LUKE 5:1-11
Lesson Focus Despite our sinfulness, Jesus extends a call to us to participate in God’s mission of ‘catching people.’
Catch up on the Story So far in Luke’s narrative, we have witnessed Jesus’ miraculous birth, along with the miraculous birth of John the Baptist. Mary and Joseph lost Jesus in the Temple; John the Baptist grows and engages in his mission of preparing the way for the coming Messiah by calling Israel to baptism and repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
The two storylines that have marked this narrative since the beginning come together as John baptizes Jesus. Jesus, though he is sinless, is baptized by John as a sign of his commitment to God’s mission of healing and liberation for creation. Jesus is immediately tested as he spends forty days in the wilderness.
Resisting the temptation to become the Messiah in ways contrary to God’s call, Jesus begins his earthly ministry by reading scripture one day in the synagogue at Nazarene, Jesus’ hometown. On this occasion, Jesus declares his intentions to be the Messiah that God has called him to be, the one on whom the Spirit of God rests so that he might bring about good news to the poor and release to the captives. While this is initially received as good news, Jesus is ultimately rejected in his hometown because he also declares that his mission is also to those outside Israel.
The Word of God: Luke 5:1-3 This week’s passage begins with, “Once While Jesus was standing beside the lake….” That seems like a rather inauspicious beginning to such a wonderful story. In the beginning, we aren’t told any specifics about the date or time of this episode, only that there was one occasion, perhaps out of many, where Jesus was standing on the side of the Sea of Galilee. I know, Luke calls it the “lake of Gennesaret,” which the locals who inhabit that portion of the northwest shore would have called it (Green, 231). Indeed, this region is not far from where Jesus has just been, the area of Capernaum where he was casting out unclean spirits and healing Simon’s mother-in-law.
What is Jesus doing on the shore of the Lake of Gennesaret? It seems he’s doing what he has already often done there, speaking to the crowds that have gathered around him. Because of his remarkable power to heal and to teach, Jesus has acquired almost rock-star status. You can imagine the scene clearly in your mind. You’ve likely either been to a concert of some type or an athletic event, where there is a frenzied crowd who is intent on getting as close to the current celebrity as possible. If you haven’t experienced something like that as an adult, then likely you have as a child, like the times when your teacher in school brought something special to show the class and then invited everyone to gather around. If you were lucky to be in the front, you soon began to feel the crush of people at your back, the people who were trying to get a closer look. That’s what Jesus is experiencing. He’s a rock star, and everyone wants to be close to him. His back is to the lake while the shoreline rises to create a natural amphitheater.
Then, Jesus speaks. Eager to hear, the crowd surges forward in anticipation of catching the very words of God, though they don’t yet fully know that is what they are hearing. As the crowd inches ever closer, Jesus feels his feet getting wet. He is almost out of space. Looking around, he spots two boats. They belong to fishermen who have spent the night fishing and are now cleaning and mending their nets. In this region and on this lake, fishing was done at night with trammel nets dropped to the bottom and then gathered up to collect the fish. The nets used linen rope, so they were visible by the fish during the daytime, but at night, they went undetected (Green, 232). Jesus hops into one of the boats belonging to Simon. Sitting down, Jesus tells Simon, and presumably his crew too, to put out a little way into the lake. Without hesitation, Simon obeys Jesus’ command, and the boat is steered to an ideal place for Jesus to be heard by the pressing crowds.
Into the Deep: Luke 5:5-7 When Jesus was done teaching from the boat, he turned to Simon and instructed him to take the boat out into the deep water so that they could let their nests down once more. Now, it is the middle of the day, and no self-respecting fishermen who have already spent the night fishing, and unsuccessfully I might add, would think it was a good idea to do as Jesus says. Yet, Simon responds, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” The word that Simon uses to address Jesus is translated as “master” but is not one of the everyday words used to address those in religious leadership. It’s not rabbi, or teacher, or Lord. While the address isn’t religious, it does recognize Jesus as a person of authority to command a group toward a goal or purpose. By calling Jesus Master, Simon, who is the captain of the boat, relinquishes his authority to Jesus.
Even though no self-respecting fishermen would do as Jesus has commanded, Simon lets go of his authority and obeys Jesus’ command. Jesus is now captain of the boat.
Yielding control of the boat, Simon instructs his crew to do as Jesus has said. The nets are lowered down and brought back up. The catch is enormous. It’s so huge that the little boat they are in becomes in danger of sinking. In an attempt to save their lives and their livelihood, Simon signaled to their other boat for assistance. Even with the second boat, the catch almost proves too much. Finally, the pair of vessels makes it back to shore. Simon takes a moment to catch his breath and process the last few moments of frenetic activity.
I am a Sinful Man!: Luke 5:8-11 Simon’s response to this miraculous catch isn’t probably what you and I would do. No, we might first express our gratitude for the great harvest we’ve just received. Or, we might want an explanation of why this has taken place, or how in the world fishing in the daytime with large lined nets worked. That’s not what Simon does, responding, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”
Simon does not need an explanation of why or how. Simon knows that this Jesus is someone more significant than just a man. Simon now knows that Jesus’ status is far superior, that he is some variety of prophet or teacher. So, Simon does the only thing he knows to do, fall on his knees and beg for mercy because he has encountered something Holy. The crowd who has witnessed this theophany, or divine revealing, are just as shocked as Simon. Indeed, Luke tells us that they were “amazed.”
Amazed is a word we throw around a lot these days, and it doesn’t fully capture the sense of the crowd’s reaction. Luke uses two words to describe the crowd’s state. Yes, if we put them together, we may say that they are “amazed.” It would be better, however, to render a fuller translation. Verse 9 could go like this, “For Simon and all who were with him were overcome by an overwhelming feeling of stunned wonder, in body, mind, and soul, so much so that it crushed in on them from all sides. This wonder was all they could perceive.”
In their stunned silence, Jesus speaks. Even though Simon has begun to recognize who Jesus is in his holiness and his majesty and bid him leave, that’s not what Jesus does. Instead of moving away from Simon the sinner, Jesus gives peace and extends a call. “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” I must admit that when I first read Jesus’ reply, I wondered out loud, “How does switching professions from catching fish to people supposed to calm someone’s fears?” After all, taken quite literally, “catching people” seems rather illegal. Just what does Jesus mean when he says, “catching people?”
Now, I’m not a fisherman, at least not a good one, but I know that most of the time when you go out fishing, you intend to catch a fish with a hook so that you can remove it from the only habitat in which it can survive so that you can take it home and eat it. While the whole context of this story is about fishing for fish, this is not what Jesus means. The word that Jesus uses means something like “to bring something under control, compelling it to behave properly.” Jesus calls Simon, James, and John to a new life of helping people toward the fullness of life that God has intended for them. It is an invitation to join Jesus in a new adventure, a new vocation.
This whole scene of catching such a great catch of fish becomes a metaphor for a call to a missionary life, a life marked by being sent out into the deep to bring people to a new and restored life in Christ (Tannehill, 100).3 It is not that we are sent to remove people from their locations, to kill off all the parts that make them unique, and to conform them to our image or the image we think of when we think of a good Christian. We’re called to catch them with the wonderful news of God’s liberation through Jesus so that they might become what God has created them to be in the first place.
Jesus’ call to catch people drives out our fear because even in our inadequacies, Jesus still calls us. God has used and will continue to use ordinary people, people who have nothing to offer but themselves. For their part, Simon, James, and John respond positively. They certainly did not know what they were getting themselves into but had been caught themselves, it seems, by the mission bringing about liberation and salvation for humanity.
So What? Simon and his companions were just ordinary, run-of-the-mill folks. Like you and I, they had regular jobs and regular families. There was nothing remarkable about any of them. Yet, Jesus chooses to reveal himself to them in this story through a large catch of fish. And even when Simon highlights his own sinfulness, Jesus does not move on to the next fellow but extends grace and a call to participate in God’s mission in the world. You and I are like Simon, and if we put ourselves into this story, we’ll find the same grace extended to us in our sinfulness and the same call issued to us to participate in God’s mission in the world.
For the last few weeks, we’ve been seeking, chasing the star so that we might more fully know who Jesus is and what Jesus wants us to do. Today we learn one more thing about who Jesus is and what he wants us to do. Jesus looks sinners full-on in the face and calls them to fellowship and serve with him. And what does Jesus call us to? He calls us to catch people, as crazy as that sounds.
Specific Discussion Questions Read the text aloud. Then, read the text to yourself quietly. Read it slowly, as if you were very unfamiliar with the story.
Have you ever been in a crowd so large that you found it challenging to move around? If so, what was that experience like for you?
Why would Jesus want to get away from the crowd?
Simon would have been used to fishing at night with the fish who could not see the net. If you were in Simon’s shoes, would you have listened to Jesus and gone fishing again? If so, why? If not, why?
As Simon and his crew are hauling in their oversized catch, Simon exclaims, “Go away from me, Lord, I am a sinful man!” Why do you think he responds that way? How else could he have responded? How would you have responded?
In response to the group’s amazement, Jesus tells them they will stop being fishermen so that they might “catch people” instead. We’re familiar with this phrase and its meaning, but how do you think the men would have understood it?
How would you define being “fishers of people?” What type of action might that require?
Works Cited Green, Joel B. The Gospel of Luke, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997. Tannehill, Robert C. Abingdon New Testament Commentaries: Luke, Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2011.