READ: Luke 5:1-11: … ‘Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch’ … great astonishment ….
A crowd of people has gathered on the shore of the Sea of Galilee around Jesus to listen to His Gospel. There are two boats lying there, and the fishermen are washing their nets. When Jesus sees this, He gets into Simon Peter’s boat and asks him to put out a little way from the shore. Sitting down, He finishes His teaching to the crowd, who can still hear Him well.
Then He instructs Peter to go out into a deeper part of the lake and let down the nets there to catch fish. At first Peter protests because they have caught nothing all night, yet he does it because Jesus says so. Immediately they catch an enormous quantity of fish, so great that their net begins to tear. The other fishermen quickly come to help. With two boats loaded to overflowing with fish, they barely manage to reach the shore.
Before they arrive, Simon, who is already called Peter here, falls down at the knees of the seated Jesus in worship and awe. In humility, he sees his own unworthiness in the presence of the greatness and holiness of Christ, who has performed this miracle that only moments before he had considered impossible. Therefore he says: ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!’ This expresses that he sees Jesus as the Son of God, who is holy and cannot tolerate sin.
The other disciples who have sailed with him also show their great astonishment and reverence. Why does Peter respond to this miracle now and not earlier? Perhaps precisely because, as a fisherman, he is so familiar with the possibilities and impossibilities involved in fishing.
The Lord displays His divine power here. But even now this miracle does not stand apart from His message. That message follows after the disciples’ reactions. Jesus first gives Simon an encouraging answer to his humble words: ‘Do not be afraid!’
Then He gives him the message: ‘From now on you will catch men.’ Not in order to kill them, but to redeem them. The Lord had already said to them at their calling: ‘Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men,’ Matt. 4:19. Now this becomes a reality.
Is being fishers of men still a calling today?
Sing: Ps. 25:4