The Catch Of The Day

February 9, 2025

Rev. Mary Erickson

Hope Lutheran Church

Isaiah 6:1-8; Luke 5:1-11

The Catch of the Day

Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.

We hear a portion today from the beginning of Luke’s gospel. Jesus has recently embarked on his ministry. Today we find him near Capernaum, along the shores of Lake Galilee. Jesus was preaching and a large crowd was gathering. It became so big that Jesus needed to resituate.

Some fishermen were there, tending to their nets after a night of fishing. Jesus climbed into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon Peter. Peter rowed out a spell and Jesus taught from the boat. You know the way sound travels over water.

Well, the preaching was done and Jesus turns to Peter. He suggests that Peter row out into the deeper waters and let down his nets.

Now, Peter has had some previous experience with Jesus. Jesus healed his mother-in-law. And he had just listened to all Jesus said while he preached in the boat. Peter respects Jesus, and so he does what he’s been asked.

Well, the outcome is a catch like no other. It’s phenomenal. The net is absolutely bulging with fish! So many that Peter calls to his pals in the other boat to come and help him. Both boats are absolutely filled with the fish.

This is the moment when Peter realizes who Jesus is. Before, he basically addressed Jesus as “Sir.” But now he calls him “Lord.” Peter becomes filled with dread, the kind you feel when you encounter a great power.

The prophet Isaiah felt this same dread when he experienced his vision of standing in the throne room of the almighty God. Isaiah was keenly aware of how sinful and inadequate he was compared to the glory of God. It was the same as Peter’s experience before Jesus.

Jesus responds to Peter with the heaven-sent words echoed throughout the Bible: Fear not.

“Don’t be afraid, Peter. From now on you’re going to be catching people!”

Despite this being the catch of a lifetime, Peter and James and John abandon their boats and the fish to follow Jesus. You might think this big haul of fish was the catch of the day, but it wasn’t. The catch of the day was Peter, James and John.

Jesus wanted disciples. He wasn’t a Lone Ranger. It’s very telling that he wanted a fellowship. He wanted to foster a community. This ministry he was embarking upon, it was meant to be a shared endeavor.

None of us go it alone in this world. We need each other. Right at the very beginning of the Bible, God declared, “It is not good for the man to be alone.”

Human community is essential for us. Jesus wanted to build a community around him. And he began with these fishermen.

By the eyes of the world, they didn’t look like much. Peter himself felt woefully inadequate. But this was nothing new. Moses thought his communication skills were insufficient to be God’s spokesperson before the Pharaoh. David was a mere shepherd boy. And the prophet Amos was a dresser of sycamore trees.

On the surface, none of them looked like stellar candidates. But when the prophet Samuel went to Jesse’s house to consider one of his sons to be the next king of Israel, David was the one God had in mind. When Samuel hesitated, God told him, “The Lord doesn’t see as mortals see. They look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

Paul spoke very similar words to the faith community in Corinth:

“Consider your own, call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God.”

Peter and the Sons of Zebedee weren’t wise. They weren’t powerful men on the stage of the world. They were common-born country folk. But they were just what Jesus was looking for his band of disciples. They were the catch of the day!

Someone wrote a very telling piece about the disciples. Pretend that Jesus hired a recruiter to help him vet candidates for his band of followers. He approaches this recruiting firm for their help. This is the letter they send him:

To: Jesus, Son of Joseph

From: Jordan Management Consultants

Dear Sir: Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men you have picked for managerial positions in your new organization. All of them have now taken our battery of tests; and we have not only run the results through our computer, but also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant.