WHAT IT’S LIKE TO FISH WITH
8When Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and said, “Oh, Lord, please leave me—I’m such a sinful man.” 9For he was awestruck by the number of fish they had caught, as were the others with him. 10His partners, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were also amazed.
Jesus replied to Simon, “Don’t be afraid! From now on you’ll be fishing for people!”
11And as soon as they landed, they left everything and followed Jesus.
[5:1] Greek Lake Gennesaret, another name for the Sea of Galilee. [5:3] Simon is called
“Peter” in 6:14 and thereafter.
At times, the Lord takes special delight in surprising us. When He does, He seems especially pleased to turn impossible situations into times of
celebration. Just when we are ready to throw our hands in the air and give up hope; when we have come to the end of our resources, exhausted our energy, run out of ideas, and lost our creativity; when quitting seems like the only remaining option; the Lord pulls off a miracle.
Paul the apostle experienced this so many times that he began to detect a pattern. The best things happen when we run out of options. “I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:9-10, emphasis mine).
This would become the first principle of discipleship under Jesus. In most cases, a mentor trains pupils to become autonomous. As the students learn, they become less and less dependent on their master until, finally, they gain enough knowledge to set out on their own. But Jesus had a very different lesson plan for His students. He would teach His followers how to become ever more dependent upon their Master. Their first lesson in
dependence began with their calling, when their impossibility gave Him the opportunity to give a surprise gift.
— 5:1-3 —
The phrase “Now it happened” (Luke 5:1) begins a new story. The span of time between the statement of 4:43 and the events of 5:1 could have been hours or months—Luke’s summary of Jesus’ activity in 4:44 does not imply a long break between the two. I believe 5:1 occurred the morning following the events of 4:42-43. If so, Jesus healed all night (4:40-41), retreated to a secluded place to rest (4:42), was found by the crowds (4:42), and returned to minister near Capernaum (5:1). Unfortunately, the growing multitude began to hinder His effectiveness. So, Jesus used His surroundings to His advantage. He saw a body of water and boats and decided to create an ad hoc amphitheater.
Luke’s original audience would have understood the implications of his description of the scene. The men were washing their nets early in the morning because they had been fishing all night, most likely with dragnets, the kind used for deepwater fishing. While they labored through the night with no success (5:5), Jesus had previously (perhaps that very night) labored all night providing relief to countless people. Whereas the
fishermen had no success, Jesus could barely keep up with the numbers He had attracted.
Jesus chose to use Simon’s boat, probably because it was Simon’s house Jesus had used to conduct His healing ministry (4:38). He positioned the boat a short distance from the shore, sat down—the customary posture for teaching—and began to teach. His voice echoed across the still waters of the Sea of Galilee that early morning as hundreds—perhaps thousands—
lined the shore to hear Him.
Not far from the Lord, an exhausted, sweat-drenched Simon sat and listened.
— 5:4-7 —
I would love to know what Jesus taught the people from Simon’s boat. A lesson on discipleship? Perhaps the joy of fulfilling one’s destiny? Or maybe trusting God for provision? Regardless, when He was finished, the
Lord instructed Simon to take the boats out to deep water. Jesus asked the men to return to the very place where they had labored in vain.
He further instructed Simon to “let down your (plural) nets for a catch.”
These deepwater nets required more than one boat to deploy and retrieve, so the Lord’s request involved the entire group. We learn from other parts of the New Testament that Simon and his brother, Andrew, ran a fishing enterprise (Matt. 4:18), often partnering with John and his brother, James (Luke 5:10). While other men who served as hired hands probably helped, Luke focused the narrative on Simon, who frequently spoke for the group.
The men undoubtedly found the Lord’s command particularly annoying after hauling empty nets all night long. Nevertheless, Simon obeyed, calling Jesus “Master,” as the two had been acquainted for some time (John 1:41- 42; Luke 4:38). Throughout his narrative, Luke uses the title “Master” in the place of “Rabbi,” a title Gentile audiences would not have found significant.
In Simon’s mind, this was a fool’s errand. Fish retreat to the depths to stay cool during the day. He knew to fish at night when they come to the surface to feed. Not long after deploying the net, however, Simon noticed the top line of the net had become taut to the point of breaking. The sudden transition in the men’s demeanor must have been comical as Simon
frantically barked orders and the crew scrambled, grunted, and groaned to haul in the net. When the weight of fish nearly pushed the first boat under the waves, the second came to the rescue. Eventually, both crews gingerly rowed toward the shore, their vessels barely visible above the water.
While the story describes actual events, Luke’s purpose follows the Lord’s. Jesus performed this miracle, not for the sake of the people on the shore, but for Simon and his partners. His object lesson taught the men that good intentions and earnest effort are not enough; only the Lord can make an otherwise futile life productive.
— 5:8 —
The Lord’s object lesson brought Simon to his knees as he began to see, perhaps for the first time, that Jesus was not merely a powerful prophet or a supernaturally gifted healer, but superhuman. Simon observed the presence of God. He prostrated himself in worship at Jesus’ feet and begged for mercy, much like another man who found himself frozen with fear when confronted by God. Isaiah, the Old Testament prophet, said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts” (Isa.
6:5). Both men understood the potential consequence of direct contact with God. Sinfulness cannot survive in the presence of divine holiness. Because Simon understood himself to be a man tainted with sin, he feared Jesus.
— 5:9-10 —
Again, Luke describes the response of people in terms of amazement. When God takes control of a situation in our weakness, it amazes everybody—
usually because there is no explanation for it, which makes those divine surprises and interventions so magnificent.
As the fishermen trembled before their Messiah, they heard words that would forever change their lives: “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men” (Luke 5:10). The Greek word rendered “catch” literally means “capture alive.” Paul uses the expression in the negative sense of men “held captive” by Satan to do his will (2 Tim. 2:24-26). By contrast, Jesus promised Simon and the others that they would be capturing men to do the will of the Father.
— 5:11 —
The disciples’ unprecedented success in business that day didn’t prompt them to invite the Lord to become a senior partner in the business. They understood the principle Jesus taught through their massive haul of fish:
With Me, you can do all things; without Me, everything you touch will come
to nothing. When they were ready to accept this truth, they responded to the call of God. The men immediately dropped their nets, left everything
behind, and accepted the Lord’s invitation to join an inner circle of students.
It saddens me to know that some reading this will forfeit God’s surprises for the illusion of security. Simon and his companions didn’t remain in the shallows, content with what they could reasonably expect to receive from their own efforts. Against all reason, they obeyed the Lord’s command to do something unusual, something irrational (from a human perspective), something that expert fishermen would otherwise refuse to do.
They steered their boats toward deep waters—the wrong part of the lake at the wrong time of the day for catching fish. In response to their faith
decision, Jesus pulled off a miracle. Against all odds, the God of lakes, fish, and fishermen exercised His divine authority over creation to give His students a surprise gift.
I wonder how many surprise gifts we forfeit by playing it safe, by depending upon our own expertise, by seeing only impossibilities in the Lord’s commands.
Simon, Andrew, James, and John didn’t allow the greatest day of their fishing careers to distract them. That day, they determined to follow Jesus anywhere He led and to do anything He commanded. Even if it led them into deeper waters.