Trinity 5
Gospel for Trinity V: Luke 5:1-11
Note: The basic outline for this sermon, and numerous thoughts and expressions, are drawn from Luther’s second sermon for Trinity V in the House Postils.
What would his wife say, when Simon came home? He had nothing – nothing! – to show for an entire night’s worth of labor. How would he pay his bills? And despite having no fish, no money, no hope, and the drudgery of cleaning the nets from grime of Lake Gennesaret, he stops to listen to a sermon. He even lends his boat to the preacher – a rabbi who was making some waves.
We don’t know what Jesus said in that sermon. But we don’t have to look far to make an educated guess. “Why do you worry about what you will eat? Your heavenly Father knows what you need.” “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you.” “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled.” And Simon, in all of his worrying, heard that the God who made him loved him and would care for him. He heard that God knew all the things that Peter needed, all the things he was worrying about.
The way God has arranged it, you see, is that suffering is actually a blessing. If Simon had been experiencing great prosperity, he would have been tempted to think it was because of his skill and hard work. The same is true for us: when we experience prosperity, we can quickly imagine we accomplished it ourselves.
So the God-man Jesus comes to Simon at his lowest, at his most unsuccessful and worrisome moment, and tells Simon to do what fishermen know not to do: fish in the deep waters during the daylight hours. Simon knows his business. He’s been out there all night. By all earthly wisdom, what Jesus proposes will not work. And the nets have already been cleaned. Simon would be smart to refuse Jesus’ word. “You tend to your preaching, Rabbi, and let me worry about the fishing.” But he doesn’t do the smart thing. He does the wise thing: “At Your Word I will let down the net.”
Now you’d think Simon would be overjoyed at the result of his obedience. He was going from rags to riches, from the doghouse to the penthouse. What would his wife say now?! This incredible – no, miraculous! – catch would be talked about for years. Maybe even centuries!
But Simon isn’t happy. Not even a little. He’s terrified. The trial he had been through that night – the earthly trial that man has faced since the fall of our first parents, the problem of how to scrape out a living to keep our dying bodies alive for another day – that trial was nothing compared to what he now faced. This was a spiritual trial: “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”
Simon’s conscience had opened up, so that he became aware of his sins. Simon was the first disciple to whom it was revealed who Jesus truly was – God in the flesh – and that awareness was starting to come upon him even now. And along with that realization came a consciousness of his own incredible sinfulness. It felt as though he had been stripped naked and exposed, with every idle word, every lustful thought, every single transgression brought under the lens of a heavenly microscope, and Simon saw only one thing in his future: hell; God’s punishment; an endless, tormenting darkness.
To tell the truth, Simon’s reaction is pretty rare. Spiritually perverse people – as in general we all are! – don’t really understand their own sins or God’s grace. Far too few people have experienced the full-on terror of their own sins: Isaiah, trembling in the temple, crying, “Woe is me!” Judas, hanging himself in despair; Luther, prostrating himself in the mud and vowing to become a monk, after the lightning strike that seemed to pierce his soul.
That kind of thing is really quite foreign to most of us most of the time. Even after we’ve learned the Bible’s teaching that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone, we still imagine that to receive good things from God is dependent on our own goodness. And we’ve bought the culture’s lie that we really are, deep down, good people with good intentions. As long as our thoughts stay like that, religion actually becomes the devil’s tool, keeping us busy with good works and the boosting of our self-esteem.
But if we encounter the true Law of God, which exposes all our hypocrisy and strikes at that diabolical lie that we are good – if we really come face to face with the horror of our own sins, seeing our true depravity, just how deeply our hearts are corrupted by pride and haughtiness, thoughts of our own glory, desire for revenge, lust for sex, lust for money, lust for power – when we start to see how wretched we are, then the devil strikes quickly and whispers that God’s grace isn’t for you, that your sin cannot or will not be forgiven.
That’s exactly where Simon is when he sees the miraculous catch of fish. It isn’t faith that makes him bow down; it isn’t piety or good liturgical form that causes him to genuflect; it is a despair that sees only death and hell and the wrath of God ahead.
That is when Jesus steps in and says, “Simon, I am not here to grab you by the throat or throw you overboard. Do not be afraid. Yes, you are a sinner – worse still than you even realize – but receive My peace, the peace you will never find in the world or in yourself.”
What’s the lesson for us in this? When we go through such spiritual trials, becoming despondent and thinking that everything is hopeless, that there is no light and no God who loves us, we are to drive away such thoughts with the simple words of Jesus, “Do not be afraid.”
For in Jesus, sins are forgiven. In Jesus, death is overcome. In Jesus, hell has lost its power. This is the message – the preaching of Christ crucified – by which Simon will catch men. It is how we have been caught and saved alive. So in your earthly trials, be of good cheer, for Christ has overcome the world. And in the hour of darkness, when your sins threaten you and you imagine there is no hope, no absolution, remember our Lord’s words: “Do not be afraid!” By His cross, God has had mercy on you; and in His resurrection, in the Name put on you in Baptism, and in this Sacrament, He will never leave you nor forsake you, but will bring you to the resurrection of your body and life in His undying kingdom.
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