Going Deeper (Luke 5:1-11)

Jesus is becoming known throughout Galilee as a healer and exorcist. Luke, however, wants us to know that while Jesus heals all manner of sickness and casts out demons his first priority and foremost work is to announce the good news of the kingdom of God and teach about the ways of God in the world. At the end of chapter 4, as a prelude to our text today in Luke 5:1-11, the people of Capernaum tried to prevent him from leaving. But Jesus says, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to other cities also: for I was sent for this purpose.”

Jesus had an itinerate ministry, going from place to place, and he knew that he needed to train disciples who could continue the work when he was gone. I think early on he sensed that he himself would not have long. He knew that the powers that be would find his work offensive. So he calls disciples, whom he will train, and to whom he will leave the work when he is gone. Our Gospel story today is the call of the first disciples. Luke’s account is quite different than Mark’s version, and Matthew’s version who basically follows Mark almost word for word. In Mark the call of Andrew and Simon occurs in scene; and in a second scene Jesus calls James and John. In Luke it all takes place in once scene, and Luke changes it up. There are some similarities, however, Luke’s version is unique. And this is just another reminder to all of us that a Gospel is not a historical report, it is a proclamation of the good news of Jesus and the good news about Jesus. 

“Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.’ Simon answered, ‘Master, we have worked all night long and have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.’ When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’ For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’ When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.” (Luke 11:1-11, NRSV)

Jesus is standing beside the lake of Galilee, also called Gennesaret, and the people are pressing in upon him to hear the word of God. Beside him are fishermen, who  includes Simon, James, and John, and Luke says they were “washing their nets.” They are doing what must be done, namely, removing the obstructions (grass, sticks, other debris) that would keep the nets from functioning properly. It was routine work and it was necessary work, and it speaks to (points to and symbolizes) the spiritual work we all must do if we want to live a healthy, fruitful, good life. 

The work of washing the nets is the work of attending to our souls. Unlike the fishermen, however, who can see quite clearly what needs to be cleaned and cleared away from the nets, we often are blind to the obstructions in our souls that keep us stuck in one place, and hinder the dynamic flow of the Divine Spirit in and through our lives. Our ego, unfortunately, is quite adept at keeping us stuck in one place and blind to the truth that can set us free. In life we acquire from all sorts of influences (family and friends, religious and social groups, the media, society at large, all the stuff we watch and read and fill our heads and hearts with) both positive and negative patterns of thinking and reacting, attitudes and behaviors that keep us from loving others better and from being all that God wills for us to be. A key step necessary to divest and detach ourselves of these negative patterns, attitudes and behaviors is to become aware that we need to. That seems to obvious, yet many people live much of their lives, maybe all of their lives, completely unaware of the negativity in their souls and what they need to relinquish.   

Jesus decides to use Simon’s boat as a kind of floating podium, so he can speak the word of God to the people. After he finishes, he tells Simon, better known as Peter, to launch out into deeper water and let down his nets for a catch. The spiritual path is always a journey into deeper water. It’s not about believing doctrines about God, Jesus, or anything else – that’s not deeper water, that’s shallow water. There are multitudes of people worldwide who are members of churches, synagogues, mosques, and other religious communities who believe doctrines, attend religious gatherings, participate in rituals of worship, etc. and yet remain stuck in the same place spiritually and morally for years. They make no progress. Why? Because believing doctrines intellectually, giving mental assent to doctrines does not change anyone. It does not make a difference in how we live. I have no doubt that God cares very little about the doctrines we believe. The religions of the world have many different doctrines. The various kinds of Christianity the world over have many different doctrines. We are afraid of the Great Mystery God is so we invent doctrines. God cares little about doctrines. What God cares most about is our souls. God cares about you and me as persons, as human beings. God wants us to grow as persons and human communities. God wants us to grow in our relationships, and in the constructive ways we relate to one another and care for one another. God wants us to grow in character – in honesty, humility, and compassion. And most of all God wants us to grow in our capacity to love so that we become more fully human. (The more fully human we become the more like God we become). This is why Paul says to the Colossians, “Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you . . . Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony (Col 12-14).” 

This type of personal growth is a process that takes time, because the little self, the ego dominated self acquires over the years many layers of self- protection and defensive posturing. It takes some time in internal growth to peel these layers back. Jesus gives us a model for going about this. Luke tells us that when Jesus heard the Divine Voice affirming him as God’s beloved son, he was praying. In 4:42 Luke tells us that after a long day of many hours of ministry, early the next day he sought out a deserted place. Throughout this Gospel Luke will tell us time and time again how Jesus withdrew from the crowds to deserted places, places of solitude and silence, places where he could be alone with himself, and to be alone with himself was to be alone with God. And it is the same for us. Jesus withdrew to places of quiet and solitude to consciously connect with God, the Divine Spirit within his soul. This is where Jesus found the courage, empowerment, endurance, guidance, wisdom, and compassion he needed to fulfill his calling. The spiritual life is a matter of cooperation with and participation in the will and work of the Spirit or Christ (same Divine Reality) who abides in us. The spiritual life is a life whereby one intentionally relies on and trusts in the indwelling Spirit/Christ to form one into a more aware, mature, loving human being. 

Going deeper requires that we set aside time to listen for the voice of God in our true self. The one thing we need to ask God for is awareness. Awareness to see what is in our soul. Awareness to see our original goodness and beauty, as well as our sin and selfishness. Most of the time change or growth comes in small, hardly noticeable increments, but once in a while, we have a revelation, an epiphany, a moment of enlightenment, which can never be programmed or scripted because it’s pure gift. We just have to be open and ready to receive it. Because if we are not open to it, a bush can be aglow with the fire of God, but it will seem to us to be no different than any of the other bushes. If we are not attentive, if we are not tuned in and awake, we will miss it. 

I recently came across a different fishing story about Jesus and Saint Peter that I think sheds light on this Gospel story. It was well known that the Lord Jesus and Saint Peter used to retire to the local tavern after a hard day of ministry to break bread and wine together. One rainy night St. Peter turned to the Lord Jesus and grinned, “We’re doing real good.” “We?” asked the Lord Jesus. Peter paused, “Alright, you’re doing real good.” “Me?” asked the Lord Jesus. Peter pondered longer this time. “Alright, God’s doing real good.” The Lord Jesus, however, could see how reluctant St. Peter was to admit the source of all goodness. Jesus laughed and hit the table with his fist. It was the laugh that got to St. Peter. 

Peter pushed his face toward Jesus and blurted out, “Look, I was somebody before you came along. You didn’t make me. I know that now everyone says, “There goes the Lord Jesus and his sidekick St. Peter. Jesus cures them and Peter picks them up.” But it wasn’t always that way. People knew me in my own right. I was respected and looked up to. They would say, “There goes Peter, the greatest fisherman in all of Galilee.” “I heard that you were a good fisherman, Peter,” said the Lord Jesus, who was always quick to praise. “You’re darn right I was. And tomorrow I am going to prove it. We are going fishing, and you will see how the other fishermen respect and look to my lead.” “I would love to go fishing, Peter; I have never been fishing,” said the Lord Jesus, who was always looking for new adventures. “What will we do with all the fish we catch?” inquired Jesus. “Well,” Peter smiled with the wry smile of a fox, “We’ll eat a few, store the rest, wait till there is a shortage, then put them on the market at top dollar and turn a big profit.” “Oh,” sighed the Lord Jesus, who had a puzzled and pained look on his face. 

The next morning at dawn the Lord Jesus and Saint Peter were down at the shore readying their boat. And it was just as Saint Peter said. When the other fishermen saw Peter, they wandered over. “Going out?” they asked. “Yeah,” answered Peter, not looking up from the nets. “Mind if we come along?” “Why not?” shrugged Peter, pretending to be bothered by them. When they left, he glared over at the Lord Jesus and said, “See!” 

Saint Peter’s boat led the way. Now Peter was a scientist of a fisherman. He tasted the water, scanned the sky, peered down at the lake, pointed off to the side, and gave the word in a whisper, “Over there.” “Why isn’t anyone talking asked the Lord Jesus in a voice much too loud for the quiet work of netting fishes. “Shhhh!” Peter put his finger to his lips and glared at the Lord Jesus. The boats formed a wide circle around the area Peter had pointed to. Peter gave the word, “Let down the nets.” So they did. And then they began to pull them in. But something was wrong. The muscles of their arms did not tighten under the weight of fish. The nets rose quickly; the arms of the men were slack. All they caught was water and some grass.   

The fishermen rowed their boats over to St. Peter and the Lord Jesus. They were a chorus of anger. “The greatest fisherman in all of Galilee, my grandmother’s bald head! You brought us all the way out here for nothing. We’ve wasted the best hours of the day and have nothing to show for it.” And they rowed toward the shore shouting curses over their shoulder. The Lord Jesus said nothing. Saint Peter tried a second time. But nothing. Peter said, “Over there,” as Jesus took over the oars. All day long, laboring under the hot sun, they let down their nets and came up empty each time. 

When evening fell an exhausted St. Peter raised the tattered sail to make for shore. The weary Lord Jesus sat in the front with a strange look of anticipation on his face. It was then, as the boat glided toward shore that it happened. All the fish in the sea of Galilee came to the surface. They leapt on one side of the boat and they leapt on the other side of the boat. They leapt behind the boat and they leapt in front of the boat. They formed a squadron around the boat, escorting it toward shore in full fanfare. Then in a mass suicide of fish, they began to leap into the boat. They landed in the lap of the laughing Lord Jesus. They smacked the astonished Saint Peter in the face. When the boat arrived at shore, it was brimming, creaking, sinking under the weight of the fish. 

All the other fishermen were waiting. They gathered around Saint Peter and slapped him on the back. “Peter, you scoundrel! You knew where the fish were all the time and never let on.” They hit him on the shoulder. “Peter, you rogue! You put us on. You are surely the greatest fisherman in all of Galilee.” But Saint Peter was uncharacteristically silent. He only said, “Give the fish to everyone. Tonight, no one in this village will go without food.” After that, he said nothing. But later that evening, at the tavern with the bread and wine between them, Peter looked across the table at the Lord Jesus and said, “Go away from me. I wanted the fish to be over them, not with them. I wanted the fish to rule them, not feed them. You go away from me. I am a sinful man.” But Jesus just smiled, not the wry smile of a fox, but the smile that moves the sun and the stars. For the Lord Jesus had no intention of going away. There were other fish to catch. (Adapted from John Shea, The Relentless Widow, pp. 39-42) 

In this legendary story, as well as in the Gospel story, Peter has an encounter, an epiphany whereby he comes to a greater awareness of his ego-centered motivations and strategies. “I wanted the fish to be over them,” he says, “I wanted the fish to rule them.” The motivations and strategies and preoccupations of the little self, the false self are common to us all. And when we are attentive to our souls, we become aware of our selfish strategies and motivations. Often this is a slow and painful process, however, occasionally we have a self-revelation, an epiphany. 

However, before we are free to grapple with all these ego dominated motivations and manipulations we must realize something else first. What is the first thing the Spirit says to Jesus at the beginning of the Gospel? The Divine Voice says to Jesus while he is praying, just after he had been baptized by John, “You are my beloved Son, on you my favor rests.” Why does Jesus hear this Voice before he begins his ministry? Because it is foundational to all progress in our spiritual and moral growth and development as the daughters and sons of God. When we are secure in God’s love, and are convinced that nothing will ever sever us from God’s love, we are free to be completely honest about all the negative stuff we struggle with, because we know nothing will turn God away. (And I hope you understand that when you are honest with yourself, you are honest with God, because you can only relate to the God who is in you, not God out there somewhere.) Paul expresses this in his letter to the Romans when he says that nothing – “not death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8:38-39).” 

Christ Jesus is the Christian way into the experience of God’s steadfast, forever love. It’s not the only way, but it is the Christian way. Christ is the Divine Reality that is in our souls, Christ is our true self, the indwelling Spirit, the Divine nature that we all have, whereas Jesus is the human person we learn about in the Gospels, who reveals in his life and work the character and passion of God. So in Christ Jesus, in the Christ who dwells within and in Jesus who we read about in our  Gospels, we learn that God’s love for us, individually and as a species, as human beings, is unchangeable and indestructible. When you actually come to trust that (when you believe it in your heart, not just your head) then you are free to look deeply and honestly at all your negative habits, and attitudes, and actions, and see quite clearly where you need to change. For you have nothing to be afraid of. 

When Peter has this moment of enlightenment, of self-revelation where he sees just how conniving and manipulating and prideful he has been, what does he say, “Go away from me. For I am a sinful man.” And what is the first thing that Jesus says, “Peter, don’t be afraid?” Don’t be afraid of what? Afraid of God’s wrath? Maybe. How many of us were told by parents and preachers and Sunday School teachers that if we didn’t believe the right things or do the right things we would end up in a fiery hell. (And by the way, these were not bad people who told us these things, they were just telling us what others told them. They really didn’t know any better.) Who wouldn’t be afraid of a God who dangles hell over our heads? Was Peter afraid that he could never be a person worthy of love or perhaps worthy of being a servant of God? Maybe that too. Jesus says, “Look, Peter, there is nothing to fear. God loves you and has a purpose for you. You can’t do anything to keep God from loving you. And you can’t get away from God no matter what you do. No, Peter, I am not going away. You are going with me and you are going to be catching people for God. You are going to throw open the net of God’s love and invite anyone who wants to be loved with an eternal love to swim right in.” I don’t know why anyone would not want to get caught in God’s net.