1 Kings 19:11-21; 1 Corinthians 1:18-25; St Luke 5:1-11
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
The crowds that pressed in on our Lord, nearly pushing Him into the Sea of Galilee (the Lake of Gennesaret), were not looking for a miracle. They didn’t throng to Him in search of free bread and fishes, as though Jesus were some traveling buffet. The came to hear the Word of God. That is technical language. That is St Luke’s way of signaling to the readers that this crowd were catechumens, they are hearers of the Word.
And it is not enough merely to hear the Word, but as Jesus stresses in the Sermon on Plain, from which you heard last week, also to “do” it or “keep” the Word. That is, to hold it fast in an honest and good heart and produce fruits of faith, to cling to it in the face of all danger, to look to God and His Word for all good, to forsake everything for Christ and His Gospel. This is what it means to be a Christian. To be a hearer and a doer of the Word. To hear means to believe.
Now as these catechumens chase after Jesus, seeking catechesis, hungering and thirsting for the Word, backing Him into the Sea, our Lord spots two boats, vacated on the shore after a night of fishing. Simon, James, John, their father Zebedee, and other crewmen were out of them, washing their empty nets. It was the usual end to a night of fishing, though this time they had caught nothing. They came up empty handed. But it’s not as if Mama Zebedee is at home frying up some chicken. No fish means no income today and no supper tonight.
You see these brothers weren’t just having a good time on the water, kicking back with a few beers. This was labor. Eating bread - or fish - by the sweat of their faces until they died. As the soil was cursed for Adam and turned up thorns and thistles, so was the sea for Simon. Even as it is for you. Sometimes employers downsize. Sometimes the commission doesn’t come in. Sometimes nets turn up empty. They toiled all night, laboring through the darkness. When others were sleeping comfortably at home Simon, James and John were spending their sweat in vain on the water. Now they wash their nets in silence.
But the night is over. The Dawn has appeared in Galilee. From this moment on Peter and the disciples will live in the Light where the fishing is good because they abide in the presence of Christ, the Light of the World.
The Psalmist prays, Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning (Ps 30:5). And this is how it was for Peter, not only here, but at the end of the Gospel, at the end of our Lord’s earthly life. The Gospels are sort of read in reverse. To understand the beginning you have to know the end.
Recall how after His arrest Jesus was taken to the high priest’s house. John gets Peter in the door because he was known to the servant. As Simon stood warming himself by the fire, the servant girl saw his face in the dim light. But Peter is in darkness, not only of the night, but of his own doubts and fears. He denies our Lord. Three times. When the rooster crows, signaling the beginning of the day, the Lord turns and looks at Peter - only St Luke reports this - and the light of the new day, through the look of Jesus, enlightens and calls Peter who repents with weeping. When is it fully day - after the resurrection - Peter’s restoration is complete when he sees the empty tomb and at some unknown point the risen Lord appears to Him (Lk 24:34). And he, along with James, John, and the Twelve, as sent to be fishers of men. This all began on the boat on the Sea of Galilee.
On the boat. Where first our Lord Jesus teaches. The preaching of Jesus comes first, it always does. Whether from the bow of the boat or from the pulpit in the nave. Everything that happens subsequently is a result of the Word. The crowds gather to hear the Word of Jesus. From the crowds emerge the disciples, as hearers of the Word. At the Word of Jesus Simon pushes away his boat from shore. He sits in the stern, feet from Jesus, listening to His Word. At the end of the sermon Jesus turns to Simon, Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. Though it is foolishness and stumbling, at the Word of Jesus, Simon drops the nets. And at the Word of Jesus, the Lord of all creation, the fish swim into the nets, so many that they begin to break. They signal to James and John to help. And two boats, once empty, are now filled with fish. And Jesus. Jesus is in the boat.
This entire text is moving toward Jesus’ commissioning of Peter to be a “catcher of men alive.” But first the miracle. Our Lord provides fish where there were no fish. He who gives seed to the sower and bread to the enter, sends forth His Word and fills nets and the boats. Jesus cares for the bodily needs of men. His delight, as you are taught to pray, is not in the strength of the horse of the legs of a man. The Lord delights in those who fear Him, who put their hope in His unfailing love (Ps 147:9-11). He provides for their bodily needs.
But more than that, He provides for their spiritual needs. The miracle is about the Church and how the Church comes into existence through preaching. The sea is the world. The fish are people. The net is the preaching of the Gospel and the boat is the Church. Luther preached on this text. He said,
We have taken refuge in the net of the Church. We are the people pressing upon Christ to hear the Word of God; we are drawn from the sea of the world when the Lord became “my Light and my Salvation.” This was done first through Holy Baptism and is also done in Holy Communion. We are to leave everything and follow Him. The holy Gospel is truly a glad message. The storm may howl round about us; bodily suffering, war, human weakness, rebellious will, all surround the Kingdom of God. All human effort seems to accomplish little. Yet Christ lives in His Church. In faith we venture out into the deep. Christ will fill the net of His Church. It seems that the Church works in vain, but in reality and unknown to the senses a great shoal of shies is enclosed.
Simon, James and John had toiled in vain. Now our Lord and His Word gives success. Elijah thought all his zeal was in vain, for he was all alone, but the Lord left seven thousand in Israel who had not apostatized A small, but faithful number, strengthened in the might of the Lord and His Word.
It is no different for you. Or for us. It may seem as if its all in vain. We reach out, we show mercy, we share the Gospel with little success. But the Lord and His Word shall prevail. Truly His Church is filled. You are not alone. The wisdom of the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is foolishness to the world, but it is by the preaching of this Word that you are gathered into the net of His Church and are given life.
Do not fear, little ones. Jesus is in the Boat. Simon Peter, in his sin, wants Jesus to leave. Frightened by our own sinfulness, our own doubt and despair, our own foolishness and worldly wisdom, terrified by our conscience and plagued by our guilt over our vain attempts at self-satisfaction and success, we too want Jesus to leave us alone.
But He does not. He will not. He who provides fish and daily bread also provides the forgiveness of sins. He calls you to Himself in love; sometimes dragging you in the net of His Gospel Word. But always catching you alive. He takes you out of chaos and turmoil of the sea of this world and brings you safely into the Boat of His Church. Here, you don’t flop around, but rather swim in your baptismal waters as the little fishes of Jesus. Here He calls you to throw overboard all your sins and selfish desires, to become new and different men and women in heart and mind. To drown your lusts and appetites and passions in the sea of Holy Baptism, and emerge daily to live before Him in righteousness and purity. In short, to leave everything and follow Jesus as a hearer and doer of His Word.
Years later, when Peter was casting wide the net of the Word, he wrote to the Church concerning another boat. By inspiration of the Spirit, the apostle wrote: For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit, in which He went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Pt 3:18-21).
Peter has in mind not only Noah’s Ark, but the Ark of Jesus’ own body, into which you have been baptized and are ferried across death’s raging flood. Do not be alarmed on account of your unworthiness and sins, but receive the bounty of the Lord’s comfort and grace. For He gives you daily bread and forgiveness in abundance. And at His Word He shall give you Bread that is His Body for the forgiveness of all of your sins. Fall on your knees and receive from His hand. And remain with Him in the boat of His Church, hearing His Word, for He shall see you safely to the eternal shore of your heavenly home where you shall want to nothing, but have everything in Him.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen,
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
The crowds that pressed in on our Lord, nearly pushing Him into the Sea of Galilee (the Lake of Gennesaret), were not looking for a miracle. They didn’t throng to Him in search of free bread and fishes, as though Jesus were some traveling buffet. The came to hear the Word of God. That is technical language. That is St Luke’s way of signaling to the readers that this crowd were catechumens, they are hearers of the Word.
And it is not enough merely to hear the Word, but as Jesus stresses in the Sermon on Plain, from which you heard last week, also to “do” it or “keep” the Word. That is, to hold it fast in an honest and good heart and produce fruits of faith, to cling to it in the face of all danger, to look to God and His Word for all good, to forsake everything for Christ and His Gospel. This is what it means to be a Christian. To be a hearer and a doer of the Word. To hear means to believe.
Now as these catechumens chase after Jesus, seeking catechesis, hungering and thirsting for the Word, backing Him into the Sea, our Lord spots two boats, vacated on the shore after a night of fishing. Simon, James, John, their father Zebedee, and other crewmen were out of them, washing their empty nets. It was the usual end to a night of fishing, though this time they had caught nothing. They came up empty handed. But it’s not as if Mama Zebedee is at home frying up some chicken. No fish means no income today and no supper tonight.
You see these brothers weren’t just having a good time on the water, kicking back with a few beers. This was labor. Eating bread - or fish - by the sweat of their faces until they died. As the soil was cursed for Adam and turned up thorns and thistles, so was the sea for Simon. Even as it is for you. Sometimes employers downsize. Sometimes the commission doesn’t come in. Sometimes nets turn up empty. They toiled all night, laboring through the darkness. When others were sleeping comfortably at home Simon, James and John were spending their sweat in vain on the water. Now they wash their nets in silence.
But the night is over. The Dawn has appeared in Galilee. From this moment on Peter and the disciples will live in the Light where the fishing is good because they abide in the presence of Christ, the Light of the World.
The Psalmist prays, Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning (Ps 30:5). And this is how it was for Peter, not only here, but at the end of the Gospel, at the end of our Lord’s earthly life. The Gospels are sort of read in reverse. To understand the beginning you have to know the end.
Recall how after His arrest Jesus was taken to the high priest’s house. John gets Peter in the door because he was known to the servant. As Simon stood warming himself by the fire, the servant girl saw his face in the dim light. But Peter is in darkness, not only of the night, but of his own doubts and fears. He denies our Lord. Three times. When the rooster crows, signaling the beginning of the day, the Lord turns and looks at Peter - only St Luke reports this - and the light of the new day, through the look of Jesus, enlightens and calls Peter who repents with weeping. When is it fully day - after the resurrection - Peter’s restoration is complete when he sees the empty tomb and at some unknown point the risen Lord appears to Him (Lk 24:34). And he, along with James, John, and the Twelve, as sent to be fishers of men. This all began on the boat on the Sea of Galilee.
On the boat. Where first our Lord Jesus teaches. The preaching of Jesus comes first, it always does. Whether from the bow of the boat or from the pulpit in the nave. Everything that happens subsequently is a result of the Word. The crowds gather to hear the Word of Jesus. From the crowds emerge the disciples, as hearers of the Word. At the Word of Jesus Simon pushes away his boat from shore. He sits in the stern, feet from Jesus, listening to His Word. At the end of the sermon Jesus turns to Simon, Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. Though it is foolishness and stumbling, at the Word of Jesus, Simon drops the nets. And at the Word of Jesus, the Lord of all creation, the fish swim into the nets, so many that they begin to break. They signal to James and John to help. And two boats, once empty, are now filled with fish. And Jesus. Jesus is in the boat.
This entire text is moving toward Jesus’ commissioning of Peter to be a “catcher of men alive.” But first the miracle. Our Lord provides fish where there were no fish. He who gives seed to the sower and bread to the enter, sends forth His Word and fills nets and the boats. Jesus cares for the bodily needs of men. His delight, as you are taught to pray, is not in the strength of the horse of the legs of a man. The Lord delights in those who fear Him, who put their hope in His unfailing love (Ps 147:9-11). He provides for their bodily needs.
But more than that, He provides for their spiritual needs. The miracle is about the Church and how the Church comes into existence through preaching. The sea is the world. The fish are people. The net is the preaching of the Gospel and the boat is the Church. Luther preached on this text. He said,
We have taken refuge in the net of the Church. We are the people pressing upon Christ to hear the Word of God; we are drawn from the sea of the world when the Lord became “my Light and my Salvation.” This was done first through Holy Baptism and is also done in Holy Communion. We are to leave everything and follow Him. The holy Gospel is truly a glad message. The storm may howl round about us; bodily suffering, war, human weakness, rebellious will, all surround the Kingdom of God. All human effort seems to accomplish little. Yet Christ lives in His Church. In faith we venture out into the deep. Christ will fill the net of His Church. It seems that the Church works in vain, but in reality and unknown to the senses a great shoal of shies is enclosed.
Simon, James and John had toiled in vain. Now our Lord and His Word gives success. Elijah thought all his zeal was in vain, for he was all alone, but the Lord left seven thousand in Israel who had not apostatized A small, but faithful number, strengthened in the might of the Lord and His Word.
It is no different for you. Or for us. It may seem as if its all in vain. We reach out, we show mercy, we share the Gospel with little success. But the Lord and His Word shall prevail. Truly His Church is filled. You are not alone. The wisdom of the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is foolishness to the world, but it is by the preaching of this Word that you are gathered into the net of His Church and are given life.
Do not fear, little ones. Jesus is in the Boat. Simon Peter, in his sin, wants Jesus to leave. Frightened by our own sinfulness, our own doubt and despair, our own foolishness and worldly wisdom, terrified by our conscience and plagued by our guilt over our vain attempts at self-satisfaction and success, we too want Jesus to leave us alone.
But He does not. He will not. He who provides fish and daily bread also provides the forgiveness of sins. He calls you to Himself in love; sometimes dragging you in the net of His Gospel Word. But always catching you alive. He takes you out of chaos and turmoil of the sea of this world and brings you safely into the Boat of His Church. Here, you don’t flop around, but rather swim in your baptismal waters as the little fishes of Jesus. Here He calls you to throw overboard all your sins and selfish desires, to become new and different men and women in heart and mind. To drown your lusts and appetites and passions in the sea of Holy Baptism, and emerge daily to live before Him in righteousness and purity. In short, to leave everything and follow Jesus as a hearer and doer of His Word.
Years later, when Peter was casting wide the net of the Word, he wrote to the Church concerning another boat. By inspiration of the Spirit, the apostle wrote: For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit, in which He went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Pt 3:18-21).
Peter has in mind not only Noah’s Ark, but the Ark of Jesus’ own body, into which you have been baptized and are ferried across death’s raging flood. Do not be alarmed on account of your unworthiness and sins, but receive the bounty of the Lord’s comfort and grace. For He gives you daily bread and forgiveness in abundance. And at His Word He shall give you Bread that is His Body for the forgiveness of all of your sins. Fall on your knees and receive from His hand. And remain with Him in the boat of His Church, hearing His Word, for He shall see you safely to the eternal shore of your heavenly home where you shall want to nothing, but have everything in Him.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen,
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