Thoughts for the Day

Luke 5:8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me Lord; I am a sinful man!” For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.

This chapter in my bible is headed ‘The calling of the first disciples’, so it is easy to ignore the earlier context and imagine the miraculous catch of fish was Simon Peter’s first contact with Jesus.  Not so.  In the previous chapter we read that Jesus went to Simon’s house.  He healed Simon’s mother-in-law there, and, when the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus – presumably still at Simon’s house – all who were sick or demonised, and he healed them, and he rebuked demons who shouted out, “You are the Son of God”.  Simon had been close to Jesus, had seen a lot and had heard a lot … but not yet enough to follow Jesus.  Then “one day” later, we don’t know how long, Simon has a fruitless night’s fishing, despite all his experience and knowledge.  And the time is right.  First Jesus gets into his boat and persuades him to put out a little from the shore so that he can teach.  Then after the teaching, for which Simon is a captive audience, he asks him to row out into deep water again.  It isn’t logical, but Simon obeys, and Simon is “caught” by Jesus along with the fish.  It is tragic that, like many subsequently, Simon imagines his sinfulness should disqualify him, but it doesn’t.  Jesus is more concerned to calm his fear as he welcomes him to a new life.