Luke 5:1-11 · The Calling of the First Disciples
When The Fish Won't Bite
Luke 5:1-11
Sermon
by Frank Lyman
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You may have read about a man in California who has to be the worst bank robber in history. He went into a Bank of America in San Francisco and wrote out a stick up note on the back of a deposit slip. He got in line to present his note to the teller, but while he was in line he started thinking that maybe somebody saw him writing the stick up note. Maybe they were calling the police right now. So he decided to get out of line and go across the street to the Wells-Fargo bank. He had to wait in line there, too, but finally he got up to a cashier and presented her with the note. The cashier could tell that the man didn't have all his oars in the water, if you know what I mean. That he was a few fries short of a Happy Meal, so she said to him, "I'm sorry, but we can't take stick up notes written on Bank of America deposit slips. You will have to get back in line and write out another note on one of our slips." Well, the man was too lazy to write two stick up notes in one day so he went back across the street to the Bank of America and got in line there--and that's exactly where the police found him a few minutes later. That is supposedly a true story. Maybe this would-be hold-up man was in the wrong business. Maybe Simon the fisherman was in the wrong business as well.

Forgive the awful pun, but there's something "fishy" about this morning's Gospel reading. Oh, it's not the miraculous catch of fish which is troubling. Most of us don't struggle that much with the miracles of Jesus. What seems fishy is Simon Peter's instantaneous conversion from a fisher of fish to a fisher of people. How can a person make such a momentous life decision with such little deliberation?

This story has a wonderful flow. Simon Peter and his colleagues are drying their nets after a frustrating night of fruitless fishing. Jesus appears and has Simon row him out a bit so he can address the pressing crowd with greater clarity. The water serves as a natural conduit for sound. At the end of his talk, Jesus tells Simon to let down his net in the deep waters for a catch. Though all night Simon has batted zero in catching fish, he still does so, because of Jesus' command. The result is such a catch of fish that his boat and his partners' boat both begin to sink!

Simon Peter's reaction to the catch is not joy but fear: "Depart from me, O Lord," Peter cries out, "for I am a sinful man." Jesus tells him, "Do not be afraid. From now on you will be catching people." (Luke 5: 10) And, just like that, Simon and the others leave everything to follow Jesus!

Sound fishy to you? Too quick a decision? Simon did none of the normal work we associate with making a career change. He never took the Myers-Briggs test or the Minnesota Multi-Phasic Inventory. He didn't consult his accountant or his family. He never asked about salary or vacation. He didn't inquire about perks, profit-sharing or pensions. He didn't even pray! He just left everything and followed Jesus. We sense that something else was going on with Peter . . . and there was!

To learn what was going on in Simon's life, we back up to the fourth chapter of Luke where Jesus enters the small Galilean village of Capernaum. There Jesus stays at the home of Simon Peter's mother-in-law. Since this house would later become the headquarters for Jesus and his disciples, it's quite possible that Peter and his wife lived there with her mother. Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with you and your wife living with her mother, but, in the "man's world" of the Bible, living with your mother-in-law doesn't exactly label you a rousing success! This is further hinted at in that Simon didn't own his own business. Instead he worked with the sons of Zebedee, James and John, under their daddy's watchful eye!

According to Luke's Gospel, things were not going well in the mother-in-law's house. On the day that Jesus stays with them his mother-in-law is seriously ill with a wracking fever. Jesus rebukes the fever and heals her. The result of this? Simon's mother-in-law "immediately got up and began to serve them." (Luke 4:38) As William Barclay has written, "She had been given back her health, to spend it in the service of others." (1)

Now, as we move into the heart of our lesson for the day, we see Simon Peter's bad week becoming worse! He was living with his mother-in-law, working for "The Sons of Zebedee Fishing Company," and now he strikes out by not catching a single fish in a night of intense labor. To Simon Peter fishing was not a way to pass a pleasant summer evening; it was his livelihood. In Galilee, fish was eaten, processed, salted, dried, pickled, and it was even exported! (2)

Simon had not caught any fish and Luke uses the Greek word Kopos, to describe his feeling. Kopos means toil and weariness, as if one had been beaten. It was not for lack of effort that Simon had failed. He'd fished all night long. He'd used the trammel net, designed to catch fish in the deepest part of the sea, but all he had to show for his efforts were empty nets which needed drying.

IT IS IN FAILURE THAT JESUS MEETS SIMON. He lives with a sick mother-in-law. He works for somebody else. And he had experienced a dreadful night on the job. Simon was soul searching, struggling with his identity. Oscar Wilde described this mystery when he wrote from his prison cell, "The final mystery is oneself. When one has weighed the sun in the balance, and measured the steps of the moon, and mapped out the seven heavens star by star, there still remains oneself. Who can calculate the orbit of his own soul?" (3)

Failure. It's not a dirty word--and yet we sometimes act as if it is. Every great person fails at some time in his or her life.

Leonardo da Vinci did. In addition to his incredible talents in painting and sculpting, da Vinci was also a mathematician, philosopher, master chef, architect, athlete, and inventor. But even great geniuses can experience great failures. One of da Vinci's biggest blunders occurred when he was working in the household of an Italian nobleman, Ludovico Sforza.

Sforza put da Vinci in charge of planning a banquet for two hundred guests. Leonardo intended to sculpt all the food into tiny artistic masterpieces. He created a fully automated kitchen in Sforza's mansion in order to feed that many people. But the night of the banquet, everything fell apart. The conveyor belt da Vinci had installed broke down and started a fire. Next, the sprinkler system he had created kicked in to put the fire out. Soon, the whole kitchen was flooded. The banquet had to be called off. (4)

Failure. Have you known failure? Have you felt you were a failure? Have you had nights when the fish just don't bite? I have. I have felt I was a failure. I have been like Simon toiling all night, giving my best, maybe working too hard, yet at the end of the day, my nets felt empty!

We all fail at times. There are nights when the fish just don't bite. That's why we need to hear the rest of this morning's reading. JESUS DOESN'T LET SIMON PETER'S APPARENT FAILURE IN FISHING PREVENT HIM FROM BECOMING THE LEADER OF JESUS' CHOSEN TWELVE. He may have failed in one day of fishing. That did not mean he was a failure in life. There is a difference in saying, "I have failed," and "I am a failure."

After Jesus has finished speaking he tells Simon to cast his net and to expect to have a catch. Now remember, Simon's just spent an entire night fishing and failing, and surely, the last thing he wanted to do was fish some more. When one is pounding one's head against a brick wall, one doesn't relish more pain! If I'd been Simon I might have responded to Jesus' invitation by turning him down with one of the catch phrases of our time: "Been there. Done that. Bought the T-shirt." But Simon has more character than most people. He says yes to Jesus: "At your word I will let down the nets." (Luke 5:5b) Simon had the courage to try again.

Good things did happen. Simon wanted fish; he got fish! He got so many fish that he nearly sank the entire fleet of Zebedee and Sons Fishing! Simon could have had his fish fresh, processed, salted, dried, pickled or exported! This was the most successful day in Simon Peter's life and yet . . . he walked away from it all! That's what is staggering about this story. WHEN JESUS TOLD HIM HE HAD OTHER PLANS FOR HIM, PETER WALKED AWAY FROM THE ONLY LIVELIHOOD THAT HE KNEW. Simon Peter had come to that critical point in every thinking person's life where he realizes that everything material he ever wanted just isn't enough! Simon's hunger is not for lake trout. His hunger is for God! And thus he collapses at Jesus' feet and confesses, "I'm a sinner."

What happened to Simon parallels what happened to Isaiah the prophet in the year that King Isaiah died, as told in Isaiah 6? Do you remember that majestic scene? Isaiah sees the Lord high and lifted up and Isaiah cries out, "Woe is me! For I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for I have seen the Lord!" He too is confronted by God, and his reaction is also one of being convicted of sinfulness. This is the way God works. God confronts us not with threats but with goodness. If we're listening to God, then like Simon and Isaiah we are driven to an honest appraisal of who we are. C. S. Lewis expressed this by writing, "We are at present, creatures whose character must be a horror to God, (and) when we really see it, a horror to ourselves . . . I notice that the holier a (person) is, the more fully he is aware of that fact. "(5)

Most of us are familiar with the little children's rhyme that goes, "Here's the church; Here's the steeple. Open the door and see all the people." But do you know the rest of the poem? "Close the doors and hear them pray; Open the door, they all walk away."

It's OK to say "Here's the church," for the building is important. It's fine to say, "Here's the steeple," for the steeple points to our adoration of God. It's good to say, "See all the people," for church friends are the finest friends we can ever have, but if we omit, "Close the doors and hear them pray," then we've missed the transcendent moment when personally and corporately we come into communion with God. "Open the door, they all walk away," is a reminder that worship is not designed to entertain us or even to make us feel good. It is a refueling station where we emerge, like Simon's mother-in-law, refueled that we might serve.

Simon Peter walked away from the biggest day in his life. I suppose we could say that God had bigger fish for him to fry! Jesus offered Simon, as he offers us, a better direction in life. Simon Peter learned he was a child of God.

In James Goldman's novel, The Lion in Winter, there is a scene where three sons wrestle for the right to succeed King Henry. John tells his mother Eleanor that his brother Richard has a knife. Listen as she captures the base instinct of humanity and then offers a better way: "Of course (your brother) has a knife. We all have knives--we are barbarians--we are the origins of war--we breed war. For the love of God," she continues, "can't we love one another--just a little? That's how peace begins. We have such possibilities, my children. We could change the world." (6)

After fishing all night and failing, Jesus came to Simon and made life right. Jesus' order to him, "Put your net down for a catch" is both a challenge and a promise. Challenge: Never be afraid to try again. Promise: the long night passes into day and we live to put our nets down for another day and expect the providence of God. We are such possibility. We could change the world.


Barclay, William, Luke, pg. 32.

New Interpreter's Bible, pg. 116.

Wilde, Oscar, De Profundis and Other Writings, pg. 178.

Michael J. Geb. How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci (New York: Dell Publishing, 1998), pg. 79.

Lewis, C. S., The Problem of Pain, pg. 67.

Goldman, James, The Lion in Winter, pgs. 55-56.

by Frank Lyman