Amy C Walters

Jesus Calls the First Disciples – Luke 5:1-11

Jesus comes to Simon after a failed night of fishing and makes three increasingly challenging requests. We might expect Simon Peter to respond out of the feelings of that moment–tiredness and frustration at first, then elation over a huge catch. Instead, Simon’s response shows humble obedience.

You may have noticed that this story mentions several of Jesus’ disciples. It mainly talks about Simon, also called Simon Peter. We know him as Peter for much of the rest of the New Testament. But there’s also James and John, the sons of Zebedee. Luke, the author of this story, chooses to focus on Simon and his reaction to Jesus. 

Simon and his companions have been working hard all night, trying to catch fish and doing so unsuccessfully. This story catches them at the end of their workday. They’re cleaning their nets, preparing to finish up and go home after a hard and fruitless day’s work.

Then Jesus shows up with a crowd of people, gets into Simon’s boat, asks him to put out a little bit from the shore so Jesus can teach from the boat. We don’t see any response from Simon, but we do see Jesus sitting down and teaching. So we can assume that Simon did agree to this first request.

Then comes a bigger request from Jesus. When he is done speaking, he’s not finished with his work with Simon yet. Instead, he turns to Simon and says, “Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” 

Now, Simon had just been washing his nets. So if he goes out and puts those nets back in the water, he’s going to have to wash them again. He’s going to have to redo the work that he’s already done. He’s probably weary from a full, hard night’s work. He might be frustrated and cranky from having nothing to show for it. And doing the same thing he just did and expecting different results doesn’t make any sense. 

Furthermore, Simon here is the expert on fishing. He could have responded, “Jesus, you just don’t really understand. I know fishing. You know carpentry. Let’s both stay in our lanes.” 

Or Simon could have said, “Since we’ve been doing this all night and it hasn’t gotten anywhere, we’re just going to come back tomorrow night and try again later.” 

He could have said, “I’m really tired. I’m really frustrated. I’m not feeling it right now, so I’m going to have to pass.”

Instead, Simon says, “But because you say so, I will do it.” 

Simon could have appealed to any of those other reasons. But instead of looking at all of those circumstances or feelings, Simon looks to Jesus and says, “because you say so, I will do it.” 

You might remember, Simon has history with Jesus. He has seen Jesus heal his mother-in-law by rebuking that fever and it leaves (Luke 4:38-39). Simon has seen the power and authority of Jesus’ word. So if Jesus says something, even though it doesn’t make sense, Simon is going to do it.

What happens when Simon does? They get the biggest catch of fish in their lives! Fish are everywhere, flopping around all over the place. The nets are starting to break. They’re calling over teammates to help them out. They’re hauling it in. They’re filling up the boats. The boats are starting to sink. This is a chaotic scene! 

Simon’s got some words for Jesus now. But they’re not what we might expect. He doesn’t say, “Hey, Jesus, do you want to partner with us in this fishing expedition? If you do this every night, we could be filthy rich.

“Jesus, you and I make a great team. Let’s keep fishing and we could have more fish than we’ve ever wanted in our lives. We could be so successful.”

Instead, Simon falls at Jesus’ knees and says, “Go away from me, Lord. I am a sinful man.” 

This response is baffling. It doesn’t seem to match the situation and what’s happening. Simon, in the midst of this incredible miracle, is focused on his sinfulness? 

Let’s look, though, and compare Simon’s response to what we’ve seen from other people in recent stories. When Jesus returns to his hometown (Luke 4:16-30), the people don’t like his message. In fact, they get so angry, they run him out of town and attempt to kill him. 

And then we come to the people of Capernaum (Luke 4:31-44). They see Jesus’ miracles and they beg him to stay. They’re focused on the gifts that Jesus has brought, these gifts of healing and they want to hoard those gifts to themselves.

And then we come to Simon, who says, “Go away from me, Lord.” But it’s not because he doesn’t like what Jesus is saying or what he’s doing. And it’s not, “Stay with me, Lord, and do the work that I’m doing.”

It’s, “I’m a sinful man.” Simon hears Jesus’ teaching. He sees the miracles. And he is overwhelmed by the person of Jesus himself. And that realization of Jesus gives him a profound realization of his own unworthiness. He sees Jesus’ incredible worthiness and his own unworthiness and is convicted of his sin. Because Simon is focused on the person.

But Jesus does not take “no” for an answer because he’s got one more request for Simon. “Don’t be afraid. From now on, you will catch men.” 

And this is the biggest challenge of them all because this requires the most from Simon. Not just having to redo some work, not just having to trust Jesus for a few hours of catching fish. This is trusting Jesus for a lifetime.

It’s interesting that we don’t have any words recorded for Simon’s response. Instead, we’re told, “So they pulled their boats up onto shore, left everything, and followed Jesus.” 

We don’t hear Simon’s response. We see it. We see it in his humble obedience.

Simon, through his actions, through what he says to Jesus in this story, gives us a picture of what humble obedience looks like. We see his humility in how he calls Jesus “Master,” how he says, “Because you have said it, I will do it.” 

There’s no appeal to his own expertise as a fisherman. “I know what’s best.” And there’s no, “Of course you would ask me to join your work, Jesus, because I’m a pretty great person, lots of people like me. So yes, obviously you would want me on your team.” There’s none of that.

Instead, there’s this deep humility from Simon as he sees the worthiness of Jesus.

Simon’s behavior is also not directed by how he feels, by the tiredness, by the frustration. He looks to the One who is giving him those instructions and because it is Jesus who says it, he will do it.

Simone gives us our key truth for today: respond with humble obedience.

Now this call from Jesus to Simon is specific to him and James and John. And yet there is so much we can learn from Simon’s response of humble obedience.

We learn that even when what God calls us to do doesn’t make sense, or seems really hard, we need to humbly do it. We learn to not let how we feel dictate how we respond. We learn to not think that God is lucky to have us on his team but to count ourselves blessed. We learn to say, “Because you said so, I will do it.”