Luke 5:1-11; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31
✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠
In today’s Gospel Jesus does something which goes against all sensibility and logic. He tells Simon Peter, “Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch.” This appears to be utterly foolish. For anyone who is even casually familiar with fishing knows that you don’t catch fish out in the deep but in shallower areas where the fish congregate and feed. Especially when you’re fishing with nets, you want to go where your nets can actually reach the fish. What Jesus suggests here seems entirely unreasonable. It goes against all that experience would teach.
Furthermore, Simon informs Jesus that they had just been fishing all night without success. They put to use all of their skills and techniques and knowledge as fishermen and hadn’t caught a thing. It just wasn’t a good day to fish. Besides, what’s the point of going out now during the heat of the day, which is the worst time to fish? What Jesus said made no sense.
However, Simon has at least a fledgling faith in Jesus which trusts what He has to say. And so even though it seems pointless, Simon Peter says, “Nevertheless, at Your Word I will let down the net.” Because you say so, because it’s your words, I will do it, even though I’ve got my doubts. And when Simon and his friends do so, they catch such a great number of fish that their net begins to break. In the end they fill up two boats full.
So even though today’s Gospel seems to be all about fishing, the real heart of the account is the Word of Jesus. Nothing happens apart from that. The Word may seem foolish to human reason and logic, but in truth it is powerful and effective to do what is says and deliver what it promises and save those who believe.
St. Paul writes in the Epistle, “The Word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.” They think of the Gospel and the Scriptures as a story for the naive and the gullible and the shallow-minded. No one who’s got any real intelligence and education is going to go for that. They regard it as if it were mere superstition. The Word of God is constantly being mocked in the world as backward or outdated or even hateful.
St. Paul says more specifically, “Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness.” Some people are like the Jews, who want to see miraculous signs and proofs, who are after divine displays of glory and powerful evidences of God’s presence in their life. If your religion can make me blessed and successful and healthy and wealthy and happy, then I’ll go for it. But if there’s suffering and sacrifice and a cross involved, then forget it. The cross is the big stumbling block for the Jews. For the Old Testament rightly says that anyone who is hung on a tree is cursed. How, then, could such a one who died such a dishonorable death be God? Where’s the glory in that?
And some people, Paul says, are like the Greeks who seek after wisdom. They want everything to be rationally and scientifically explainable. They won’t believe it unless they can understand it with their senses and their mind. If it’s not reasonable to their way of thinking, if for instance it speaks of the utter helplessness of man before God, then it’s only worthy of being ridiculed or ignored. If my goodness and merits and efforts don’t contribute toward my being saved, if I’m entirely dependent on someone else to gain eternal life–that makes no sense. I’ll find some other spirituality that’s more logical to me.
We know well the temptation of wanting to follow such worldly spiritualities, to walk by sight and not by faith, to have a religion that’s based on human wisdom and glory rather than God’s wisdom and the cross. But just like Peter, by God’s grace we have been brought to trust in Jesus’ Word, even in the midst of all our weakness and doubts. We have been brought to know that though the Word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, to us who are being saved it is the power of God. It is written, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.”
In order to humble the proud and those who are wise and strong in their own eyes, our Lord chooses to hide His power behind that which seems foolish and weak. In that way His saving wisdom and strength will be perceived only by lowly, penitent believers to whom He reveals Himself. After all where has human wisdom really gotten us? Technology and science can do wonderful things, no doubt about it. But has man’s wisdom eliminated crime and violence? Is there any less loneliness or sadness or depression in the world? Have people stopped dying? Man’s wisdom is quite limited; we dare not rest our hopes there.
Rather, Paul says this, “Since the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.” Think of what an odd way that is for God to operate! First of all, He chooses to bring His salvation through mere words. Nothing flashy or glorious, just talking, speaking. And the focus of the speaking is an instrument of the death penalty, of all things. The Gospel message is that a suffering, tortured man is the Savior. We preach Christ crucified, Paul says. That’s why we display a body on the cross here. Our hope for eternal life is in His death. What could be more weak and foolish and even offensive than that? And yet, Paul says, the weakness of God is stronger than men, and the foolishness of God is wiser than men. That weak, foolish cross still far surpasses all our intelligence. For it alone conquers sin and death and the devil. The greatest blessing of God is hidden behind that curse. He does what runs counter to our thinking to accomplish His purposes, so that no one may boast in His presence, but that we may boast in the Lord alone and glory in His mercy.
It’s just like when the Lord came to Elijah. We expect God to be in the miraculous and the mighty. But the Lord was not in the strong wind for Elijah, nor was He in the earthquake or the fire. Instead the Lord came to him in a still, small voice. In that unimpressive fashion, the Lord was there in mercy to speak with Elijah. So it is still today. The Lord does not come to us in impressive signs or with high sounding wisdom, but in the simple Word of Christ crucified for sinners. The still, small voice of the absolution, the preaching of the Gospel is where the Lord is in power for you. Through that spoken Word He is present to save you and perform what He has promised.
Which then brings us to the preachers of this foolish message, where the same theme applies. If you come to a South Wisconsin District pastors conference and look around, we’re not a very impressive bunch of guys. Nothing too glorious there to see. You may even wonder, “What was the Lord thinking in ordaining these people?” And yet, what the Epistle said applies not only to Christians in general but preachers too: “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.”
That’s the way it was with Simon Peter. When he saw the miraculous catch of fish given by Christ, he also saw more clearly his own sinfulness by comparison, and he said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” Simon was one who was often weak, often foolish. And yet the Lord said to him, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.” Just as Simon was able to catch these fish solely by the power of Christ’s Word, so now Jesus was making Simon into one who would draw in people solely by preaching Christ’s powerful Word. In this way others who are weak and foolish would be made wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus.
That’s the whole point of this catch of fish. It all happens at the Word of Christ. Beforehand, Jesus Himself had been “casting the net” so to speak as He preached the Word to the people from Simon’s boat. Jesus turned that boat into a mighty cathedral. He Himself is not afraid to launch out into the deep and let down His nets for a catch. Just as the Spirit of God hovered over the deep in the beginning at creation, so our Lord goes to the deep; to the very depths of sin and death our Lord goes. That’s what Jesus’ death and burial were about. He descended to the murky darkness of the abyss in order to pull up His catch of sinful men and to raise you to the light of His resurrection life.
And now Jesus bids His Simons to continue to cast the net of the Gospel to draw people into the boat which is the church, where He is present to save. That is the simple and “unreasonable” way in which our Lord accomplishes His mission. It’s not done through special marketing programs. Jesus doesn’t use a bait and lure to try to fool people into being Christian. It’s only the net of His Word which “catches” you and draws you in. It’s the simple means of baptizing and teaching that makes disciples; it’s the preaching of the Word of Christ crucified that has the power to save. When that takes place, any church becomes a sturdy ship, a mighty ark of Christ.
So let us hear clearly for ourselves the words of Christ spoken to Simon Peter: “Do not be afraid. You are forgiven. I have taken on your very flesh and blood to make you holy. Your sins have been paid for by my cross, so that now you can stand before a holy God and live. Do not fear. You are Mine. You are reconciled to the Father through Me.” And then let us say, “At your Word, Lord, even though I am weak and sinful, nevertheless I believe that I am righteous in your sight; I trust in Your promise. At Your Word, even though all my senses can grasp here is bread and wine, yet because you have said so I believe that in them you give me Your true body and blood for the forgiveness of my sins, so that I may be filled with your life. At Your Word, Lord, I let down all my defenses, I forsake all my ways of thinking and doing things to follow you. I trust in Your mercy and lovingkindness. You are my light and my salvation.”
✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠