent of thinking that Jesus is angry with you. Because while Peter was right, that Jesus is the holy Lord of the heavens and earth – the reason he came to earth as a man to go fishing for lost sinners; he didn’t come into the world to condemn the world but to save it (John 1:17).

Have no fear, Jesus tells Peter. These are words of forgiveness, absolution and restoration. That’s the strangest part of this story of all, isn’t it? That while Peter had abandoned Jesus and only reluctantly obeyed Jesus’ command to cast his nets in deep water – that Jesus gave him far more than he ever would have asked or could have expected? Do you know what that strange behavior is called? It’s called grace. And it’s something that we don’t only read about in this strange fishing story – it’s something that we experience each and every day of our lives. We may try to run away from Jesus, but the simple fact that we are here is evidence that we haven’t been able to outrun the blessings of his grace. Just think of the boatload of blessings he has given you as proof of his love. Life and breath, food and drink, spouse and children, house and home. And those aren’t even the best ones. He gives you eyes to read his Word, ears to hear his absolution, skin to feel the cleansing water of Baptism, lips to receive the body and blood that he gave up and shed for your forgiveness. Even though each of us have repeatedly tried to flop out of Jesus’ boat, improperly viewing Jesus as a taskmaster who just wants more and more from us; Jesus hasn’t for one day stopped proving his love to us and casting out the net of his Word to catch us for eternal life.

It's a really strange fishing story, isn’t it? It’s not strange that Peter, that you, that I abandon Jesus, run away from him, tell him to get away from us – because we are miserable, rotten sinners who were born dead in sin, blind to grace and enemies of God, full of ourselves and not hungry for the Gospel. No, the strange part is that Jesus is so persistent in fishing for fish like us, fish that aren’t hungry; that don’t want to be caught – so that we may be brought into the safety of his church, into service in his kingdom, and finally, into the glory of heaven. It might be strange, but it’s the best fishing story that has ever been told – because it's not just Peter’s story, it’s yours and mine as well. Amen.