Image: Dad and I at the family farm near Wadena, MN, ca. 1986-87
February 9, 2025: Epiphany 5C
Luke 5:1-11
Every family with fishermen has at least one fish story. Sometimes it’s the “one that got away”, in which the fish gets bigger and puts up a fiercer fight with every retelling. Sometimes it’s the notorious forced perspective fish, where the fish is held away from the body, making it look like the size of a person’s leg! And sometimes, the fish story is true. Here’s a true fish story from my childhood.
When I was my daughter’s age, I came up to this part of Minnesota most summers with Mom and Dad. Many of those lazy days were spent fishing the lakes of Ottertail County. My dad would often give me a cane pole. One day, when we were fishing in one of the Leaf Lakes, I caught a bluegill. As I was pulling it in, a northern swallowed the bluegill, pulling the cane pole into the lake. Dad went in after it and pulled out a very surprised five-pound-plus northern with a half-eaten bluegill. It remains the largest fish I’ve ever caught. The experience empowered me in a new way. Look what I could do (with dad’s help of course) at such a tender age!
In Luke’s Gospel, we hear another fish story. But as wild as this story is, the miracle is not as important as what happens afterward.
We find Jesus teaching beside the lake. A common occurrence, to be sure. Jesus had been there at least once before according to Luke. He knew Peter, James, and John, their families, and their fishing syndicate. After all, they let him use one of their boats to teach from. Jesus had spent time building relationships with Peter and the others before today’s episode at the lake.
So he’s there in the boat, teaching, and after he finishes, he tells Peter to sail into deep water and let the nets down for a catch. Now, two things. First, Jesus is a landlubber. As far as Luke tells us, he has no training in sailing or fishing. His instincts seem all wrong, which brings me to my second point: it’s the wrong time of day to fish. Productive hours for fishing were at night.
Peter knows all this. But they’ve been skunked all night. No fish means no money. No money means no revenue for the tax man, which might put their fishing rights in jeopardy. So Peter puts the nets out, having nothing to lose. And the catch is beyond Peter’s wildest dreams; so huge that both boats begin to sink! Peter, of course, is terrified. He didn’t bargain for this!
And we get to the crux of the story. Jesus has just done a miracle, bringing a massive daytime catch for Peter and his partners. But Peter doesn’t take this as a sign of divine favor. He doesn’t take this to mean that God is happy where he is. No, he takes it in a different direction. He knows the divine face is upon him, the face that no one can look upon and live, as God said to Moses. Terrified, Peter pleads with Jesus, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” Jesus is no longer simply a wise teacher, a mere master. Peter addresses Jesus with the placeholder word for the divine name, YHWH. The one true Lord of heaven and earth is before him.
But Jesus will not go away. This is a crucial point. Up until now, Peter has just been a fishermen, scraping by with his business partners. But Jesus calls Peter to be more. Through their massive catch, he has shown them a glimpse of the wild abundance of the kingdom of God. This is an abundance far more than the merely material. Jesus is pointing to an abundance of souls—an abundance of people—who will become more than they can possibly imagine. In contrast to Rome, which saw people as mere tools of economic profit, Jesus sees people as beloved children of his heavenly Father, whose birthright is to grow into His image in their own unique ways. Jesus has come not to make people powerless as Rome did, but powerful, gifted, and equipped through his amazing grace.
People of God, the Spirit has made us more powerful than we dare imagine. We are more than our jobs, our money, or our politics. We are children of God, made so through baptism! We have a unique call to invite people into a deeper relationship with Christ. That is fishing for people as Jesus says. And it’s not so other people can be exactly like us. It’s so they can discover true shalom! Only in Jesus Christ do we find the shalom that makes us who we were called to be. Who you were called to be.
This story in Luke is certainly fantastic, a fish story if there ever was one. But it is also a true fish story, a fish story that not only changed Peter, but also changed the whole world. Thanks be to God. Amen.
© 2025, David M. Fleener. Permission granted to copy and adapt original material herein for non-commercial purposes with appropriate credit given.
