Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (Luke 5:1-11)
Master, we toiled all night and took nothing!
But at your word I will let down the nets.
But at your word I will let down the nets.
Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Have you ever gone hungry? Have you ever lived hand-to-mouth? Many people in Australia (and in other western countries) don’t worry about this, but they are not prepared to lower their so-called “quality of life”.
Australia is a great country to live in. We have so much to be thankful for. God has provided for you everything that you need. He continually gives us daily bread. Even at this winter-time, when all sorts of bugs and cold and flus are going around—in the broad scheme of things, we have much better health than many parts of the world. There are all sorts of diseases that we simply don’t have anymore thanks to the advances of modern medicine.
But it’s precisely in times of hardship, in times of testing and temptation that Jesus wants to demonstrate to us the power of his word. The church today will stand or fall on this one point—do we trust the power of Jesus’ words, or do we want to do what we think is practical, instead?
Often “being practical” for most people means “doing whatever will make sure we don’t lose the most money”. But at the end of the day, when all the dollars and cents are piled high up in your bank account, when comes the day of death, you won’t take a scrap with you. Psalm 49 says: “Be not afraid when a man becomes rich, when the glory of his house increases. For when he dies he will carry nothing away; his glory will not go down after him. For though, while he lives, he counts himself blessed—and though you get praise when you do well for yourself—his soul will go to the generation of his fathers, who will never again see light. Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.”
And we might look back on our life and say, “God’s been good to me. He’s protected me, He’s given me nice things, a nice home, good food, a nice family”, and that’s good. All those things are a gift from God.
But if we get a little crumb from our heavenly Father’s table—just a little taste of his generosity and mercy—then we start trying to steal from his table, and grab more and more. We start worshipping the crumbs, rather than God who can give us so much more than a few crumbs, in fact, he prepares for us a rich banquet.
We might make a lot of money in our work, but then if all we want to do is make money, and not enjoy our God-given work, then all we will have at the end of the day will be money. It’s not that we won’t be happy—we will be happy, dancing for joy and sacrificing our whole lives to a golden calf.
But will we have God? We say: I’ve got “principles”, “values”, “good morals”, “common sense”—but did we keep the commandments of God? God didn’t give you any principles to live by, any values, guidelines—he gave you his commandments. If you keep God’s commandments, you will be rewarded. If you break them, you will be punished. If you do them, you will live. If you break them, you will die.
This is how God’s law works. It cuts to the heart, it’s the hammer that breaks the rock in pieces. Thank God that we are not saved by works, but that He sent his Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins, so that we can receive the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation through him.
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And so in our reading today, Jesus shows to these simple fishermen the power of his word. He wants them to know that he is trustworthy, that they can trust him. Note here, first of all, that he doesn’t go to demonstrate this power to the powerful in the world. He doesn’t take the kings, the queens, the rich, the powerful, the educated, the respected on a cruise and do this. They might have peered through their binoculars as Jesus did this and clapped him politely when he caught the fish, and thought that it was marvellous little trick that Jesus was performing.
No—Jesus goes to the simple people, the poor people, the nobodies, the lowly, the meek, the humble, those who are mourning, who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness. By the way, Jesus does not show partiality here. Some Christians think that it’s fine not to read the bible and it’s fine never to read a Christian book, because Jesus chose simple fishermen. That’s not the way a humble person talks, but a stupid person! Jesus didn’t choose Peter because he was an idiot. Remember Jesus also appeared to St Paul, who was highly educated—one of the most educated men alive at the time—and used him for his purposes. But Jesus also gave Paul much suffering—prison, shipwrecks, blindness, floggings, you name it.
So even though Jesus chooses the little people here, he calls everyone—rich, poor, educated, uneducated, high, low. St Ephrem the Syrian from the 4th century said: “Jesus caught twelve fishermen, and with these he caught the whole creation.”
And so right at the beginning of our reading we see Jesus teaching people. We don’t know what he said, but it’s enough for us to know that it was His Word. It was any word that he spoke.
We read: On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, Jesus was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
And now we see that Jesus wants to demonstrate the power of his word. This is a word that never lets one of the least of his little ones go without a cup of water. This is a word that they can hang their hat on for the rest of their lives. It’s a word that created them, it’s a word that will throw them in a grave at the end of their life and in the meantime, it’s a word that will keep them fed, clothed, sustained and alive every moment of their lives and into eternity.
And so we read: And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.
Jesus gives them a command. These fishermen weren’t putting themselves out looking for a word from Jesus to drop out of the sky. He just happened to be there with them and he told them what to do. He says: “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
And here Peter gives us a wonderful example. He protests but he also obeys and submits. He says: “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”
He acknowledges before Jesus that what he is being asked to do doesn’t make any sense. We’ve already toiled! We’ve worked hard, we’ve sweated, we’re tired. We toiled all night! We already worked at the best time for catching fish. It’s not much use putting out the net now! And we caught nothing! We’ve tried this, and it’s failed. We’ve tried again and again, and it hasn’t worked.
But still Peter says: “But at your word I will let down the nets.”
Yes, Lord, I will do the crazy thing, the stupid thing, I am happy to be foolish in the eyes of the world to let the wisdom of God be revealed. I will not be ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to those who believe. At your word I will let down the nets.
We can go through all the commandments of God and we can see the temptation to break each one of them, because we think it’s not practical, and it doesn’t work.
For example, the second commandment “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord, your God.” We should call upon God’s name in every trouble. But instead, when we’re in trouble, we want to solve things ourselves, and don’t ask God to fix the problem.
The third commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” So often we don’t sit and read the bible, because we’ve got something more important to do. So often we don’t come to church, because we’ve got something that we need to finish off, or reward ourselves with a nice sleep in, because it’s the only morning we’ve had for three weeks to do it.
The fourth commandment: “Honour your father and your mother.” Yes, we know that we should respect our parents, politicians, bosses and leaders, but if we decide we don’t like them, we can suddenly say whatever we like about them.
The seventh commandment: “You shall not steal.” When we’re poor, it’s not the time to steal, it’s the time to ask, to beg from God. He won’t let you go hungry.
The eighth commandment: “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour.” So often we justify ourselves by saying we told a “white lie” so that we don’t get ourselves into trouble, or so that people will like us.
Or with young people, one the greatest temptations is to break the sixth commandment: “You shall not commit adultery”, and especially when it comes to living together and sleeping together without being married. And this is especially sad, because right at the age when young people can do so much good, and have the capacity to build a home and family, they waste their best years in mistrust, slavery and heartbreak. (And that’s not to mention pornography.) And people say, But it’s so expensive to live in two separate houses. Yes, but wouldn’t you rather be a bit poor for the sake of a good conscience? God won’t let you go hungry. And we know that in poorer areas, sometimes people just sleep with whomever happens to be around so that they can have a baby and claim the baby bonus from the government. But before wealthy people start pointing the finger, they should also remember that there’s really no difference between rich kids and poor kids in terms of sleeping around. The poor kids might be financially rewarded for their wrongs, but the rich kids just have abortions. At least the 16-year-old mums with babies didn’t kill anyone.
And so we come to Jesus and we say: Master--don’t you understand, Jesus? Don’t you understand what we’ve been through? We toiled all night and we took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.
And we see what a wonderful blessing comes from the simple obedience to the command of Jesus. When they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.
What a wonderful generous Saviour we have!
But you know, the law of God, works, obedience doesn’t save. We can let down as many fishing nets at the command of Jesus as we want, we can nod our head to him and say, “Yes, sir”—but it doesn’t mean that we believe in him as our Saviour and our Redeemer.
We listen to this passage, and we could so easily come to the opinion that Jesus is simply not for us, and say: “I don’t have that sort of faith. I don’t have that sort of courage. I’m not strong enough. I’m weak. I’m useless. I’m lost and condemned.”
But this is exactly how Peter felt. We read: When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
Peter doesn’t just realise that he is a sinner, but he asks Jesus to go away because he is a sinner. He says, “Depart from me, Jesus, because I’m no good.” I can’t do your work, Jesus, I’m no use. Go away. Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.
See how powerful the word of Jesus is. See how wonderful his commands are. See how much blessing comes from the obedience to the simple words of Jesus. But they are words that kill. There is an old expression in the Lutheran church: The law always accuses. The 10 commandments don’t show you how to live, they show you how the die. Peter says: Depart from me, Living One, Life-giving One, because I am dead, and I smell of death.
And Jesus now demonstrates that his word, his voice is not just powerful, but loving. The words of Jesus are not just wonderful, but they are friendly.
Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.
Jesus says: Every day from now on, will not be a day with fear, but it will be a day with me. And that’s good news. Your work might be hard, but I will there too. You might struggle from day to day, but my name will always be there for you to call. You might struggle from week to week, but my body and blood will be there for you to eat and drink.
And we read: When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
You can see what a wonderful Saviour we have. Wouldn’t you want to leave everything and follow him too?
Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, you have called us out of the kingdom of darkness into your marvellous light. Your words never lie: help us to put our trust in you day by day, and to follow wherever you lead us. Amen.
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