God of the Deep
Text: Luke 5:1-11
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Every culture has its figures and images that have such psychological weight that nearly everyone in that culture has a similar reaction to it. Those images can be things like the sun, the moon, the grim reaper, the wild west, and so on. We have our own ideas and images that conjure up common thoughts and feelings among us as Americans living in the 21st century. You can be sure that the ancient Hebrews did too. In fact, we hear one of them mentioned in our Gospel reading today: the deep.
When the Bible speaks of “the deep”, it’s never in cheery or warm terms. We hear about the mysterious fountains of the deep that burst open when the world was covered with water in the Flood. Israel passes through the towering walls of water in the Red Sea, when those waters were congealed in the deeps therein. Jonah sinks like a stone into the deep when he’s cast overboard and begins to drown. Job is reprimanded by the one true God who alone can walk without fear in the recesses of the deep. The deep, the dark waters so far below the surface of the sea, where no light can reach, is the place of the unknown, the unknowable, the realm of darkness filled with limitless potential for danger, disaster, and death. The deep is the kingdom of chaos and night.
So in our Gospel reading, when Jesus tells the fishermen to go out to the deep, it’s no accident. Granted, the Sea of Galilee does not reach depths that the Mediterranean does, and certainly not the abyss of the oceans, but the deeps of the Lake of Gennesaret, the Sea of Galilee, do have their own dangers. Sudden storms can rush down the steep hillsides on either side, kicking up the waters into a frenzy, wind and waves that can easily capsize a fishing boat and drown any caught in its grasp. It’s easy to imagine the fishermen’s apprehension as Jesus told them to move out to the deep during this time of day when the air was heating up and beginning to move.
Furthermore, these fishermen were professionals. This Jesus, who was using their boats as a floating pulpit, was not a professional sailor or fisherman. They knew that the fish weren’t in this area. That’s just how it goes sometimes with fishing. If there were any fish in this part of the sea, they would have caught something as they fished all night. They would do better to call it a day, get some rest, and try again once the fish had moved into the area. If anyone had the advantage with good, practical, and safe ideas of how to catch fish, it was Peter, James, and John.
And yet, when Jesus tells them to “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch,” they didn’t debate Him about safety concerns or talk about how His methods and ideas were impractical, or even dumb. Peter has some reservations, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing!” He wasn’t so sure about this plan, if it could even be called that. But, he’d heard Jesus speak for a while now as this Teacher was preaching to the crowds from his boat. Peter had even witnessed his own mother-in-law’s healing from Jesus’ words when He rebuked her fever and it left her. So he reluctantly agrees, “But at your word, I will let down the nets. I’ll go into the deep, dark waters. I’ll try it your way, at your word.”
There are a couple of miracles in our reading today. The first is the most obvious. After the fishermen let down the nets, they have an overwhelming catch of fish. It was enough to shock even men who had spent their entire lives fishing for a living. That would have been enough, but Jesus has even more for them. The second miracle is that the nets don’t break. We read that they enclosed such a large number of fish that their nets were breaking, but they never burst. Those fish that Jesus has destined to be caught were all secure in the nets. None of those would be lost to Peter, James, and John. The third miracle is that the boats didn’t sink. The near capsizing of the boats is often used only as evidence of how many fish they had caught, but we read plainly in the text of Luke’s gospel that they began to sink, but they never went under, even under the weight of such a bounty that no boat builder had ever intended his crafts to carry. If these signs don’t point to Jesus as the God of creation, even of the dark unknown, the God who confidently walks the dangerous abyss as its Master; the God who can preserve even the frail and temporary things fashioned by man, I don’t know what could convince you.
But the last miracle is a hidden one. It takes place not in the darkness or depths of the Sea of Galilee, nor in the tensile strength of the nets, nor in the resilience of the boats. It takes place in the depths of the human heart. The final miracle is the creation of faith. Peter recognizes who it is that’s standing before him in the boat. This is no simple Teacher. This is the God who is master over the waters, the God who parted the Red Sea, who opened the floodgates of the deep, who told Job that He walks the bottom of the ocean, the God who commanded the great fish to swallow Jonah. So rather than trusting his eyes that only see a man, rather than trusting his reason or experience as a fisherman, Peter believes Jesus’ word. So Peter confesses, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
Peter knows that sin and darkness cannot stand in the presence of God. Shadows are consumed and evaporate in the Light of light. The prophet Isaiah knew this, when he cried out in front of the throne of God shown to him in the temple, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” The terror of the holy God who makes and rules all things rightfully falls on all dark places—the deep, the abyss, and even the sinful human heart.
But Jesus has come to forgive and remove sin. He touches a burning coal to Isaiah’s lips, the very place where he said his sin is found, and it is atoned for. The prophet is then sent to preach to God’s people. Jesus absolves Peter, “Do not be afraid,” He says, for Peter’s sins will be dealt with by Jesus on His cross. And then Jesus sends Peter toward his own purpose, “From now on you will be catching men.” And what a catch that Apostle has had.
You may be sent to go to the deeps, to the unknown. You may face the dark where the light can’t be so easily seen. You will face fear and uncertainty. You, as part of Christ’s Church, as His disciples, will be told to do things that the world’s experience and so-called wisdom will say could never work. You won’t be in control. You won’t be able to see the next step to take. It could be a bad diagnosis that terrifies you. It could be a summons to speak up in front of someone whose reaction you can’t predict, or worse, whose reaction you can predict, and you fear it. It could be unemployment, or financial instability, or chaos in society, or simply having to be honest with yourself by saying, “I don’t know and I can’t know. It’s entirely out of my hands to control.” And all of that is good. It’s exactly where Jesus wants you.
For we do not walk by sight, but by faith. And it’s in the depths that the miracle of faith happens in you. Jesus is generous. He’s merciful. His desire is to give you life and to give it abundantly. He fills your hands, your heart, your lips, your soul with all that you need to support your body and life—with catches so large that you could never use it all yourself and you simply have to share it with those He’s placed around you. He pulls those bounties from the dark, from the deep, the places you’d never see it coming from, even after all your toiling. And when you fall down and tell Him that you’re a sinner, He absolves you and fills your net with forgiveness, life, and salvation for eternity. You are a person of unclean lips, you are a sinner as much as Peter, but in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Behold, Your God’s body and blood is about to touch your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for. Your Lord will provide for you, even in the dark times and places, even in the deeps. He will give you your purpose. He will bless and keep you. In the name of Jesus, true God and true man. Amen.
