Luke 5:1-11

5^th Sunday after Trinity

July 16, 2017

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

The people crowded around Jesus to hear God’s Word, so that He had to step into a boat to preach to them.  After teaching the crowds, He tells Peter to go fishing.  Now, After Jesus tells him to go out into the deep water and let down the nets for a catch of fish, Peter doesn’t seem all that excited to do it.  “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing!” Peter knows when and where to fish. He’s a professional. He knows what he’s doing.  This is how he makes a living. It’s how he provides .  And he had been doing it all night and come up empty handed. It must have seemed extremely foolish to go out again, at the wrong time, and just throw out a net just like that.  Throwing out their net one more time wasn’t going to do anything different than what they had already tried.

But Peter responds, “But at Your word I will let down the nets.”  And they do it.  What an example of faith.  It wasn’t a perfect faith, by any means, but it was faith nonetheless.  Because though Peter doubted that it would do any good, He hear His master’s call and He responded despite his reservations.

We aren’t that different.  Jesus says to do something and our hearts have a hard time believing that it’s really true, that it’ll really work.  We get filled with doubts, but at the same time we confess with our mouths that He is right, that He knows what He’s doing.  Our fallen hard hearts say Jesus can’t do this, it’s a ridiculous command, it’s just not going to work.  We can’t always control this kind of thought and feeling to arise in our heart.  But we can control our actions, our response.  We can say, “I believe that Jesus knows what He’s doing, even though these doubts arise with me.” And then we can follow where Jesus’ commands, I can say what’s true, what’s good and right, even when I don’t feel it.

If we were to wait for just the time, for our motives to pure and perfect, for a faith stronger than that of Peter, we would never act.  The Christian acts in spite of himself, against his fallen flesh.  Because the faith of a Christian trusts in the Word of Jesus even when the sinful hearts questions and doubts.

Though the disciples were wearied, unsuccessful, Christ called upon them to put out into the deep and let down their nets for a catch.  They were to be brave and leave results to Jesus.  And the results are hilarious.  They have been wanting to catch fish all night, and now after Jesus provides the catch, it threatens to kill them! It is too much of a good thing! The nets are breaking and the boats are sinking. And Peter and his brothers are there recognizing that they are dying. They are accused the Law, recognizing that their sin deserves death, and that death is approaching!  Peter responds to this not with faith, but with terror. 

They know they cannot stand in the holiness of God.  Peter asks Jesus to depart. Faith never says, “Please leave me Jesus!”  But he is so terrified of it all that he would rather drown than to be in the presence of Jesus.  He’d rather die, and death apart from Jesus is never a good thing.  In fact, that is the definition of hell, separation from Jesus.

But Jesus doesn’t go away. He doesn’t leave Peter.  Instead, He simple says, “Do not be afraid.”  With these words, He is telling Peter that He is not his destruction or death, but He is Peter’s salvation.  Peter shouldn’t be running away from him, but running to Him and clinging to Him.  He has come to call Peter to something greater than simply catching fish.  He calls Peter to throw out the net of the Gospel to catch people.

Do not be afraid.  Your sins are forgiven in Christ.  You have been gathered by the net of the Gospel into the saving boat of the one, holy Christian and apostolic Church.  It may not make sense, it may seem backwards, yet that is how Jesus works. We may be filled with questions and doubts: We feel like sharing God’s word is sometimes useless, like it’s not going to do anything to tell someone about Jesus, about His Law or His gospel, that it’ll just offend and create a barrier between you and another person. And it might do just that.  But this faith in Jesus is trusting that His Word has the power to convert hearts, to create faith, to call someone back from trying to push Jesus away from them.  That this Word does not return the Lord empty, but accomplishes what it says, for it is the power of salvation.

Do not be afraid.  If you’re not afraid of God, there’s nothing else to be afraid of.  So now you are free, free from the worry and the doubts and the fears that arise in this life. You are free to trust in Jesus, to rest secure in His care, to recognize that all good gifts come from and through Him.  We’re to go out, do our vocations, our duty, and it may be hard and tiring and seem useless, but God works for the good of those who love Him even in those times.  Christ’s best workers are the humblest, who feel themselves unworthy of His presence, who feel that the power is not theirs but Christ’s.  Success is not because of you, not because of the Church, but because of Jesus.  St Paul writes at the end of 1 Corinthians 15, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

This is God’s promise to you.  When you’re stuck in a rut, your daily life is boring and routine, when you ever wonder if you make a difference or are just going through the motions, do not let your sinful heart deceive you.  Your labor in the Lord is never in vain.  Faith is trusting in the words of Jesus, doing what He says, and following Him.  That doesn’t mean you all need to leave your jobs, or find different vocations in life.  It means that in comparison to all these things, there is nothing greater than faith in Jesus. You may not get the catch of fish you’d like, you may never see the results of all your toil under the sun, but Christ is with you. He has come for you, so that you don’t drown in the sea of this world apart from Him, but so that your work and your life may be sanctified by the One who died and rose again on the third day. 

And to the world this seems just as foolish to us as catching fish after working all night. But you are not of the world, are you? You are of Christ. So cling to Him.  Do not be afraid. For He has forgiven your sins. Your cup runneth over with His good things.