ARE WE CALLED TO BE FISHERS OF MEN, OR HIS LITTLE FISHES?

Prayer: O Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, You have given us Your Word and blessed us with every physical blessing: We confess ourselves unworthy of all these things and certainly deserve much worse, and we pray You to forgive us our sins, as You did Peter’s, and bestow success and health to our calling; that, being supported and defended by You both now and forever, we may praise and glorify You for eternity. Amen. (Prayer for Trinity 5, Lutheran Prayer Companion, p. 51)

The Text, St. Luke 5:1-11 (v. 8, 10b). When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Cepart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.”

Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. Lord, we will follow You on the way of truth to life everlasting. Amen!

Dear fellow redeemed in Christ, who does not depart from sinners: Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The gospels do simply give a list of the twelve disciples, with their names, and tell us that Jesus “called them to Himself,” with no details. But then they give us these close-up scenes of Jesus calling certain of them individually to be His disciples. This scene is the most striking and beautiful example of Jesus calling His disciples, this scene with Peter.

Here Jesus didn’t only call Peter to be His disciple. The scene includes James and John, his fellow fishermen, who were in the boat and came to help him with this miraculous catch. We assume Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, is also in the boat with Peter. At the end it says: “They forsook all and followed Him.” This is when these four begin to be full-time disciples.

But the most striking and beautiful part of this is with Simon Peter.

Jesus borrowed Peter’s boat to teach the Word, and when He finished – knowing that they had “toiled all night and caught nothing” – He “said to Simon, ‘Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.’ ” Of course it was the wrong time, the wrong place, the wrong method, if you expected to actually catch fish. But although they pulled in such “a great number of fish,” catching the fish was only a means to an end for Jesus. Catching fish for Peter wasn’t His main goal; it was catching Peter!

When you know the end of the story, this is surprising. Isn’t the point to make them fishers of men, not men who are His little fish? Yes, Jesus says that. He says to Peter, “Do not be afraid. From now on you” – and it’s a plural you, as in “all of you” – “will catch men.”

Certainly this is about how the apostles, and then all pastors, are “fishers of men.” Pastors go out with Christ’s “net,” the true teaching of His Word. Pastors are full-time fishers of men. It’s also about how every Christian can be an in­strument through whom Christ can “draw in” people they know into His kingdom. Sometimes you can be more effective at this than a pastor. People know they won’t get a sermon from you. You can fish in waters where pastors can’t go as easily. So this story is also about how everyone is called to be Jesus’ means for drawing people to His side.

But just like pastors as shepherds still remain Jesus’ sheep, you can’t be a fisher of men unless you are first, always, and still His little fish. It also answers the question you might have: “How can Ibe a fisher of men?” Especially if you feel nervous about talking to someone about spiritual matters, or feel that you should know more or be more qualified.

This is where the calling of Peter is such a beautiful story. In essence Peter says: “I’m no catch.”And Jesus says: “Isn’t it great? I still caught you.”

There are three parts to this.

· The first part is that Peter has to be humbled, that all his fishing smarts, all their hard work, came to nothing. That’s what he confesses: “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing.”

· The second part is after Jesus does the miracle and Peter can see that it’s a miracle – that he’s in the presence of God – he confesses to being a sinner: “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”

· The third and final part is that Jesus preaches the Gospel to him, He shows that there is forgiveness with Him, forgiveness for Peter, and that Jesus gives him his worthiness, when he says: “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.”

Jesus had just caught Peter! What He did for Peter, He does for you. This is the surprise: you are the catch. You are His catch. You’re a great catch, that’s what Jesus thinks. You’re His little fish. What do you think of that, that you’re His miracle catch, that it requires a miracle to bring you in?

The total failure here of human effort to bring in the fish, shows it’s impossible for a person to follow Jesus, to come to Him and believe in Him, by human effort, by your own strength. The Bible teaches that “the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him” (1Co 2:14). A person’s natural condition – what you are naturally, before conversion, and what you naturally return to under Satan’s influence – is that in spiritual things “we are by nature blind.” The word Scripture uses for what we are by nature is: “darkness” (Eph 5:8, FC II).

Here the comparison to fish fits us. We’re blind in spiritual matters, because we’re swimming in murky waters. We need to see what we’re swimming in. Our own lives show selfish actions, not having empathy or compassion for the hurt of others, being consumed with things of this world, easily speaking evil of others. The world around us encourages greed and materialism, pushes us to engage in sexual immorality or tolerate it, discourages us from being in church or in the Word.

It’s all there in front of us. But we don’t see it the way we should. We’re used to swimming in these waters. We get too used to living with sin. So we shouldn’t be surprised that we lose our way. We shouldn’t be surprised when Christians go astray. We’re swimming in the sea of sin.

It doesn’t surprise Jesus that we’re this way. He doesn’t say we’re a lost cause. He just says: “Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch.” He wants to reach into the depths where you are, into the depths of your sin, doubt and darkness, and catch you.

He doesn’t force us fish onto His hook. He doesn’t drag anyone into His kingdom. He drawsyou by His love. The Good News is that Jesus performs the miracle, actually catches you with His Word. He showed Peter, His fishing is not to depart from sinners but save them. When Peter tried to push Jesus away, Jesus didn’t go anywhere. He came for sinners.

When you say, “Depart from me, for I am sinful” – that is, when your conscience accuses you and you say “I’m not worthy to approach You, I fear that I don’t belong with You, Jesus,” the great, kind Fisher of men doesn’t depart. He says to you: “Do not be afraid.” He catches you by His Gospel, He takes away your sin, your fear, and your guilt.

If you want to know the essence of being His disciple, and what He says about being “fishers of men,” this is it. Disciples don’t talk about how good they are at following Jesus, that they’re now big and strong in their walk with the Lord. Fishers of men aren’t about how they’ve figured everything out and know it all. It’s the opposite – as His disciple you follow Jesus closely because you know how easily you slip up and fall behind, and you can only be a “fisher of men” – bringing in others by His Word – because you know you’re nothing but His little fish.

The early Christians, living under persecution, were very aware of this status. They identified themselves to each other with the secret symbol of a fish. They chose this not just because Jesus wants people “fished” or caught, but because the letters of the Greek word for fish, ichthys, were an acronym for “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior.” Christian tombs were decorated with fish; some pictured fish with the words “of life” – “living fish.” Other tombstones pictured a fish over a bowl – a picture of baptism. As the church father Tertullian said, “We, little fishes, after the example of our ichthys Jesus Christ, are born in water; nor do we have safety except by permanently abiding in water” – meaning that you are to keep in front of you your baptism, and say: “But I am baptized!”

This is a constant reminder – going back to Peter – not that you are so wise and strong as he might have thought as a seasoned fisherman, but that you constantly need to be caught and saved. You’re His little fish.

Once you’re caught by Christ, you swim against the world’s current, not with it. But the world want you to swim with its current, and works hard to lead you to resent having to swim against it. You’d like to have calm seas as a Christian. Living in this world, you won’t. You need His Word and the Holy Spirit every day. His Word alone finds you, catches you, saves you, and keeps you with Jesus, following Him.

This is our constant need. Do you return to the depths where it’s dark? Are you a hard catch for Jesus? Do you sink back into doubt and darkness? Do you slip into the same sins and the same bad patterns of behavior? Do you struggle to accept His forgiveness and acceptance of you? It seems impossible for you to end up in His saving net.

But you do. That’s His promise! Being the Lord’s little fish – which you became in the water of baptism – is so important. Your place isn’t to swim on your own. That’s doomed to failure. It’s to be caught by Him. It’s wonderful to be caught by Him! This is what you tell others, as fishers of men. His net – the Gospel – isn’t where you’re trapped, it’s where you’re safe! Safe from sin, safe from death, safe from the devil. Amen!