“At Your Word”
St. Luke 5:1-11
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
St. Luke 5:5 – “But Simon answered and said to Him, ‘Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.’”
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… In today’s Gospel Jesus does something which goes against all sensibility and logic. He tells Simon Peter, “Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch.” Now, anyone who is even casually familiar with fishing knows that this advice seems foolish. You don’t catch fish out in the deep; you catch them in shallower areas where the fish congregate and feed. Especially when fishing with nets, you want to go where your nets can actually reach the fish. What Jesus suggests here seems entirely unreasonable. It goes against everything that experience would teach.
Furthermore, Simon informs Jesus that they had just been fishing all night without success. They put to use all of their skills and techniques and knowledge as fishermen and hadn’t caught a blasted thing. It just wasn’t a good day to fish. Besides, what is the point of going out now during the heat of the day, which is the worst time to fish? What Jesus said made no sense.
However, Simon still had a fledgling faith in Jesus which trusted what He had to say. And so even though it seemed pointless, Simon Peter said, “Nevertheless, at Your Word I will let down the net.” “Because You say so, Jesus, because they are Your words, I will do it, even though I really have my doubts.” And when Simon and his friends do so, they catch such a great number of fish that their net begins to break. In the end they fill up two boats full.
So even though today’s Gospel seems to be all about fishing, the real heart of the account is the Word of Jesus. Nothing happens apart from that. The Word of God is foolish to human reason and logic, but in truth it is powerful and effective to do what it says and deliver what it promises and save those who believe.
St. Paul writes in today’s Epistle, “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing” (I Cor 1:18). Those who are perishing – the unbelievers – think of the Gospel and the Scriptures as nothing more than a story for the naive and the gullible and the shallow-minded. No one with any real intelligence and education is going to go for that. At best they regard it as mere superstition; at worst, a subversive message that must be abolished and its adherents crushed. The Word of God is constantly being mocked in the world as backward or outdated or, especially now, even hateful. Several years ago the former Labor Secretary Robert Reich said that those who believe in the higher authority of God and His Word are a greater threat to society than terrorists. Consider just what he’s implying about the church. And now, the Christian faith and its adherents are racist simply because we exist.
St. Paul says more specifically in today’s Epistle, “Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness” (I Cor 1:22-23). Some are like the Jews, who want to see miraculous signs and proofs, who are after divine displays of glory and powerful displays of God’s presence in their life. “If your religion can make me blessed and successful and healthy and wealthy and happy, then sign me up! But if there’s suffering and sacrifice and a cross involved, then forget about it.” The cross is the big stumbling block for the Jews. For the Old Testament rightly says that anyone who is hung on a tree is cursed. How, then, could such a one who died such a dishonorable death be God? Where’s the glory in that?
And some, Paul says, are like the Greeks who seek after wisdom. They want everything to be rationally and scientifically explainable. They won’t believe anything Scriptural unless they can understand it with their senses and their mind; it has to make sense. If it is not reasonable to their way of thinking – if, for instance, it speaks of the utter helplessness of man before God – then it is only worthy of being ridiculed or ignored. If my goodness and merits and efforts don’t contribute toward my being saved, if I’m entirely dependent on someone else to gain eternal life, well that makes no sense. I’ll find some other spirituality that’s more logical to me.
We know well the temptation of wanting to follow such worldly spiritualities; we know well the temptation to walk by sight and not by faith, to have a religion based on human wisdom and glory rather than God’s wisdom and the cross. And there are plenty of preachers out there with plenty of willing sheep to teach and believe that message.
But just like Peter, by God’s grace we have been brought to trust in Jesus’ Word, even in the midst of all our weakness and doubts. We have been brought to know that though the Word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, to us who are being saved it is the power of God. St. Paul writes in Romans 1:16, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.”
Most important thing maximum health problems are cured by djpaulkom.tv levitra without prescription yourself only by keep doing regular exercise had better quality erections. January 2012: Subramaniam Swamy files a petition alleging irregularities Court. cheap cialis pills For people with this condition, the result is irritating or annoying or cheap cialis india sometimes debilitating. Their sports massage levitra best prices therapy includes improved neuromuscular function, enhanced athletic training, and prevention of muscle & tendon injury. In order to humble the proud and to humble those who are wise and strong in their own eyes, our Lord chooses to hide His power behind those things which seem, to the human eye and ear, quite foolish and weak. In that way His saving wisdom and strength will be perceived only by lowly, penitent believers to whom He reveals Himself. After all, where has human wisdom really gotten us? Technology and science can do wonderful things, no doubt about that. But has man’s wisdom eliminated crime and violence? Is there any less loneliness or sadness or depression in the world? Have people stopped dying? Man’s wisdom is quite limited, and these days has seemed to have disappeared altogether. We dare not rest our hopes there.
Rather, Paul says this, “Since the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe” (I Cor 1:21). Think of what an odd way this is for God to operate. First of all, He chooses to bring His salvation through mere words. Nothing flashy, nothing glorious, just talking, just speaking. And the focus of the speaking is an instrument of the death penalty, of all things. The Gospel message is that a suffering, tortured man is the Savior.
“We preach Christ crucified,” Paul says. That’s why we display a body on the cross here. Our hope for eternal life is in His death. What could be more weak, what could be more foolish, what could be more offensive than that? And yet, Paul says, the weakness of God is stronger than men, and the foolishness of God is wiser than men. That weak, foolish cross still far surpasses all of our intelligence, for it and the God-Man who died on it conquers sin and death and the devil. The greatest blessing of God is hidden behind that curse. He does things counter to our thinking in order to accomplish His purposes, so that no one may boast in His presence, but that we may boast in the Lord alone.
It’s just like when the God came to Elijah. We expect God to be in the miraculous and the mighty. But He was not in the strong wind for Elijah, nor was He in the earthquake or the fire. Instead the God came to him in a still, small voice. In that rather unimpressive fashion, God was there in mercy to speak with Elijah.
So it is still today. The Lord does not come to us in impressive signs or with high sounding wisdom, but in the simple Word of Christ crucified for sinners. The still, small voice of the absolution, the preaching of the Gospel is where the Lord is in power for you. Through that spoken Word He is present to save you and perform what He has promised.
Which then brings us to the preachers of this foolish message, where the same theme applies. I can recall on more than one occasion being at a pastors conference, looking at all the pastors assembled and thinking “Lord, have mercy on your church.” We’re a motley bunch of guys. Nothing even remotely glorious there to see. And yet, what St. Paul wrote in the Epistle applies not only to Christians in general but preachers too: “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty” (I Cor 1:27).
That’s the way it was with Simon Peter. When he saw the miraculous catch of fish given by Christ, he also saw more clearly his own sinfulness by comparison, and said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” Simon was one who was often weak, often foolish. And yet the Lord said to him, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.” Just as Simon was able to catch these fish solely by the power of Christ’s Word, so now Jesus was making Simon into one who would draw in people solely by preaching Christ’s powerful Word. In this way others who are weak and foolish would be made wise unto salvation through faith in Christ.
And that is the whole point of this catch of fish. It all happens at the Word of Christ. Beforehand, Jesus Himself had been “casting the net,” so to speak, as He preached the Word to the people from Simon’s boat. Jesus turned that boat into a mighty cathedral. He is not afraid to launch out into the deep and let down His nets for a catch. Just as the Spirit of God hovered over the deep in the beginning of creation, so our Lord goes to the deep – to the very depths of sin and death. That is what Jesus’ death and burial were about. He descended to the murky darkness in order to pull up His catch of sinful men and to raise you to the light of His resurrection life.
And now Jesus bids His Simons to continue to cast the net of the Gospel to draw people into the boat which is the church, where He is present to save. That is the simple and “unreasonable” way in which our Lord accomplishes His mission. It is not done through special techniques, marketing schemes, jazzed-up worship, or senseless programs. Jesus doesn’t use a bait and lure to try to fool people into being Christian. It is only the net of His Word which “catches” you and draws you in. It is the simple means of baptizing and teaching that makes disciples; it is the preaching of the Word of Christ crucified that has the power to save. When that takes place, any church becomes a sturdy ship, a mighty ark of Christ.
So let us hear clearly for ourselves the words of Christ spoken to Simon Peter: “Do not be afraid. You are forgiven. I have taken on your very flesh and blood to make you holy. Your sins have been paid for by my cross, so that now you can stand before a holy God and live. Do not fear. You are Mine. You are reconciled to the Father through Me.”
And let us say, “At your Word, Lord, even though I am weak and sinful, nevertheless I believe that I am righteous in your sight; I trust in Your promise. At Your Word, even though all my senses can grasp here is bread and wine, yet because you have said so I believe that in them you give me Your true body and blood for the forgiveness of my sins, so that I may be filled with your life. At Your Word, Lord, I let down all my defenses, I forsake all my ways of thinking and doing things to follow you. I trust in Your mercy. You are my light and my salvation.”
Jesus is your light and your salvation. You have nothing and no one to fear. Jesus is your Absolution, your forgiveness. Jesus is your strength and sustenance as He delivers Himself to you in these simple elements of bread and wine which are His true body and blood; there is nothing to fear here at His altar.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
