CRITICAL NOTES
Luke 5:1. To hear the word of God.—“His preaching in the synagogues had excited so much attention that the people followed Him to the shore of the lake to hear Him” (Speaker’s Commentary). Lake of Gennesaret.—St. Luke alone uses the name.
Luke 5:2. Standing.—The technical word used for vessels at anchor or fastened to the shore. Washing their nets.—As if their work for the day were over.
Luke 5:4. Launch out.—The verb is in the singular; addressed to Peter, who was steersman of his boat: “let down” is in the plural; addressed to all the fishermen in the boat.
Luke 5:5. Master.—Not “teacher”: a title of respect. All the night.—The usual time for fishing (cf. John 21:3).
Luke 5:6. Their net brake.—Rather, “was breaking” (R.V.), was on the point of breaking.
Luke 5:8. Depart from me.—Lit. “Go forth away from me,” i.e. “Go out of the boat and leave me.” The presence of one possessed of Divine power or knowledge overawed him: he felt, too, that in Jesus there was also a Divine holiness; and he was overwhelmed with the thought of his own unworthiness. Yet he addresses Jesus as “Lord,” a term of greater reverence than “Master” (Luke 5:5). His request that Jesus should leave him is the expression of a very different feeling from that of the sordid Gadarenes, who desired Him to depart from their coasts (Luke 8:37). A sinful man.—It is his own individual guiltiness that he confesses, and not simply the depravity of human nature: the word he uses implies this—it is ἀνήρ, and not ἄνθρωπος.
Luke 5:9. Astonished.—Lit. “amazement possessed him.”
Luke 5:10. Thou shalt catch.—Or, “thou shalt be catching”—as a permanent occupation. “It must be remembered that this was the second call of Peter and the three apostles—the call to apostleship: they had already received a call to faith. They had received their first call on the banks of the Jordan, and had heard the witness of John, and had witnessed the miracle of Cana. They had only returned to their ordinary avocations until the time came for Christ’s full and active ministry” (Farrar).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Luke 5:1-11
A Parable in a Miracle.—There are three stages in this incident: the sermon from the fishing-boat, the draught of fishes, and the call of Simon.
I. The sermon from the fishing-boat.—The narrative is vivid and picturesque. We can fancy the little crowd on the beach in the fresh morning; their unmannerly jostling; the singular inattention of Simon and the others; the wet, slimy boats drawn up, in token that fishing was done for the day; the crews busy cleaning the nets; and stretching from the strip of busy beach the glittering waters, shining in the early sun as it rose over the eastern hills. Though the fishermen had not lifted their heads from washing the nets to listen to Jesus, they were all His disciples; but they had not been summoned to forsake their callings, and Jesus had been going about preaching alone. They did not know how far He wished them to swell the crowd of listeners, and so they went on with their work. The patient doing of common duties is as true a service as any other. Who looked likest disciples—the eager listeners, or the knot of fishers? The light-minded crowd shows us that open ears and shut hearts often go together, and the true sign of discipleship was dropping the nets and pushing off just because He wished it. Let us learn to stick to our small secular duties till Jesus asks other service, and then to drop them immediately and cheerily, like these men. What a pulpit for such a preacher the rough, untidy fishing-boat was! How willingly He shared the lowly lot of His friends, and how little He cared for comfort, or what people call dignity! The gospel for all men, poor as well as rich, was fitly preached from a fishing-boat; and its power to exalt all secular work into Divine and priestly service was plain from the very place of its utterance.
II. The draught of fishes.—“At Thy word I will” is the very essence of obedience. Never mind though use and wont say “Folly”; never mind how vain the night’s work has been, nor how weary the arms with rowing and hauling; if Jesus says, “Down with the nets,” then down they should go, and he who truly calls Him Master will not stop to argue or remonstrate. Swiftness is part of obedience. The reward is as swift. The load threatens to break the nets. The miracle is remarkable, in that it was not done in answer to any cry of distress, and in that it had not for its purpose the supply of any sore need. Its value is didactic and symbolical. In the former aspect it reveals Jesus as the Lord of nature, and as fulfilling the ancient psalm (Luke 8:8), which ascribes to man dominion over “the fish of the sea.” The incident shows how the original and forfeited glory of humanity was restored in Jesus. “We see not yet all things put under” man, but “we see Jesus.” This teaching is equally clear whether we regard the point of the miracle as being our Lord’s supernatural knowledge of these passers “through the paths of the seas,” or as His sovereign power bringing them to the nets. It teaches, too, His care for His followers’ material needs, and prophesies the blessing which crowns obedient work in secular callings. If we are sure of what is duty, we are to stick to it, come failure or success. Then, too, we learn the need for prompt, unhesitating obedience to every command of Christ’s, however it may break in on our rest or contradict our notions. If all our common duties have this motto written on them, “At Thy word,” the distasteful will become pleasant and fatigue light, and success and failure will be wisely alternated by Him as may be best for us; and whatever the outward issues of our work, its effects on ourselves will be to bring us nearer to Him; and though our nets may often be empty, our hearts will be full of perfect peace.
III. The call of Simon.—The miracle heightened Peter’s conception of the Worker, for “Lord” is a loftier form of address than “Master.” It had also flashed upon him a sudden consciousness of his own sinfulness, which was altogether wholesome. It is well when great mercies reveal the Giver more clearly, and when the glimpse of the gracious Giver bows us with the sense of our own unworthiness. To know ourselves sinful and Christ as Lord is the beginning of deliverance from sin and of fitness for apostleship. But Peter was sadly wrong in his “Depart from me.” The disease is a reason for the coming, not for the going, of the Healer. He would have understood himself and His Lord better if he had cried, “Never leave me, for I am sinful.” He did understand matters better when, on the occasion of the second miraculous draught of fishes, he flung himself into the water to get close to his Master. A partial sense of sin and surface knowledge of Jesus drive from Him: a deeper understanding of ourselves and of Him drives to Him. Christ knows what Peter means by his foolish cry. What he wants to get rid of is, not Jesus, but the sin that separates him from Jesus. “Go away,” said Peter. “Come to Me henceforth permanently, and leave all else to be with Me,” replied Jesus. Christ knows our hearts better than we do, and often reads our wishes more truly than we put them into utterance. “From henceforth” indicates the change in Peter’s calling and relation to Jesus. The moment was an epoch, making a revolution in his life. Our sight of our own sinfulness and of His holiness ever makes a turning-point. Well for us if “henceforth” we are nearer Him, and lifted above our old selves.
The fisherman’s trade is the symbol of evangelistic activity, and the points of resemblance are very obvious. There is need for the same patient toil, the same persistent bearing up against discouragement. There will come the same apparent want of success, and there should ever sound in the servant’s ears the Master’s command to launch out into the deep—to push boldly into untried ground, and to ply his task, undaunted by discouragements and unwearied by the long night of toil. The conditions of success are diligence, obedience, hope. The preliminary is to leave all and follow Him. We may have little, or we may have much; but whatever it be, we have to give it up; and he who surrenders an “all” which is little is one in motive, and will be one in reward, with him who gives up an all which is much.—Maclaren.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luke 5:1-11
Luke 5:1-11. First Studies in Christ’s College.
I. Thrust out a little from the land.—Peter is first asked to lend his boat for the preaching of the word. For the first time the instruments of his ordinary life are turned to the use of his new calling: his boat, his oars, his strength and skill. What a lesson is here for every disciple—to be ready to give his house, his field, his shop, his seat at the receipt of custom, not to any mere selfish purpose, but to further the preaching of the word! For thus disciples are first taught to thrust out a little, in a venture to which they are new and timid.
II. Launch out into the deep.—That first lesson is followed by a second, and all the more suggestive that their life-long skill now finds a Master. For themselves they have toiled all night in vain; but they learn to begin anew at His word, and now they are astonished at their success. How often would this scene and its teaching come up to memory in aftertimes, with other lights and other applications! How often would Peter think in other waters of his partners in the ship, of fellowship in work as well as faith, of the joy of drawing men to the shore when the Master watches and directs, and of the wonder of nets unbroken under the heavy strain!—MacColl.
Trust in Christ taught by the Miracle.—Peter learnt from this miracle that it was best to trust Christ. He might say to himself, “I never felt more convinced that we should take nothing by letting down the nets than I did on that morning on the lake; but I let them down, and found I was wrong.” A memorable act is not done with educationally when it is over. The recollection of it is an attendant monitor, always pointing the same way; and so this miracle may have done much towards accustoming Peter to look to the Lord’s prompting, and to be ready at His word to give up that about which he felt most sure.—Latham.
A Miracle of Instruction.—The early miracles were mostly wrought in the sight of the multitude; but this miracle of the draught of fishes was performed when few but the disciples were by. It was a miracle of instruction: it lent great impressiveness to great lessons, it emphasised in a way never to be forgotten the call to become “fishers of men,” and it gave good augury of success. The thought of this draught must have come back to Peter at many a juncture in his life—a notable one being the morrow of the feast of Pentecost, when “there were added to them in that day about three thousand souls!”—Ibid.
Christ the Ruler of our Lives.—In this incident Christ unfolds Himself to His disciples as Lord of their lives and of their lives mission. He shows that their mission will be among men whom they are to seek to win; He gives them a glimpse of a kingdom which is moral rather than material; and at the same time He shows Himself as Lord of their lives.—Boyd Carpenter.
I. The scene.—Here you have week day ministry, open-air preaching, a quite extempore service, an occasional and entirely singular pulpit.
II. The sign.—The deed which followed when He had “left speaking” is a good illustration of the mutual influence of every-day religion and every-day work.
III. The purpose and effects.—A general impression of astonishment, a spiritual crisis in Peter’s case, and a complete and immediate decision on his part and on that of the other fisher-apostles. The crowning purpose of the miracle was to be a sign and seal of the calling of these converts as preachers of the gospel, messengers of the kingdom, fishers of men.
IV. The symbolic meaning.—It was an acted parable. The analogies between the work of fishers and the work of Christ’s servants are many.—Laidlaw.
Luke 5:1. “The people pressed upon Him.”—The presence of a large crowd of men and women eager to hear the word of God lends additional significance to the spiritual meaning of the miracle now wrought, and to the call now addressed to these fishermen to leave their trade and become fellow-workers with Christ in the task of saving men. The multitude gathered together upon the beach were ready and waiting to be enclosed in the gospel net.
Luke 5:2. “Were washing their nets.”—It is interesting to notice how often in the Gospels Christ is revealed to men while they are busy in their worldly occupations, and how those very occupations are made the means of giving them truer knowledge of Him and of their relations to Him.
1. The shepherds at Bethlehem, while tending their flocks, receive tidings of the birth of Him who was to be the Good Shepherd.
2. The Magi, while engaged in watching the heavens, see the star that guides them to Christ, who was Himself the Star which was to arise out of Jacob (Numbers 24:17).
3. The fishermen of the Galilæan lake, Simon and Andrew, James and John, while engaged in their trade, are called to join Him and to become fishers of men. The figure of Christ as a fisherman was common in the early literature of the Church: it is based upon this passage and upon the parable in Matthew 13:47-50. Various refinements upon the figure were current, e.g. the mystical symbol of the ἰχθύς (i.e. an acrostic upon Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour), the idea of the soul, like the fish, being born in the water (of baptism), etc.
Luke 5:3. “Entered into one of the ships.”—An old writer fancifully says of Christ in the boat and the people on the shore, “Behold the Fisherman upon the sea and the fish upon the land.”
Luke 5:4-5. “Launch out into the deep.”—The faith of Simon Peter is now tested. The night-fishing had been utterly unsuccessful, and the idea of renewing the attempt that day had been abandoned: the boats had been drawn up on the shore, and the nets were being cleaned and dried. The fisherman is now told to launch out into the deep, and cast the nets again. Simon’s knowledge of his craft, of the habits of fish, of the weather, etc., would have led him to refuse; but his deference to Christ and reverence for Him disposed Him to obey. To labour at the command of Christ, and to do so with alacrity and pains, is proof of a docile and implicit faith. Simon’s obedience was perhaps not very severely tested by this command, but it must be remembered that his faith in Christ was as yet only in an early stage of development, and therefore more easily shaken: he now manifested deference to a Teacher, where afterwards he showed ardent obedience to a Lord and Saviour.
Luke 5:5. “Nevertheless.”—Two feelings predominant in Peter’s words:
(1) weariness;
(2) discouragement. “Nevertheless.” Here is the correction of the two feelings. “This or that is against it, yet it shall be done.”
I. Life as a whole is one great “nevertheless.”
II. Each act of the life is a little “nevertheless.”—A “though” and a “yet” in perpetual conflict, the “though,” being the plausible thing, and the tempting thing, and the half-truth; the “yet” less apparent, but the manly thing, and the courageous and the right. There is a “though” as well as a “yet” in the simplest action. Though it is pleasant to sit still, I must be up and doing. It is irksome to perform this particular duty, but it must be done.—Vaughan.
Failure a Proof of Want of Faith.—Every failure is a proof of the want of faith. If faith were present, failure could not be. But there is such a thing as faith, after defeat, returning to the charge; and it is in that returning to the charge that the test of our Christianity lies.—Ibid.
“At Thy bidding.”—This is the disciple’s “nevertheless,” and finds its place in the disciple’s daily duty and service. And by the faithful use of it the disciple is trained and prepared to meet other and higher demands. Humbly recognising past failure, and feeling the full weight of the disappointment, not ignoring the pressure of difficulty and the sting of pain, yet trusting in His grace, we set against the stream of indifference and unbelief the whole force of our will consecrated to Him, and say, “Nevertheless, at Thy bidding we will let down the net.”—Nicoll.
Luke 5:6. “A great multitude of fishes.”—It seems unnecessary to inquire minutely whether this miracle was due to Christ’s omniscience or to His omnipotence, i.e. whether by supernatural knowledge He was aware of the near presence of a shoal of fish, or whether by His Divine power He brought together a multitude of the fish of the lake. Perhaps the former supposition would commend itself to most of us; but in favour of the latter we have the passage in Psalms 8:8, in which the ideal son of man, who finds his true representative in Christ, is described as having supreme authority, not only over cattle and beasts of the earth, but over the fish and all creatures that live in the sea. In either case the miracle was equally stupendous.
Luke 5:7. “Beckoned.”—Perhaps because of the distance they were away from the land, or because fishing operations are best carried on in silence. The noise of shouting might only drive the fish to struggle to escape, and add to the risk of losing them by their breaking through the nets.
The Miracle a Parable.—With this miracle we may compare the second of the kind wrought after the Resurrection, and also the parable in Matthew 13:47-50. We shall do well to keep in mind that these miracles were also parables and prophecies: everything connected with them is symbolical. The fishermen represent apostles and ministers of Christ, the ship is the Church, the net is the gospel, the sea is the world, and the shore is eternity. One part of the figure is inappropriate: the fish die when drawn out of the water, while the souls of men are taken captive to be introduced to a higher life. Perhaps this latter idea is conveyed in the words of Christ (Luke 5:10), “Catch men,” lit. “take alive men,” i.e. catch them for life eternal, instead of catching fish for death.
Luke 5:8. “Depart … for I am … sinful.”
I. An important fact.—Peter saw himself a very sinful creature. When we stand near Jesus, we see ourselves:
1. Without moral beauty. Sin has taken away our comeliness.
2. Without moral purity. Sin has robbed us of our integrity.
3. Without moral utility. Our usefulness has gone.
4. Without moral prospect. The future is dark.
II. A mistaken impression.—
1. “Depart from me”: no, because there is something there besides sin. The Saviour beheld the man and the apostle there.
2. “Depart from me”: no, because there is a great service to be rendered. Peter became a fisherman to catch men.
3. “Depart from me”: no, for nearer Thee we have more light, more holiness.
The Repulsion and Attraction of Christ.—“Depart from me”: “To whom shall we go?” (John 6:68). The speaker of both texts is the same; the person addressed is the same. Yet the one utterance is the direct negation of the other. Whence comes this paradox? It is a paradox inherent in the religious life. This contrast of repulsion and attraction is the true attitude of the devout spirit towards God. Side by side they have their place in the heart—the awe which repels, the love which attracts. We thrust God away, and yet we run after Him.—Lightfoot.
Peter’s First Impulse.—An oppressive sense of sin had come over Peter in a moment. The eyes of God were looking from that heavenly face down into the depths of his heart. This wrung from him the cry of fear. So must it ever be when we come face to face with God. Observe Peter’s first impulse when he realises how sinful he is. “Depart from me.” The desire is to get away from God. Many do not like to think about God. But for Him to depart would be to leave the sinner helpless and hopeless. What we need is not less but more of Him. What was Peter’s final impulse? To “forsake all, and follow Him.”—Gibson.
Mixed Elements of Character.—This exclamation opens a window into the inner man of Peter through which we can see his spiritual state. There is in him that characteristic mixture of good and evil of which we have so many reappearances. Among the good elements are reverential awe in presence of Divine power, tenderness of conscience, and unfeigned self-humiliation—all valuable features of character, but not existing without alloy. Along with them were associated superstitious dread of the supernatural, and a slavish fear of God, showing how unfit, as yet, Peter is to be an apostle of a gospel which magnifies the grace of God even to the chief of sinners.—Bruce.
Self-humiliation.—With the self-humiliation of Simon Peter compare the confession of Isaiah (Isaiah 6:5) and that of St. Paul (1 Timothy 1:15). Note, also, how utterly inappropriate his words would have been, if Christ had been a mere man—even the holiest of men. They express a self-loathing which is excited only by the contemplation of infinite holiness, and by the thought of the near presence of God.
“Depart from me.”—The exclamation of St. Peter was wrung from a heart touched with a sense of humility, and his words did not express his thoughts. They were the cry of agonised humility, and only emphasised his own utter unworthiness. They were in reality the reverse of the deliberate and calculated request of the swine-feeding Gadarenes. The dead and profane soul tries to get rid of the presence of the Divine. The soul awakened only to conviction of sin is terrified. The soul that has found God is conscious of utter unworthiness, but fear is lost in love (1 John 4:18).—Farrar.
A Strong Plea for Christ to remain.—Simon doth not greedily fall upon so unexpected and profitable a booty, but he turns his eyes from the draught to himself, from the act to the Author, acknowledging vileness in the one, in the other majesty: “Go from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” It had been a pity the honest fisher should have been taken at his word. O Simon, thy Saviour is come into thine own ship to call thee, to call others by thee, unto blessedness; and dost thou say, “Lord, go from me”? as if the patient should say to the physician, “Depart from me, for I am sick.” But it was the voice of astonishment, not of dislike—the voice of humility, not of discontentment; yea, because thou art a sinful man, therefore hath thy Saviour need to come to thee, to stay with thee; and because thou art humble in the acknowledgment of thy sinfulness, therefore Christ delights to abide with thee, and will call thee to abide with Him. No man ever fared the worse for abasing himself to his God. Christ hath left many a soul for froward and unkind usage; never any for the disparagement of itself, and entreaties of humility. Simon could not devise how to hold Christ faster than by thus suing Him to be gone, than by thus pleading his unworthiness.—Hall.
The Deepest Thing in Man’s Heart.—At moments like these all that is merely conventional is swept away, and the deep heart utters itself, and the deepest things that are there come forth to the light. And the deepest thing in man’s heart under the law is this sense of God’s holiness as something bringing death and destruction to the unholy creature. Below this is the utterly profane state, in which there is no contradiction felt between the holy and the unholy, between God and the sinner. Above it is the state of grace; in which all the contradiction is felt, God is still a consuming fire, yet not any more for the sinner, but only for the sin. It is still felt—felt far more strongly than ever—how profound a gulf separates between sinful man and a holy God; but felt no less that this gulf has been bridged over, that the two can meet, that in One who shares with both they have already met.—Trench.
Luke 5:8-10. A Strange Prayer and a Wonderful Answer.
I. The prayer is a strange one, when we think by whom and to whom it was offered. This is a familiar gospel story. The prayer sounds like that of the Gadarene demoniacs; but no two cases could be more dissimilar. This prayer is wrung from a human soul by the sudden revelation of a Divine presence, of which it feels itself unworthy. Very strange must this prayer have looked to Peter in the retrospect—this prayer for separation from the Saviour, and that because he is a sinner. Here is a conversion of the converted, and that not the last or most memorable conversion. There will always be in heroic souls an experience, or many such, analogous to this of Peter. For lack of it we are ineffective, trifling, confident, wavering, unimpressive. Oh for the grace of reverence!
II. The answer.—Jesus does not blame the fear which He comforts. He first calms and then transfigures it. “There is a more excellent way; there is a Divine remedy for the fear that would shrink from Me: I will give thee work to do for Me.” Two words are prominent in the commission.
1. “Men.” Great stress is laid upon it. The object of the ministerial work is men, not “souls” merely, but “men.”
2. The other word, “catch,” speaks of a living capture, of a taking alive in the great net of the gospel. It might be said of some evangelists that they are satisfied to catch a piece of the man, and to catch that piece itself dead! How unlike this to the gospel of St. Peter! How is it that men, even religious men, must always dismember, never unite, the compound being to which they address themselves? There are those who despair of a gospel to the whole man. Not so Jesus Christ.—Vaughan.
Luke 5:10. “Thou shalt catch men.”—Those that were wandering, restless and at random, through the deep, unquiet waters of the world, the smaller falling a prey to the greater, and all with the weary sense of a vast prison, he shall embrace within the safe folds and recesses of the same gospel net, which if they break not through, nor leap over, they shall at length be drawn up to shore, out of the dark, gloomy waters into the bright, clear light of day, so that they may be gathered into vessels for eternal life (Matthew 13:48).—Trench.
The Fisherman and the Shepherd.—The figure here used does not set forth the whole work of the Christian minister, but only two aspects of successful work He may accomplish, viz. that of securing within the net, and that of landing safely upon the shore. These are the first and last stages in the salvation of the soul. The intermediate stages are those in which the soul is ministered to, and fed, and encouraged, and guarded from harm; and these are represented under the figure of a shepherd caring for sheep. Hence the two figures mutually supplement one another, and show us the offices of a Christian minister as an evangelist and pastor respectively. Other thoughts in connection with these two figures are suggested by Jeremy Taylor: “In the days of the patriarchs, the governors of the Lord’s people were called shepherds. In the days of the gospel they are shepherds still, but with the addition of a new appellative, for now they are called fishers. Both of the callings were honest, humble, and laborious, watchful and full of trouble; but now that both the titles are conjunct, we may observe the symbol of an implicit and folded duty. There is much simplicity and care in the shepherd’s trade; there is much craft and labour in the fisher’s; and a prelate is to be both full of piety to his flock, careful of their welfare, and also to be discreet and wary, observant of advantages, laying such baits for the people as may entice them into the nets of Jesus’ discipline.”
The Significance of the Miracle.—The physical miracle was to be superseded by miracles of a higher kind, inasmuch as success in the spiritual labours of apostles is a greater proof of Divine power than mighty works that appeal to the bodily senses. The miraculous draught of men which Peter was at a later time to secure (Acts 2:41) was more wonderful than the miracle now wrought. The purpose of the miracle seems to have been to deepen and strengthen the faith of those whom Christ now called to engage in spiritual labours, to secure obedience to that call, and to give intimation of splendid success in pursuing that higher work. Observe that Jesus calls these men to have more than faith, to give up their secular employment and to engage in work of a sacred kind. As they are not yet appointed to be apostles, their status is very similar to that of the Christian minister.—Godet.
The Training of the Apostles.—“Christ selected rough mechanics—persons not only destitute of learning, but inferior in capacity—that He might train, or rather renew, them by the power of His Spirit, so as to excel all the wise men of the world” (Calvin). No one need imagine that want of learning and ability are not drawbacks in the case of those who wish to become Christian ministers. Only a gross and ignorant fanaticism could foster such an idea. These fishermen were not called to teach, but to be trained to teach. What they learned from the example and teaching of Christ, from knowledge of human character and society as they went up and down the country with Him, prepared them for their great work. The various kinds of training our theological students are exercised in, are the best and most efficient substitutes which can be found for the methods employed in the case of the apostles.
Luke 5:11. “Forsook all.”—They returned again to their occupation as fishermen after the Crucifixion, and were again called to abandon it and devote themselves to spiritual labours by a second miraculous draught of fishes and by the direct precept of Jesus. After Pentecost they never resumed their former secular calling. Probably in their going back to it we have an indication of their belief that with the death of Jesus all the hopes they had cherished were overthrown, and His call to them to become fishers of men nullified. The example of Simon Peter suggests the duties of
(1) prompt obedience to Jesus,
(2) self-distrust,
(3) and complete devotion to Him (“leaving all to follow Him”).
“Thou hast the art on’t, Peter, and canst tell
To cast thy net on all occasions well.
When Christ calls, and thy nets would have thee stay,
To cast them well’s to cast them quite away” (Crashaw).