Simon was a fisherman. His father had most likely been a fisherman, his brother was a fisherman, and his friends James and John were fishermen. All things considered, being a fisherman was not such a bad career 2,000 years ago in Galilee. The sea of Galilee – also known, as Luke identifies it, the lake of Gennesaret – was full of fish that many of us eat today, fish like carp and tilapia. Peter and his brother and his friends would have had a considerable investment in their boats and their equipment, and they probably had a number of hired hands working for them. They probably weren’t what you’d consider to be wealthy – but they weren’t poor, either.
But being a commercial fisherman was hard work. Most of the nets they used were large – so large that they required teams of men to draw them in. The best time to catch fish was at night, and after the fish were caught they had to be sorted and taken to the local markets where morning shoppers would come to purchase fish for that day’s meals. Since the nets collected more than just edible fish and were subject to a lot of wear and tear, they would have to be cleaned and mended before they headed out in the boats that night to catch more fish.
In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus approaches Peter, James and John after a night when they had caught absolutely nothing. Whatever their nets may have scooped up during the night, they came up empty-handed in terms of any fish that people wanted to buy. So they sat on the shore, mending the nets just like they mended them probably every day – and Jesus tells them to go fishing again. In fact, he gives them specific instructions: “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
Now remember – Jesus was a carpenter, not a fisherman. Jesus came from Nazareth, and he probably never went fishing in his whole life because there’s just no place to fish in Nazareth – no lakes, no rivers, no fishing holes. I think we all can understand why Simon and his friends might have been just a little bit skeptical of what Jesus was telling them. It would be a lot like me going up to Rob Amling and telling his how to grow flowers at the greenhouse. He’s the expert – I’m not! When it came to fishing, Simon was the expert. And as for Jesus …
Well, Simon responds by stating the obvious facts of the situation: “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing!” But instead of politely telling Jesus that He doesn’t know what He’s talking about, Peter obeys Jesus’ command. “But at your word I will let down the nets.” So they loaded the nets back into the boats, they went out to the deep parts of the lake, they lowered the nets – and just like that their nets were filled with more fish than they had ever seen before. But now the nets were filled with so many fish that the nets began to tear, and when a second boat came to help, both boats were so overloaded with fish that they began to sink. It was another miracle performed by Jesus – another incredible miracle. The Lord of all creation has power over all life on the earth and in the seas – and at His unspoken command, the fish came to fill Simon’s nets.
As we’ve discussed before, Jesus didn’t perform miracles just to amaze the people by doing things that they couldn’t do. Every miracle that Jesus performed revealed Him to be the Son of God, the Messiah. Throughout the history of the Church, Christians have applied this particular miracle to the way that the Christian faith spreads throughout the world. The fish, obviously, are people who have not been brought to faith, the boat is the Church, the net is the preaching of the Gospel, and the fishermen are those who preach it. Our ESV translation quotes Jesus as saying, “you will be catching men,” but in the original Greek text Jesus says, “You will be capturing men alive.” At this point it would be pretty easy for me to wrap things up with a few short summary sentences – and we’d be on our way with the rest of the service.
But first … let’s delve just a little bit deeper into our Gospel lesson. Instead of focusing on the miracle itself, let’s take a look at Simon’s reaction to the miracle. Because in this Epiphany season of revelations, we find yet another revelation in our Gospel lesson – a revelation that we weren’t really expecting.
When the catch of fish is so great that the nets begin to tear and the boats begin to sink, do you remember what Simon did? Luke tells us that Simon “fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.’” That isn’t exactly the reaction you might have expected. Simon had already seen Jesus perform other miracles – casting out demons, healing the sick, even healing Simon’s own mother-in-law of a high fever – so this one was obviously different than what he had seen before. Under the circumstances, we might have expected Simon to be thankful, saying something like “Thanks, Lord, for providing so many fish for me and my partners to sell.” He might have even said something like, “Wow, Lord – we fished all night long and didn’t catch a thing. How did you do that?” But Simon is neither thankful nor is he questioning. Instead, he’s afraid. “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
We heard a similar event in the reading of our Old Testament lesson. When Isaiah saw God in all of His glory, his reaction was that of fear and humility, because he knew that he was a sinner in the presence of the most holy God. “Woe is me,” Isaiah said. “I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” Both Isaiah and Simon recognized that they were nothing more than miserable sinners, miserable sinners living among sinful people. God hates sin. God knows our sins. No matter how much we try, we can never hide our sins from God. If ever a man’s sinfulness stands out, it is when he is in the presence of holiness. It is truly a fearful thing to stand – defenseless – before almighty God.
And what about us? We have come this morning into the presence of the Lord – the same God who produced fear and terror when Isaiah and Simon stood before Him. We, too, are people of unclean lips dwelling in the midst of people of unclean lips. We, too, are sinners who can never hide our sins from the most holy God. Shouldn’t we be saying the same words that Simon said to Jesus? “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
The answer is – no. Like Isaiah and Simon, our guilt has been taken away. In Isaiah’s case, God sent one of the seraphim to touch Isaiah’s mouth with a burning coal and pronounce these words: “You guilt is taken away, and your sin is atoned for.” In Simon’s case, Jesus simply said, “Do not be afraid.” Both Isaiah and Simon had been made clean.
We, too, have been made clean. Our sinful lips, our sinful deeds and our sinful lives have been forgiven. Listen again to the words of absolution from the opening of our worship service: “Upon this your confession, I, by virtue of my office as a called and ordained servant of the Word, announce the grace of God unto all of you, and in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Sin and of the Holy Spirit.”
The miracle of bringing fish into the boat is the miracle of making the unworthy sinner fit to stand in the presence of the holy God. It is the miracle of the forgiveness of sins. Like fish brought from the darkest depths of the deepest waters, we have been brought into the marvelous light of the holy, sinless son of God. The pure and perfect net that is the Gospel has taken hold of each of us. Just as Simon pulled those fish into his boat, the Holy Spirit has brought each of us to faith and gathered us in the boat that truly is the Christian Church.
That’s the revelation, the epiphany of today’s Gospel lesson. As we gather together this morning in the presence of the most holy God, we have no reason to tremble or fear. “Do not be afraid,” Jesus tells us. Our sins have been forgiven. And how do we know that? Because Jesus told us so.
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