Launch Into The Deep: Trusting God Beyond Comfort
Sermon about Luke 5: 1 – 11
Some of my favorite words are, “Let’s go fishing!”
If you listen closely to this story, maybe you can hear Jesus summoning you, just like Simon, James, and John so long ago.
Jesus’ unrealistic request.
Jesus headed down to the shore to teach, but the crowd pressed in on him. Because he didn’t have microphone amplification, he needed to gain a little distance so he’s not yelling at people a foot away so the people in the back can hear.
He sees fishermen cleaning their nets next to two boats. He climbs into one, Simon’s, asking him to pull out from shore. At this point, we don’t know the relationship of Jesus and Simon. All Luke has told us is that Jesus had cured Simon’s mother-in-law’s fever. I imagine Simon thought, “Okay. You can get in my boat and I’ll pull out a bit. You did me a solid. I’ve got you.”
Jesus finishes teaching, the crowd disperses. Jesus tells Simon to cast nets into the deep. I imagine Simon is like, “Bruh. Stick to your lane. Aren’t you a carpenter? Leave fishing to the pros. We’ve been out all night. Caught nothing, squat, zilch. I’m exhausted, and hangry. You cured my mother-in-law, not my wife. I’m always up for one more cast but this is a fool’s errand.”
I think it’s like when you call tech support and they ask you to turn off the computer.
“I already did that.”
“Please try it again, sir.”
“Fine.” Grr.
“Yet” is the magic word.
Simon mounts a small protest but eventually says, “Yet, because you say so, I will do it.” Smartest thing he ever did is say the magic word yet to Jesus. Smartest thing you can do, too.
We will always have reasons to resist what Jesus tells us to do.
He says, “Do not worry about tomorrow.”
You say, “Have you been watching the news?”
He says, “Do not repay evil with evil.”
You say, “You don’t know how bad they hurt me. They can’t keep getting away with it.”
He says, “Take care of hurting people.”
You say, “I don’t have time. They got themselves into their own situation. I can’t save everybody.”
The magic only happens if we say the magic word, “Yet.” “Yet, Lord because you say so I will try.”
You may find, like Simon that’s when you haul in boatloads of blessings. Simon’s boat wasn’t big enough for all the fish he caught; he had to call in the second boat, and even then, there were so many fish that the two boats nearly sank. When you say, “Yet Lord, I will do it,” you may find the big haul of inner peace, deeper relationships, and the happiness of knowing you accomplished something worthwhile while on this spinning orb.
Go deep!
I’ve always liked the detail about Jesus asking Simon to put his nets into the deep. It feels like Jesus is always calling us to go deeper in faith, knowledge, relationships, and our sense of awe of the beauty of this world and universe. It’s easy to skim around the shallows, keeping it safe and light, but the most meaningful growth comes when we press ourselves to go deeper.
How following Jesus yields more than you bargained for.
When Simon pulled up all those fish, he sensed this was more than dumb luck; he was in the presence of the holy.
That’s the way it works–the way Jesus catches us. You get involved and realize there is more to it than the ordinary experience.
- I was just serving a meal, trying to get good deed credit by serving that meal, at COA but I connected with someone there and it made me realize they’re just people.
- I was just going to Kenya to see something new and help some folks, but it changed my life and was the best thing I’ve ever done.
- I was just going to Susie’s study, and I made a lifelong friend.
- I was just going to church to see what I could get out of it, but now I want to stand up for justice.
Peter was afraid of that holiness. He fell to his knees and said, “Go away for I am a sinful man.” But Jesus will have none of that. “Get up. From now on you will be catching people.”
I have to confess that the fishing for people metaphor bothers me.
Who wants to be a caught fish? What is in it for the fish? You get yanked out of your natural habitat only to wind up on somebody’s dinner plate?
I’ve been around plenty of pastors who love this passage and always want to compare numbers. How many do you have in worship? How many in youth group? It starts to feel like they are more interested in their stats than the individuals those numbers represent. Gross.
The fishing metaphor also has the deception problem. What is bait if not deception? Don’t worry about that little minnow, it’s not like he has a hook or anything. I once went on a fishing trip to Canada and these guys had all these tackle boxes. One guy had something that looked like a rat that skimmed on the surface. What do you catch with that? Muskallunge, muskies, he said. They are these hideous apex predator monsters of the lake–4 feet long, heads like dinosaurs. They gobble up anything in their path including mammals. Whenever I hear church growth consultants talk about the bait that can draw people to church, I think about that rat. No thanks!
Three ways to rescue the fishing analogy.
First: Don’t overthink it. Keep it simple.
Every analogy can only be stretched so far. Keep it simple and focus on the task at hand of bringing people in. There is nothing wrong with getting caught up in wonder, love, praise and good works. Think of it more like being lifted out of suffering into God’s care.
Second: Fishing may be about justice not evangelism.
Some scholars go back to the Old Testament prophets Amos, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel and discover imagery of God calling people to be fishers who set the hook and pull out the rich and powerful apex predators who abuse their positions and mistreat the poor. According to biblical scholar Ched Myers with the fishing metaphor, “Jesus is, summoning working folk to join him in overturning the structures of power and privilege in the world!” https://www.patheos.com/blogs/socialjesus/2025/02/fishing-metaphor-overturning-injustice/
Don’t you think that right now apex predator monsters are swimming around chewing up everything in sight? Maybe Jesus is asking us to join him in holding to account those who abuse their wealth and privilege to gobble up everything smaller than themselves.
Third: Catch, don’t hook.
Notice that Jesus says, “From now on, you will be catching people.” What if it is not catching (i.e. fishing) but catching (i.e. cradled arms). Catching people….
New Testament scholar Elisabeth Johnson points out that the Greek word for catching people is a compound word that means “catching alive.” – to restore to life, to strengthen, to revive, to save. Is it possible that Jesus is telling Simon, and ultimately us, to rescue people from the depths of darkness with a safety net of love, mercy, and grace?
- Out there, in the deep water, people are silently sinking into the depths of despair.
- Out there, in the deep water, broken people are struggling to stay afloat, ready to surrender.
- Out there, in the deep water, there is fear, and suffering, and desperation – there are people who need catching.
- Out there are people who lost everything in the fires.
- Out there are thousands of government employees who got fired many in the most insensitive ways imaginable. And we are told there will be tens of thousands more.
- Out there are millions of people around the world who suddenly got their food aid cut off.
- Out there are children afraid to go to school because they are worried their parents will be deported before they get home.
This isn’t a sermon about the politics or policies of it. I’m not taking that bait, chasing that rat. But it is a sermon about the call of Jesus on us to help afflicted people. It’s about how we, people of faith will respond to Jesus’ calls for love and compassion in this moment.
But who wants to go there? It is overwhelming! Like Peter and his companions, we have our own problems! We are tired! Felt like we fished all night and it was all for nothing. We just want to go home, binge watch another series, scroll mindlessly on our phones, or have another glass of wine. Why go to the deep water?
Because Jesus tells us to.
To be a disciple of Jesus is to catch people in a net of mercy and compassion.
Jesus tells us to go out in the deep water to cast our nets, although other’s make them seem like monsters, they are Jesus’ people!
With so many people in need of catching, I’m reminded of the line from the movie Jaws. We’re gonna need a bigger boat. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment. Jesus’ voice calls us all to cast nets of mercy and compassion.
I have decided to follow Jesus.
This is the time for us to let Jesus know we are on board. To tell him:
Lord, I am tired, worn, and weary. Yet Lord, because you say so. I’m stepping out over the line. I won’t look back, slow down, back away, or be still. I have a net to cast.
I’m finished skimming the shallows. I’m ready to go deeper.
I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotion, plaudits, or popularity.
I don’t have to be right, first, tops, recognized, rewarded, regarded, or praised. I now live by presence, lean into faith, walk by patience, live by prayer, and labor by the Spirit’s power.
My face is set, my gait is fast, my mission clear–to cast the nets of mercy and love. I will seize any opportunity to spread loving-kindness.
In the face of evil, injustice, and oppression, lies and division, I will not sit back or pull back, I’m gonna push back with civility and truth.
I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, deluded, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.
I won’t give up, shut up, or let up until I have done my part to lift up any one I can.
The big haul of blessings is coming. But it only comes if I have the courage to cast the net of mercy and compassion.
So I will stay up, store up, pray up, and pay up for the cause of my God. I’m a disciple, a follower of this way of love. No turning back. No turning back.
Let’s go fishing!