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The Longest Journey

Luke 5:1-11

February 8, 2003

Jesus Calls the First Disciples

Luke 5

¹Once while Jesus^£ was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, ²he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. ³He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. ⁴When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” ⁵Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” ⁶When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. ⁷So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. ⁸But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” ⁹For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; ¹⁰and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” ¹¹When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

Jesus moves along alone, friendless but with a crowd pressing in on him, like a modern movie star, but without the entourage, the handlers, the body guards, and the protectors there to help him.  He desperately moves closer to the edge of the sea and seeing a boat, jumps in and seeks refuge there.  Simon probably taking pity on him gets in his boat, with his celebrity cargo and nothing else, and pulls away from shore. 

Like when Jesus meets the woman at the well and asks her for some water, and like the instance when the woman from the streets comes in and anoints Jesus’ feet with oil from an alabaster jar, Jesus is loved and cared for and ministered to by Simon who gives Jesus refuge in his boat. 

As a natural response, they forge a relationship of mutual nurture and caretaking and blessing beyond belief.  They have each found a friend and find themselves in a community that is unprecedented in their own experience.  Even Jesus, alone and pressed in upon all sides, now has companions and a community who loves him and whom he can love - a far cry from the hometown that almost stoned him and pushed him off a cliff not to long before.

And an important part of that first interaction was a challenge of faith.  "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch."  Simon didn’t need to believe him, to follow in that instruction, after all, he had been fishing all night and got nothing, but Simon did follow, did put down those nets and began the longest journey.

There was a field covered with freshly fallen snow. A father and a son enter the field. As they walk across the field, the father pays no particular attention to where he is going, but his son, follows directly behind, making a special effort to step in his fathers footprints. After the two have crossed the field, they look back and notice that there is only one set of tracks visible in the field, although two had walked across it. [1]

Jesus said to his disciples, “Take up your cross and follow me.”[2]  Their ultimate goal was to be able to do as this father and son did.  To be able to turn and observe the snow-covered fields of life, and see one set of tracks, those of Christ, with the knowledge that their footprints have fit neatly and precisely into the leading treads. But I don’t think this is possible.  Sometimes we tire and lag behind,  becoming sluggish and missing the footprints even as we follow the path.  Sometimes we become utterly fatigued and lose our balance entirely and fall sideways, splat into the snow.  Ultimately this is the goal, to put out into deep water, to face the challenges Christ puts before us, to walk seemlessly in Christ’s footsteps.

But failure and falling short are inevitable.

Irwin Shaw wrote a short story called The Eighty-Yard Run. As a college freshman, at his first football practice, he broke loose for an 80-yard touchdown run. His teammates looked at him with awe. His coach said, “You’re going to have quite a future around here.” His girlfriend awarded him with a kiss after the practice. Irwin Shaw has the feeling that life is completely satisfying and rewarding.

But nothing in the rest of his life ever lives up to that day again. His football experience is disappointing. His marriage sours. The pain of failure is even greater because he remembers thinking on a perfect day many years before that life would always be that pleasant, satisfying and rewarding.

Many are selected by Christ to follow him.  Along the way those who follow find a special community – the family of Christ, the church in which he finally fits or she feels the presence of Christ.  That moment when they each first experience the pull and the push of Christ, calling them to great things, is a special moment, a moment like running a ball back 80 yards for a touchdown, a moment like the one which inspired Jesus’ disciples to drop their nets and their families and everything they had to follow him.

Yet even afterthat holy, set apart and special moment, there are going to be bad days. Sometimes followers will fall on respective faces.  But these failures don’t have to be endings. They can be the avenue to experience God’s grace more widely and more deeply.

Jesus of Nazareth gets into the boat with three defeated men.  They had fished all night and got nothing.  They were done for the night and were ready to pack it in, but Jesus had other plans.  "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch," he says.  And those nets come back full and bursting, so full that their boats begin taking on water.[3]

We too may be discouraged, ready to pack in our nets, done for the night and ready to move on.

Nonetheless, Jesus is there for us, to pick us up, include us in that amazing community of his, that warm and nurturing fellowship with his name on it and special Holy Mission that belongs only to Him and those that follow him.

Alexander Papaderos a teacher and politician, the man behind an institute on the island of Crete devoted to healing the wounds of war, is a living legend for many in Europr.  He worked for many years trying to bring peace between the bitterly divided countries of Europe after WWII. His motivation for doing so stems from his childhood and a very odd event which took place. "When I was a small child," he said, "during the war we were poor and lived in a remote village. One day, on the road, I found the broken pieces of a mirror. A German motorcycle had been wrecked in that place.... I kept one, the largest piece.... By scratching it on a stone, I made it round. I began to play with it as a toy and became fascinated by the fact that I could reflect light into dark places where the sun would never shine - in deep holes and crevices and dark closets. It became a game for me to get light into the most inaccessible places I could find. I kept the little mirror, and as I went about my growing up, I would take it out in idle moments and continue the challenge of the game. As I became [mature], I grew to understand that this was a metaphor for what I might do with my life. I came to understand that I am not the light or the source of light. The light [or truth] is there, and it will shine in many dark places only if I reflect it."

He concluded: "I am a fragment of a mirror whose whole design and shape I do not know. Nevertheless, with what I have, I can reflect light into the dark places of the world...and change some things in some people. Perhaps others may see and do likewise."[4]

After a hard night of fishing Jesus tells Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch." The reply is so human, "Master we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything." But there is always hope so Peter says, "because you say so, I will let down the net."

The bounty of the catch is so unexpected, it is startling. The nets begin to tear, two boats can barely handle the load, gorged to overflowing, the boats begin to sink and then the realization sets in. Peter is astonished.

A man and his friend sat in a boat hunting Canadian Geese in the dead of winter on a freezing lake. Bone cold the three of them in a 16-foot aluminum boat hold out for a few more minutes of light and the last chance at a goose. Sure enough their patience is rewarded. Overhead they hear a flight. Each of them fire their long goose guns straight up and two of the biggest birds come tumbling down out of the sky. For an instant they were exhilarated; then horror griped them. One of those birds was headed straight for the boat. 35 pounds of goose at 90 miles and hour. When it finally hit the boat it nearly sunk it and them with it. Sometimes you get what you want and it comes straight at you ready to turn your life inside out and upside down.

When Simon Peter saw just how many fish there were, the Bible says, he fell to his knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man." Peter got what he wanted, a good catch for a nights work, but something in the interim had occurred to him. What was it? What is it that suddenly dawned on him? It wasn't the number of fish; rather, it was who this man was who had just lead him to the biggest catch of his life. In no way could Peter have been prepared for the catch he would soon participate in but for now Jesus says, "Don’t be afraid, Peter, from now on you will be catching men."[5]  And he follows and from there he becomes a beacon, a mirror of reflected light whose source is Christ.

A young pastor from Zimbabwe once wrote of his participation in that journey and that community: “I’m a part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have the Holy Spirit power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. I’m a disciple of his. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future secure. I’m finished and done with low living, colorless dreams, tamed visions, worldly talking, cheap giving and dwarfed goals. I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits or popularity. I don’t have to be first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on his presence, walk in patience, am uplifted by prayer, and I labor with power.” This young pastor was later martyred for his faith in Christ.[6] 

Several of Jesus’ companions, his disciples were Martyred along the way, yet they knew that where Jesus called them, there was no avoiding.  They knew they were compelled to follow.  On that journey they found adventure, danger and reason and motivation to strike out and do more than they thought they could.  They found fellowship, community, loving brothers and sisters in Chirst and miraculous Grace and nuture of the Holy Spirit and Christ themselves.

Jesus stands by the sea of our own sinful failures, calling our name and challenging us to join him, to assist him, to adventrue, to fellowship and to nurture.

Let us too continue our footsteps in the journey of discipleship, which begins with the shortest few steps and yet lasts a lifetime and beyond.