Luke 5- How we respond when confronted with God

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

As we make our way through the season after Epiphany, we have seen glimpses of who Jesus is as he begins his ministry. As a child the Magi knelt before him as the newborn king of Israel. When he was baptized, the voice of God the Father identified Jesus as the Son of God. We saw Jesus’ first miracle in the Gospel of John at the wedding in Cana, when He turned water into wine, bringing new covenant wine out of old covenant jars. He preached at his hometown synagogue, saying that the Scriptures are pointing to him. When his parents presented him at the Temple, 40 days after he was born, Simeon and Anna spoke about him as the Messiah, as the light to the nations, but also revealed that he would cause division.

Another theme that emerges from these initial glimpses of Jesus is the way people react to him. The Magi kneel, but King Herod tried to kill him. The voice of the Father identifies him as the Son of God, and the Devil tempts him in the wilderness. After turning water into wine, his disciples believed in him. When he told his hometown synagogue that the Scriptures point to him, they doubted and filled with rage they tried to push him off a cliff. When his parents presented him at the Temple, Simeon and Anna were overjoyed.

In our reading today, Jesus is still at the beginning of his ministry and he is gathering his disciples. They are on the shore of the sea of Galilee, and as the crowd grows, Jesus gets in Peter’s fishing boat and asks him to push out a bit from the shore. He does this to create a natural amphitheatre using the shoreline.

When Jesus was done teaching, he tells Peter to go out to the deeper water to let down the nets for a catch. … Peter is the fisherman. He knows what he is doing. Night is the best time to catch fish. This trip, they have been out all night and haven’t caught anything. … Jesus (the carpenter and preacher) gives Peter (the fisherman) direction on fishing and Peter has a decision to make. … He expresses his doubt, “we have worked all night long but have caught nothing”. But he also calls Jesus “Master”, and says, 

“Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets”. 

So, out of respect for Jesus, Peter follows his direction, but he seems to be doubtful about catching any fish. … But they catch so many fish that their nets begin to break. They have to ask for help from their partners in another boat, and they fill both boats to the point of nearly sinking them.

When Peter sees this, he knows he has just witnessed a miracle, and he knows that it happened because of Jesus. He reacts to Jesus in a way that mirrors how Isaiah reacts to seeing God. We read, 

“he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’” 

Notice how Isaiah responds to God, and compare that to how Peter responds to Jesus. I think Luke is saying something about who Jesus is, by what roles they are filling in this dynamic.  

Isaiah the prophet has a vision of God in the temple. He sees God sitting on a throne … along with 6-winged angels. The prophet responds, 

‘Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’ (Is 6:5).

When we are faced with God, the Holy Creator of the universe, a common reaction is to become very aware of our own sinfulness, or our unworthiness to be in God’s presence.

When we are faced with the Divine, a common reaction is to become very aware of our own sinfulness, or our unworthiness. … We reflect this in the liturgy as well. As we approach God, we enter through a time of confession. … It is a natural response when confronted with the Divine.

Peter admits his sinfulness, and Jesus calls Peter into his service to be a fisher of men, as one of his Apostles. … This reflects the way God calls the prophets. … There is a pattern in the Bible that we often see when prophets first receive their call from God. … God calls the prophet. Then the prophet will protest that they should not be the one to do what God is asking. God then reassures them that He will be with them to help them carry out their task.

When God first calls Moses out of the burning bush, Moses responds, 

“Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” (Ex 3:11); 

“What if they do not believe me or listen to me … I have never been eloquent … I am slow of speech and tongue… Please send someone else” (Ex 4:1, 10, 13).

 We see a similar reluctance from Jeremiah who responds to God’s call saying, 

“I do not know how to speak; I am too young” (Jer1:6). 

 In addition to Moses and Jeremiah, we see similar reluctance in the stories of Gideon, Saul, and Ezekiel. …

Numbers 12:3 says that 

“Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth”.

 I don’t think it is a coincidence that Moses was considered both extremely humble and one of the greatest prophets to walk the earth. There is something about humility that allows God to work through them in particularly powerful ways.

As we read through the Bible there are certain general principles about God’s character that are expressed. One of these principles is God’s desire to work through the humble. In the book of Proverbs we read (3:34) 

“God opposes the proud, but shows favour to the humble”.

What is it about humility that matters so much?

One way to answer this is to look at the opposite of humility, which is pride. Pride has been called the root of all Sin. It is that part of us that turns away from God and rejects Him, thinking we can do better on our own. Pride is feeling better or more important than other people. Pride causes us to use people for our own ends. It is selfishness. It is pride that caused Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. And it is pride that leads us to all other sin. In stealing, we think we deserve to have something someone else has. In murder, we believe we have the right to decide if someone should live or die. … All sin has pride as its root.

It might be that this dynamic between humility and pride is behind why Jesus chose the disciples he chose. Why did he choose fishermen, rather than Pharisees and Scribes who were experts in the Law? … Could it be that the fishermen were more open to being taught? Fishermen were under no illusions about being experts in the ways of God. (Though, we know the Apostles had their prideful moments, too.) There was probably more humility in the fishermen as they received Jesus’s teaching, than there would be with the Pharisee or Scribe who thought they already had the answers.

God calls the prophet, and the prophet seems to be required to have a certain level of humility to be qualified. Then God gives the prophet a mission. … Isaiah is called to speak to the people. … After he is purified from his sin, we read, 

“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’ And [God] said, ‘Go and say to this people…” (Is 6:8-9). 

 Isaiah is given a mission. … Likewise, Jesus calls Peter, 

“‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’ When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him” (Lk 5:10-11).

If we are to be used by God, then we need to come to God with humility. It is not about our ability. Often what God is looking for is not well-qualified people, but people who are humble and therefore teachable. … The philosopher Peter Kreeft said it this way, 

“Spiritually, our strength is our receptivity, our active passivity to God, our emptiness … if we come to God with empty hands, he will fill them. If we come with full hands, he finds no place to put himself. It is our beggary, our receptivity, that is our hope.”[1]

If we think we are unqualified to do what God is asking us to do, then we are in good company with Moses, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Peter, and many others that God has used to do His work throughout the ages.

It is the way of God to use the humble to do great things. God called a shepherd boy, who was the smallest of his brothers, to be the greatest king of Israel. God saved a group of slaves and made them His chosen people. Christ called fishermen and tax collectors to be his Apostles. So, we shouldn’t underestimate what God can do with a little church called St. Leonard’s in a little city called Red Deer. AMEN

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[1] Kreeft, back to virtue, p105