C, Transfiguration - Luke 9:28–43 & 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 "Cross-figuration"

Luke 9:28–43 (ESV) Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray.  And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white.  And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah,  who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.  Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him.  And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he said.  As he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud.  And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!”  And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen.  On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him.  And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child.  And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth, and shatters him, and will hardly leave him.  And I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.”  Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.”  While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. 

2 Corinthians 3:17-18 (ESV)  Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.  And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

From the mountain of Transfiguration to the mountain of disfiguration,  Golgotha, the place of the skull, Calvary, Jesus walks for our reconfiguration!

When Jesus was transfigured, Peter wanted to build three shelters for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.  He did not know what he was saying.  For if he did, he would have known if this happened, the unveiled glory and perfection of the Law, would kill him, James, and John.

However, Jesus was not to bask in this glory!  His face was not to shine like Moses’ face did!   He would resolutely set his face towards Jerusalem, and take the road to the city named “flowing peace”, where his blood would flow from the cross of Calvary for true peace.

Rather, in his transfigured state, we see the curtain of Jesus’ flesh pulled back, to see the holiness of his Spirit within.  But only for a brief moment.   Here he talks, with two great men of the Law, about his exodus from Jerusalem.   This is the holy eternal exodus to which Moses and Elijah faithfully looked forward with hope.  This was during the days when Moses and Elijah repeatedly led Israel out of sin, into peace with God the Father.

Jesus must come down from the glory of Transfiguration into the presence of the sinful crowd and disciples.  Jesus, who was glorifying the Law in his flesh, meets a father concerned for his son.   In the Spirit of his Gospel walk he hears the father’s plea…

 “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child.  And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out.  It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth, and shatters him, and will hardly leave him.  And I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.”  (Luke 9:38–40 ESV)

The disciples could not cast it out.  How could they have done so?  They were infant hearers and witnesses; only learners of Jesus and yet to receive the forgiveness of sins at the cross and the sweet breath of the Holy Spirit, who would reconfigure their hearts through Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Still reeling from the transfiguration, Peter, James and John with the other disciples continued to stumble, unable to help when confronted with the unclean spirit’s disfiguration of the child.  They had not learnt from their helplessness to pray in humility like Jesus.  But that would come once the Holy Spirit revealed the depth of their helplessness, so they would trust in their resurrected Lord Jesus Christ like he trusted and prayed to his Father.

On the mountain God declared, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!” (Luke 9:35 ESV)  Now God’s Son, Jesus, answers the convulsing child’s father; and the disciples, and crowd, listen and learn…

 “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you?  Bring your son here.”  While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him.  But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy, and gave him back to his father.  And all were astonished at the majesty of God.  (Luke 9:41–43 ESV)

How faithless and twisted we are too, because of our flesh!  How long is Jesus to be with us and bear us by his Word? 

Thanks be to God Jesus comes down.  He comes down from heaven, he comes down into flesh at the manger, he comes down into the Jordan and is baptised into his ministry of death and resurrection.  Jesus does this and it pleases our Heavenly Father, and down in the depths of human sin and death, he bears us up from sin and death. 

He cleanses the boy of uncleanness and gives him back to his father clean.  The Holy Son of God, transfigured in glory, leaves the mountain, and descends into the darkness of our sin and knowledge, to cleanse us and give us back to our Heavenly Father. 

Even his chosen twelve did not know or understand.   Having seen the healing, having been with Jesus they still did not take hold of the knowledge of Jesus Christ.  Peter, James, and John saw the unveiled glory of God in Jesus but the veil of darkness still covered them so they could not understand.

After Jesus’ transfiguration and cleansing of the boy, he says to the disciples, “Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.”  But they did not understand this saying, and it was concealed from them, so that they might not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about this saying. (Luke 9:44–45 ESV)

Jesus comes from the mountain of transfigured glory, from the mountain of Holiness and Law, but the listening and learning does not finish here for the disciples, nor does it for us. 

We must now walk with Jesus from the mountain of glory to the mountain of disfiguration and goriness.  But it’s at gory Golgotha, the mountain of Calvary that we receive the Gospel of glory. 

It’s at the mountain of disfiguration, we learn of our faithlessness and twistedness.  It’s where Jesus bears us up in glory under the weight of our gory sinful being and sinfulness.

It’s at the place of the Skull where our Head was hung.  And we his body receive his Spirit of freedom. 

We hang our heads in sinful shame, we feel the sting of death, and know we are a sinful and twisted generation.  Left to our own devices we throw ourselves down and convulse in our old Adam.

But look and see that this Transfigured One, who came down from heaven, down from the mountain and was lifted up disfigured on the cross, is now refigured in eternal resurrection glory and is reconfiguring us in the good news of his resurrection.

Today we walk from the celebration of Transfiguration Sunday and on Wednesday we will remember, we are dust and to dust we shall return.  We will be marked with an ash cross on the forehead.  We will begin the walk of remembrance through Lent to the mountain of gory Golgotha, the mountain of reconfiguration, the mountain of Gospel glory.

But as we walk the walk of remembrance, we also continue our walk to the cross of our earthly death.  But as we do, we walk with the knowledge of Jesus Christ, raise from the dead.  We continue to walk and learn from life, just what a sacrifice it was for Jesus to make his walk to the mountain of Cross-figuration, for our transformation, and our eternal transfiguration.  Amen. 

C, Epiphany 7 - Luke 6:27–38 "On Being Merciful, Perfect, & Holy"

Luke 6:27–38 (ESV) “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,  bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.  To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either.  Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.  And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.  “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.  And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.  And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount.  But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.  Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.  “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;  give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

There are a lot of commands laid out here by Jesus in the Gospel reading before us.  Love your enemies, do good, bless, pray for those who abuse you.  Offer the cheek to those who strike you, do not withhold your tunic.  Give, do not demand back.  Love, do good, lend, and expect nothing.  Be merciful even as your Father is merciful.  Judge not, condemn not, forgive, and give.  For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.  Jesus makes seventeen demands in this text. 

He goes on to say, “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit,  for each tree is known by its own fruit.  For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.  The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks”.  (Luke 6:43–45 ESV)

Sitting down to write this sermon proved interesting as there was commotion going on in the manse yard.  Our dog was excited by all the noise as chaps from the church assisted a fellow removing trees from the gardens.  And there I sat trying to write a sermon on mercy, while outside no mercy was being shown to the pencil pine that had to go because it had outgrown its position and was lifting the paths and fence around it.  And out back trees were being removed so fruit trees can be planted with the hope of getting a sweet crop.

A member who will remain unnamed, but use to be an accountant, asked me if the activity around the manse was inspiring me with my sermon writing.  I told him it’s hard to write a sermon on mercy when trees were mercilessly being chopped down.  To which, with a cheeky grin, he replied, “it’s for the greater good of the pastor.”

This made me ponder why Jesus has given us these seventeen rules!  Has he done so for the “greater good” or is there another point being made?  What fruit is being produced by doing these seventeen demands?  If it is for some greater good, what is this greater good? 

Thinking about trees, now chopped down and cleared away, I know I didn’t hate those trees.  In fact, they looked quite good.  But I know the pine out the front was going to cause ongoing problems that the parish would not love addressing.  And as for the trees on the back fence having to go, I love the pleasure of growing and picking one’s own produce more.

Jesus’ first command is to love your enemies.  But what if they bear bad fruit as the text says?  Am I to somehow love them, for the greater good?  Anyway, what is the greater good, the summum bonum, the ultimate of all goodness?  What would my motives be for doing so, and what measure would I use to determine how to love them.

It’s here I realise loving my enemy is difficult, to say the least.  I am unsettled by the fact that perfectly good trees are cut down for reasons that might be based more on my desire being deemed “the greater good’ or the desire of the parish to not have the “greater evil” by getting rid of the pencil pine now.  And these are non-issues, compared to my desire to have little to nothing to do with one that might be considered as an enemy.

If my thought process is so fickle,  and I can deem my enemy as a bad tree, what is to stop them from considering me the same?  Perhaps I’m a tree that’s lost its purpose and needs to be chopped down in the scheme of someone else’s greater good!   Whose greater good is more important?  World Wars have started over thinking like this!

Our motives are exposed like raw nerves by Jesus in this text.  He shows us we are constantly investing ourselves, our time, and our possessions in schemes that will benefit ourselves.  It may be for financial gain, acceptance of others, a selfish desire to smooth things over, creating a pseudo-peace, because we don’t want to give the time or effort to open and heal wounds in need of healing.  Our motives seem to follow the path of least resistance to pleasure within.

This being the case, then, how do I love my enemies?  How do we as a community under Christ, love our enemies?

Jesus says, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:36 ESV)

In Matthew’s account Jesus says, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48 ESV)

Jesus here points us to the Law.  Jesus’ call, to be merciful and perfect, is the same as God’s call to be holy. 

Jesus is reflecting what God said through Moses to the people of Israel.  “For I am the LORD your God.  Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy.” (Leviticus 11:44 ESV)

Jesus calls us to cleanse ourselves of anything that defiles his holiness.

Why does God the Father and Jesus demand holiness?  The short answer is because he loves us and wants to preserve life?  This is the life he has given to us in love, and he wills us to have for each other. 

This love is not love for myself or my motives.  But it’s a love that brings a community together in God’s presence, where there is perfect peace, where God gives, where we receive together with joy, and where we worship him with fervent love for loving us.

Jesus reinforces God’s call to be holy, through being perfect and merciful, to reveal the lies of our love, no matter how great we think our good is, or how bad our evil actually is.  There are no lies in God’s love and holiness.  All is brought out into the light by Jesus.

As much as we, who are in Christ, have been given the holy will to be merciful, perfect, and holy to please the Father, we cannot be this by our own effort.  Jesus was incarnate in our human flesh, he lived a perfect and merciful life, and died in all holiness, because through our love, we cannot do it.

So, should we give up striving?  Well, yes and no!  Yes!  Because we will condemn ourselves if we believe we can be holy by our own efforts?  And no!  Because when we give up, we demonstrate faithlessness in he who is working salvation within us?

God’s holy plan for us is to show us we are as far away from perfection as ice is from steam, as white is from black, as sour is from sweet.

But God bridges the divide between holiness and evil; God’s good and our good intentions; his perfection and mercy and our motivations; his love, and our love.

Jesus is the good tree bearing good fruit, but he bore it on the terrible tree of the cross.  He takes that terrible tree, your terrible tree and makes it his.

Jesus’ love for you is a perfect and merciful love.  His love is compassionate towards all who call upon his name, for the forgiveness of sin. 

Jesus’ love for you is so great he sends the Holy Spirit to do the work of germinating and growing faith and love within you.  Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to mature us into healthy trees producing good fruit, the fruit of faith and love. 

This fruit of love for God, is confession of sin, allowing God to prune us of the dead wood within.  The fruit of love is faith, allowing the daily death of self, the carrying of our crosses, and the bearing of our neighbours’ crosses in prayer and works that spur them onto salvation. 

This fruit of love leads us to see the cross as the place showing us our blessed helplessness.  But it also shows us Jesus is our blessed help at that very same cross.  The cross is the good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, and put into your lap. 

On the cross, Jesus was measured, and shown to be the only one, who has the only good and holy motives, the only perfect love, and the most merciful compassion.

He is the Son of the Most High, higher than the highest good.  He is the Holy One of God, sending the Holy Spirit to help us in his Holy Word. 

We are being made holy because he is holy, we are being made perfect because his love is perfect, and we can give and forgive because of his mercy. Amen.

C, Epiphany 6 - All RCL Readings "A Level Playing Field"

Jeremiah 17:5–10  Psalm 1:1–6  1 Corinthians 15:12–20   Luke 6:17–26

The Gospel reading before us today is Luke’s parallel to the Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew Chapter five.  Luke however begins by saying, “Jesus came down and stood on a level place”, which here in Luke is why it earns the name, “Sermon on the Plain”.

Jesus had just chosen the twelve disciples, or twelve learners, on the mountain and coming down from doing this, teaches the crowd together with the disciples.

As Matthews Gospel records, Jesus teaches not just Judeans and folk who had come from Jerusalem, but also Gentiles too.  The Gentiles he mentions in his account are from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, this is the region of Southern Lebanon today.

Although the locations seem different between the two accounts, the material Jesus teaches is the same.  He teaches what it is to be blessed.  And it is where we get the name Beatitudes, as beatus is the Medieval Latin word for blessed.

However, Luke also adds a parallel list of woes.  Four blessings are counted by four woes, whereas in Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount there are nine blessings.  These are the four in parallel…

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.  “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 

“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.” “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.”

“Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.”  “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.” 

“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!  Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.”   “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.”

After the Israelites crossed over the Jordan into Canaan, the land of milk and honey, Joshua led the Israelites, proclaiming blessings and curses from Mt Gerizim and Mt Ebal, as Moses had commanded them to do beforehand.  (See Deuteronomy 27-28, Joshua 8:30-35)  

Jesus is the new Joshua announcing blessings and woes.  We know Joshua and his generation died.  Following him, came Judges in Israel who were called to lead the Israelites out of their curses back into the blessings of God.  Unlike Joshua, after Jesus died, he was raised in glory.  In fact, Joshua, like all who die, waits in hope for his resurrection blessing through Jesus Christ.

Paul speaks on the blessings of Jesus’ resurrection and mirrors that against, “if Christ was not raised from the dead”.  If Jesus did not die or was not raised from death, Paul says our faith is vain and futile.  We would be still in our sins.  In other words, we would be the most cursed of all cursed to walk the earth, having falsely trusted and testified about God.

However, we are blessed because Jesus Christ has risen in power over our sin and death.  This blessing was begun in us when we were baptised into Jesus’ death and resurrection.  So, what do these “woes” have to do with us now that we are baptised into Jesus’ death.

Jesus’ death has everything to do with our woes!  Just as much as his death and resurrection has everything to do with our blessedness!

In fact, Jesus becomes cursed for us, and we receive his blessedness.  Our sinfulness is hung on him on the cross.  A completely desolate, destitute, and deserted Jesus Christ descended into hell in our place.  But, because he was without sin in himself, but selflessly bore our sin according to the will of God the Father, he was raised and has received all the blessings of the first-born Son of God.

Unlike Jesus, we are still journeying through this life.  We live with the hope of our resurrection, but also with the reality of the curse and its woes.  These have been with humanity since Adam and Eve turned from God to the desolation of life without fear in God, without trust in God, and with all love directed inward, towards both one’s good and evil desires.

Just as those from the coastal plains of Tyre and Sidon, as well as those from the hill country of Judea and Jerusalem were taught together with the disciples by Jesus, he levels the playing field with us too.  He levelled the playing field for Jews and Gentiles who heard the same plain message at the Sermon on the plain.

Today it’s still relevant for all believers and unbelievers, pagans, and people of all religious persuasions, and Christendom too.  We all face the droughts of life and the final desolation of life in death.

All of us face the “Blessings and Woes” of Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain.  For those not in Jesus Christ the woes and blessing are an inexplicable riddle or a cruel twist of fate in which one lives.  No matter how much good one strives to accomplish, the result is the evil of death.

However, for Christians guided in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit gives plain and simple understanding, in the curses and blessings of us living with the curse of sin and our deeds of sin, and at the same time as living with the blessedness of forgiveness that covers sin. 

As the psalmist says in Psalm 32, “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.  Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.  For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.  For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.  [Selah]  I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.  [Selah]” (Psalm 32:1–5 ESV)

The Holy Spirit wills us to confess our sins to God.  We acknowledge the poverty in our life and receive the wealth of God’s blessing in Jesus Christ.  For now, it is held in faith and in the hope of the dissolution and death of all life sources other than Jesus’ resurrection.

So too, the death and resurrection of our hunger and fullness, our weeping and laughter, and our exclusion as evil as well as the perverted goodness in pleasures and popularity.

Jesus is like the weed and feed we buy to hose our lawns.  He kills the weeds and feeds our faith in the weary walk through the drought-stricken desolate deadliness of our days we spend here on earth. 

This is not about bringing down the tall poppies around us and making us better than our neighbour.  No!  It’s about the weeding and feeding within each of us, so we all grow together, healthy, and strong.  Like a healthy lawn pleasing the gardener, who has gone to the effort of painstakingly weeding and feeding it.

Jeremiah warns those of us who trust one’s own strength to feed and fertilise themselves.  Those who do, kill themselves with the salts they seek within themselves.   He cautions, “He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come.  He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.”  (Jeremiah 17:6 ESV)

But those who live in the drought-stricken desolate deadliness of our days are called to be weeded and fed in the solution of God’s salvation. 

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD.  He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?  “I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” (Jeremiah 17:7–10 ESV)

God is making desolate the weeds of our sin with his forgiveness in Jesus’ death and resurrection.  The wickedness of our sin is being levelled in God’s judgement, poured out on Jesus.  We now live on the splendour of Jesus’ holy faithfulness that led him through death into life with our Heavenly Father.

God knows the way of the righteous because the Holy Spirit continues to destroy your wickedness and make you holy and righteous in Jesus Christ.  Therefore, God knows you better than you even know yourself. 

You have heard him and are being healed from this life’s disease!  Your unclean human spirit, which causes trouble in this life, is being cured of the curse and is being blessed in the body of Christ.  Amen.

C, Epiphany 5 - Luke 5:1–11 "Dumbfoundedness"

Luke 5:1–11 (ESV) On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret,  and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.  Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat.  And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”  And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”  And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking.  They signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.  But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”  For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken,  and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”  And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

Have you ever heard of a fisherman getting into a boat to get away from the fish?  In essence this is what Jesus was doing.  Jesus was crowded by those whom he would catch through his death and resurrection.

But these fish were not fish of the sea!  No, they were land-based fish on the shore of Lake Galilee or the lake of Gennesaret as it is alternatively known.

Those land-based fish were the people pressing in on him to hear the word of God.  It is here on the shore Simon Peter, James and John were cleaning their nets.  They had been fishing throughout the night.  Washing and preparing their nets for the next fishing event, the fishermen were also in earshot of Jesus teaching the people about the good news of the kingdom of God. 

There is a sharp contrast between Jesus and the three fishermen.  We know from the text that they were cleaning their nets after a night of catching nothing.  Picture them doing this work of hauling in their nets, working in expectation for a catch.  As they lift the nets out of the water, they clean the nets of debris, and they don’t even receive a prize for their work.  Think how embarrassed they would have felt as Jesus catches a crowd, and they catch nothing except the rubbish they clean from their nets.

The least Simon Peter can do is grant Jesus’ request to push out a little from shore, so Jesus can catch the ear of all straining to hear him. 

But it is not so much the wider catch that is the focus of this text.  Simon Peter, James, and John first appear to be a footnote in the story.  However, Simon Peter, one of the three fishermen, becomes the focus of Jesus’ attention, and therefore ours too!  Our attention is captured by Jesus, when he makes a second request of Simon Peter, after he had finished speaking to the crowd.

Jesus said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”  (Luke 5:4 ESV)

We can hear the tiredness and sigh of Simon Peter’s words as he responds with his lament, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing!  But at your word I will let down the nets.” (Luke 5:5 ESV)

Simon Peter very quickly learns that Jesus’ word was no ordinary word.  We know Jesus is not just a master of the word, or a commander of commandments, but that he is the very Word of God. 

Simon Peter was being called by someone greater than a master of the boat, or a commander commanding him to put out into the deep and let down the nets for a catch.

Simon Peter, James, and John were fishermen, they would have known the waters well.  They would have known when the best time of day and year was for catching fish.  They knew from experience what fishing was like on the lake.

It was never like this!

Such is the power of Jesus’ word to draw the crowd.  They let down the nets into the deep.  Simon Peter and his crew did as Jesus asked.  The nothingness of their nets was replaced with nets so full of fish they began to break.

This event left its mark on the three fishermen.  None more so than Simon Peter, who fell down at Jesus feet and said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” (Luke 5:8 ESV)

Simon Peter realises that he is not worthy to be in Jesus’ presence.  This master fisherman catches the crowd and reveals that this Galilean fisherman misses the mark and never lets down his net in the right place to catch fish like this!

The irony of the situation is no laughing matter for Simon Peter.  He could catch nothing, and here is one who catches to excess.  He asks Jesus to leave.  We can only wonder why?   Perhaps it was due to extreme embarrassment, anxiety, or humiliation.  Or perhaps it was the sheer shock of the size of the catch.  Whatever it was, Simon Peter was dumbfounded, overwhelmed, and changed by the experience.

In fact, it dumbfounded not just Simon Peter, but all who were with him.  Little did Peter know, but later he would dumbfound others, by the power of the Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, when he healed a beggar at the temple in Jerusalem sometime after the Pentecost.  (Acts 3)

The Greek word used, meaning “dumbfounded”, appears only eleven times in the New Testament.  Two times in Luke and twice again here in Acts where the crowd witness Peter and John’s healing. 

The word is also recorder another seven times, but only in the Gospel of Mark.  We know John Mark recorded his Gospel from Peter’s proclamation of the gospel.  This highlights Peter’s language of dumbfoundedness and astonishment throughout his ministry of service to our Lord Jesus Christ. 

The point in all of this is: Simon Peter was forever affected by what Jesus did, beginning with this event on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

We know his dumbfoundedness, his inability to speak, was overcome.  Despite missing the mark as a fisher of fish, Jesus says to Simon Peter, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”  (Luke 5:10 ESV)

This narrative is drawn to a close in hearing that they left their boats and follow Jesus.  Now any fishers of fish here, will know for certain, this event had a massive impact on Peter, James, and John.  Having caught the largest catch, after fishing all night and catching nothing, these fishermen left everything and followed Jesus. 

Would you?

Jesus is not one who is employed to increase the catch of our desires.  Rather, like Peter who was called into witnessing the Gospel, we are called into this life as well.  Jesus is prepared to sail with you through the storms of this life. 

Are you willing to let Jesus sail with you through them? 

Either way, tumult, and tribulations are a reality.  The word of God tells us they are!  Even if the word didn’t tell us, the sinfulness of our humanity attracts turmoil and trouble anyway.

Like Peter, you might want to recoil from the call, saying, “Depart from me for I am sinful, Lord!”  You might think you are not worthy or capable to do God’s work.  The reality is you are not, and nor was Peter, or any since him!   Yet despite this, the fisherman left what he knew and followed Jesus. 

It is time to step aside from your fears and step out in faith and follow Jesus.   Jesus does not necessarily want you to chuck in your job and sit on a hilltop and wait for his second coming.  But he does call you to give up the futile effort of fishing for the idols of your heart and allow him to catch you and carry you.

Jesus has been catching you your whole life!  He continues to catch you and carry you!  His faithfulness towards you may or may not be easily visible.  But we know his faithfulness is completed in the cross.  And even then, he doesn’t stop being faithful to you.  He sends the Holy Spirit to lead you in his written word, to give you the will to follow his call, and the eyes of faith to see this call happens in a called community of dumbfounded listeners.

To obey the call is not so much about what we do.  Obeying Jesus’ call is about listening dumbfoundedly and allowing Jesus and the Holy Spirit to work in your dumbfoundedness and astonishment.  It is not you who speaks and acts, but Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit who speaks and acts through you.

Amen.