Trinity 5

Luke 5:1-11 - Trinity V - August 26, 2012
God’s Word Is Powerful toward Sinners

Jesus had been preaching in the Synagogues of Galilee; he had been healing many sicknesses, and casting out demons.  Jesus was doing what we all picture Jesus spending his time doing.  But everything he did served one central purpose: he taught.  In the miracles that Jesus performed, he always taught something.  And likewise, when he taught, Jesus often accompanied his instruction with miraculous signs to confirm his teaching.  And so the two went hand in hand: his teaching and his acts of divine strength.  His miracles were never just to wow the crowds, but always indicated and revealed who he was, what he had come to accomplish, and how these things made known the Father’s will toward them.  God doesn’t reveal his strength just to flex his muscles for his own sake.  No, he shows his strength in order to teach us that he intends to use his infinite power to save us.  And so Jesus’ miracles teach us the same.  That is, they teach us to listen to his word, because it is there that we learn the reason and purpose for everything God does. 

In today’s Gospel lesson, the people were pressing in on Jesus to hear the word of God.  What exactly Jesus was preaching we don’t know.  Why the Holy Spirit, through the Evangelist St. Luke, chose not to make this known to us, we can’t say.  It’s God’s word, not ours.  And this isn’t so hard for us to accept, really.  We have been taught since childhood not only that Scripture is God’s infallible and inerrant word, but also we have learned and been shown through much preaching how it is that this is the case.  Scripture persuades us of its divine origin not only by outright making this claim for itself (which it does), but also by the things that it reports.  That’s how it’s able to make us wise for salvation.  Scripture teaches us what God has done to save us. 

Simon Peter, better known simply as Peter, believed what we do about the words that Jesus preached.  What he spoke was God’s word.  What he taught was true and reliable.  Peter knew this.  So he listened to Jesus.  Peter knew furthermore that it was good also for the people to hear what Jesus had to say.  So there was no question about what to do when Jesus asked him to push out his boat a little so he might more effectively preach to the large crowd gathered at the edge of the lake.  Peter gladly supported the Lord in his preaching of the kingdom of God.  He did this by contributing what he had – much as we do when we give our offerings. 

When Jesus had finished, he spoke directly to Peter yet again, this time telling him to put his boat farther out into deep water and throw out his net for a catch.  Now Peter, as he reminded Jesus, had been working at this all night, and after all his fruitless labor, he knew that by himself and even with the help of his partners, it was an impossible and useless task.  But nonetheless, at the word of Jesus, at the word of God, Peter would do it. 

See, Peter knew whose word he had heard.  He knew whose word he had supported.  He knew whose word he would obey——because he knew that this word was true, reliable, and relevant to his life.  It was the word of God.  He believed it.  Good.  But he didn’t really know what that meant.  Peter had intellectually assented to the power and authority of God’s word.  But he had separated this from reality.  He accepted the religious claims of Jesus’ message, but it was not until Jesus’ message actually reached into his life and affected him where he was, that Peter was suddenly jarred by how real Jesus’ words were. 

“Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” “At your word,” said Peter. Peter said, “At your word,” as though it were an easy thing.  But then the words of Jesus actually accomplished something – something he didn’t expect, even though Jesus said it would.  And it surprised them all.  Talk about Jesus’ miracles teaching us to listen to God’s word.  The miracle of the great catch taught Peter that the words Jesus preached were not just real in some distant religious sense.  No, they were as real as his everyday life and his everyday failures.  And the power of God’s word was not simply to mystify – no, but actually to affect the reality in which Peter lived.   

And so what did it teach him?  What did Peter learn about reality?  He learned that he was a sinner. 

It’s easy to imagine that what we hear on Sunday morning, and sing about in our hymns, and read in our devotions don’t really have much to do with what we experience on a daily basis.  Oh sure, we know that they do.  We participate; we listen; we recite the words; we do so sincerely – just like Peter did.  But then we live our lives as though the words that give us life belong in some separate religious category.  

For instance: We learn that all things come from God’s generous hand; but then we behave as though it all depended on our own labor.  And so we regard what we do to make ends meet as more important than hearing and cherishing the word of God.  But to regard church as optional while we regard our own labor as necessary is to deny what we hear every Sunday in church.  Another example: We hear that we are saved by grace.  We believe it.  But then when we’re out there living and making our daily mistakes, how often do we focus on the good things we have done in order to sooth a conscience pricked by guilt?  How often do we think about our moral successes in order to affirm and reassure ourselves of how well we’re doing?  We do.  But where our souls are fed by so-called self-esteem, then esteem for God, and his mercy toward us is lost, and true faith is starved. 

Ah, but we come.  Good.  We hear; we sing.  Good.  We support and consent to what God says.  At your word, we say.  But what we need to learn from this word is what Peter learned: that it is not our sincerity, our faith, or our willingness to listen that makes the word of God what it is.  Rather, it is the word of God that teaches us what we are.  

We need the word of God to come into our lives and reveal in our daily behavior and thoughts where we have sinned.  We need the scrutiny of God’s searching Spirit, as he operates in the law, to scrutinize us, not simply as composed, prepared, and cheerful people sitting in the pews of a beautiful church, but as men, women and children who through the course of this last week, and through the course of this coming week, give evidence time and again of how dearly we need God’s mercy.  God knows it.  He sees your heart.  But dear Christians, like Peter, you need to know it too. 

We need the word of God to teach us.   We need the word of God to persuade us.  And so Jesus sends men to preach it to us.  That’s what Jesus called Peter to do when he told him that he would from now on catch men.  Jesus is referring here to the Office that Jesus instituted in and for the Church wherein men would preach the word of God and administer the sacraments.  The word Jesus uses here for “catch” isn’t the same as when you catch a fish.  The word for “catch” here has the word “life” in it.  It literally means to catch alive.  This means that what Peter was sent out to teach and preach was not simply to catch people in their own lies.  It was not simply to expose the deadly sin in man’s heart, and to render all sinners guilty before God like a pile of fish condemned to the frying pan.  Certainly this is part of it.  This is the preaching of the law.  But Peter was also sent out to preach the word that would create faith in God, the word that would bring death to life through the forgiveness of sins.  The Gospel is the most important thing that a preacher can preach, because this is what catches men alive. 

The law is necessary.  We must hear it lest we be deluded in the imagination of our hearts.  But the law cannot create faith in God.  Just consider where Peter stood when all he had yet learned was his own sin.   “Depart from me,” he said, “for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”  The law drives sinners to despair; it causes them to flee from where God meets them in reality.  It is powerful in this regard.   Jesus’ miracle confirmed the power of his word; and this power exposed Peter’s sin.  It exposed his lack of faith and his unworthiness to stand before his Lord.  Yes the words of Jesus had power.  But Peter needed more than God’s power.  He needed God’s power to save.  As Paul writes in Romans 1, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.” 

And so this is exactly what Jesus gave to Peter.  “Do not be afraid.”  You think that the word whereby I caught those fish was powerful?  Then take a look and consider the word that I give you right now – for you to believe and to preach: “Do not be afraid.”  These words will catch much more than fish.  These words summarize the Gospel so thoroughly, and we hear them spoken repeatedly throughout Scripture.  It’s what God said to Abraham: “Do not be afraid. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”  It’s what he said to Mary: “Do not be afraid, for you have found favor with God.”  It’s what he said to the shepherds: “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.”  It’s what he said to Paul: “Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent.”  Do not be afraid. 

This is the forgiveness of sins.  It’s what Mary believed with her father Abraham.  It’s what Paul spoke by God’s command; it’s what Peter preached by Jesus’ calling.  Do not be afraid of God.  Do not be afraid of him who knows your sin and who exposes it.  Do not be afraid of what he will do to you.  Rather know this, be convinced and utterly persuaded of this which God teaches you. That he who knows and hates your sin has laid your sin on Jesus, his beloved Son.  He does not hate you, but has known you, and loves you. 

He who came to preach the kingdom of God preached it in its fullness – not only by teaching what he had come to do, but by doing it, by living the righteous and faithful life, and by suffering in body and soul God’s punishment – both temporal and eternal – in your place.  And his final word, “It is finished,” that satisfied God’s fearful wrath against sinners was confirmed and solidified by the greatest miracle of God’s power and glory: the Lord our righteousness rose from the dead in order to cast out all fear and to guarantee to us our own resurrection to life. 

And now this same Jesus preaches this word of peace still today through the word he sends men to teach and preach to you.  The same word that absolved Peter was committed to Peter and to all Ministers so that by what they speak, God would catch and claim you for the kingdom of God and give you life. 

We don’t say, “Depart from me,” to Jesus, because apart from him who takes our sin away, we cannot live.  We do not keep our lives to ourselves or make distinctions between real life and church life.  No, we bring our whole lives to him who steps into our lives in order to forgive us, and cleanse us, and free us from all doubt and confusion.  And he does this by teaching us. 

It’s often supposed that there’s some distinction between teaching and preaching.  Doctrine has become a nasty word.  Instruction sounds boring and dry.  But preaching!  Ah that’s where the real persuasion comes in – as though they were somehow different.  The text we have before us is often invoked to support this notion.  Fishers of men, you will catch men.  This means we ought to attract folks to church by some more attractive methods, they say, and once they’re caught, then we can supply the necessary information they need to be saved.  But that’s not how Peter fished – with bait and lures – and that’s not how Jesus catches us either.  No, he doesn’t use a hook designed for anyone’s unique felt needs.  He uses a net designed for the one need we all share in common.  He uses that which indiscriminately catches every fish—every sinner wallowing in the deepest, darkest regions of sin and guilt – because the message of the Gospel is for everyone – and by it Jesus brings us all into the boat/ark of his holy Christian Church.  That which God teaches us here is the doctrine that keeps us with God and that extends the kingdom abroad. 

Just consider what you have learned today, even if you have learned it before.  This is what saves you; this is what saves others too.  Consider the hope that you have.  Here through the forgiveness of all your sins God gives you hope in Christ.  And here through the words that God speaks, you are prepared, as St. Peter writes, to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.  May we hold fast to what we have been taught, may we learn, read, mark, and inwardly digest it so that the word we hear and the confession we give may serve God’s purpose in catching men alive. 

In Jesus’ name, Amen.