The Big Catch!

Luke
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” 9 For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, 10 and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” 11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.


In Chapter 5, we see Jesus doing many miracles and pushing against social norms. He heals a man with leprosy, a paralytic, and eats with Levi, a despised tax collector. When he finished teaching in Peter's boat, he told Peter to push the boat out a little further from the shoreline. Then hevtells them to throw out their nets for a little catch. Peter says skeptically, "Well we already got "shut out" from catching any fish, but If you say so we'll throw out the nets."

Then, they witness a miracle. When they draw in the empty nets they are so filled with fish that they had to call in their friend's boat to empty all the fish out of the nets into the two boats. Peter realized right away that he had witnessed something supernatural, and he got a glimpse of who Jesus really was. He calls him "Lord and realizes what a sinful man he is". But instead of condemning Peter, he calls him to follow him. He gives him a new vision for his life. Jesus says, "From now on you and your friends will fish for people".

Jesus uses every interaction in this chapter to show the people who he was, by what he did. He taught them and then showed them. The leper was made clean, both physically, emotionally and spiritually. The paralytic was healed to show that Jesus had the authority to forgive sins. Jesus went to eat with Levi at his house to show he was a friend of sinners. Meanwhile despite all this evidence that Jesus was the Messiah, the Pharisees and teachers of the Law sneered at saying, "who does this guy think he is?"

Simon Peter heard the call from Jesus and dropped down his nets and left everything to follow him. It was quite an extraordinary day for Peter and his friends. Would you have responded to Jesus' call like Peter did? Jesus doesn't necessarily call everyone to leave their jobs to follow him, but he does call us to lay down our lives to follow him. The exciting thing is that as we drop our nets and things in our lives that keep us from following Jesis, like Peter, from now on we will be fishing for people.


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