If You Say So

Luke 5:1-11

February 10, 2019

            The only time I ever think to watch the game show, Jeopardy, is with my parents. That’s one of the things we do when I visit. We sit in the afternoon and watch Jeopardy together. This is not a forced activity; I like to watch it with them. I suspect that I probably annoy them some, because I have a tendency to call out the answer to a clue if I know it. But I always forget to put it in the form of a question. What fascinates me about the game is when they get to Final Jeopardy, which if you have ever watched the game show, it comes at the very end; obviously. There is a final clue given, and the show goes to a commercial break. When they return from break, each contestant has made a wager and written down their answer. The wagers can be anything from 0 dollars to the total amount of their winnings. If a contestant thinks he or she has the right answer, maybe they’ll wager everything they’ve earned. But if a player isn’t so sure, maybe they wager a smaller amount, hedging their bets, literally, so they don’t potentially lose everything.

            As silly as it sounds, Final Jeopardy always puts me on the edge of my seat. Will the current champion know the right answer and bet enough to win? Or will another player make a surprise comeback by risking everything and then winning everything? Sometimes there are spectacular wins, but there are also even more spectacular losses.

            If we were to put this story from Luke’s gospel into a Jeopardy game, what would it look like?

            Perhaps Jesus would offer this clue: Eternal life with God and the greatest glory in heaven and earth comes from doing this?

            Simon: What is following you on the path of discipleship!

            Ding! Ding! Ding! You have won it all Simon Peter! And the crowds on the shore go wild!

Except for that’s not what happens, is it? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to trivialize this story in any way. But the decision of the disciples to leave everything and follow Jesus would make more sense in worldly terms if Jesus had made a grand, extravagant promise of glory and eternal life. He does promise them good things with God at other times, but not in this initial call, not at this particular time. No, what Jesus said to these fishermen is this:

            “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.”

            And how do they respond?

            “When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.”

            If this were a game of Jeopardy, these fishermen would have wagered everything they had on following a man with no immediate promise of reward. So why do they do it? Isn’t that the ongoing question of this story? Why do these fishermen leave their catch, leave their business, leave their families, leave everything they knew and understood and follow Jesus – a preacher and teacher who came from as humble of circumstances as they did?

            In some ways it might be easier to answer this question based on Luke’s account than on the other gospels. In the other gospel accounts, I’m thinking of Mark specifically, we are unaware of the fishermen having any knowledge of Jesus before he walked by them and issued his call. But in Luke, we do know that they’ve encountered him before. At least Simon Peter has. In verses that we don’t read in chapter 4, Jesus healed Simon’s mother-in-law of a fever. Plus, this whole story begins with Jesus preaching to crowds so great that they were pressing in on him. Perhaps he felt that he might even be pushed into the sea. So, Jesus climbs into their boats, which were moored there at the shore and asks Simon to row him out away. There, from that boat, he continues to preach.

            What Luke tells us is that Simon and his partners had been out all night fishing, but with no luck, no catch. No catch meant no profits for that day. No catch most likely meant their stomachs would stay empty.

            The fishermen must have been tired and discouraged. They were cleaning up their boats and their nets, and probably making ready to head home until it was time to fish again. One commentator wrote that Jesus was probably a bit of a nuisance, climbing into their boat uninvited and asking them to row him out into the water. But Simon was gracious. He did what Jesus asked.

            Once the sermon was over, he asked Simon to row him out into deeper water and put out his nets. In Simon’s mind, he knew he had reached his limit and was ready to give up. He said as much to Jesus.

            “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.”

            If you say so…Simon had witnessed Jesus’ power to heal. He and his partners heard the words Jesus spoke to the crowds, and they saw the size of the crowds he was speaking to.

            Simon must have understood, even just a little bit, that Jesus was someone special, someone to be listened to. So although he was reluctant, he said, “if you say so,” then he did what Jesus asked.

            Whatever doubts Simon had about this last attempt at catching some fish soon vanished. There were so many fish in the nets that they started to break. There were so many fish in the nets that the partners in the other boat had to be called to help. There were so many fish in the nets that the boats were weighed down almost to sinking.

            Simon knew that Jesus was someone special, but when that extraordinary, miraculous catch of fish happened, Simon saw Jesus not just as a preacher or a teacher or a healer, but as divine. He may not have understood what that meant yet, but I do believe that he saw the divine in Jesus.

            I think that is what his confession is all about.

            “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”

            It seems to me that this was not so much a confession of sin, but as a recognition by someone who has seen the sacred and the holy and realizes how unsacred and unholy he is by contrast.

            There are many times when Jesus would pardon someone of their sins. But that is not what Jesus did in response to Simon’s confession. Jesus did not say, “Go, your sins are forgiven.”

            Jesus said, “Do not be afraid.”

            Jesus said to these fishermen-soon-to-be-disciples the same thing that the angels said to the shepherds; the same thing Gabriel said to Mary.

            “Do not be afraid”

            And with those words, Simon Peter and the others left their catch of fish on the shore and followed. They wagered everything they had and they followed, not knowing if their bet would be fulfilled, but they followed anyway.

            Do not be afraid is our promise as well. It is our assurance. Because we are called to follow just as those fishermen were. We are called to go to the unknown, to cast our nets into the deep waters, waters where we cannot see the bottom. We are called to go on faith and trust, knowing nothing for certain, but believing with our whole hearts. We are called to follow, and although some may not think that the words, “do not be afraid,” are much to go on, we believe and we trust that these four words represent a greater promise, a larger life and the truest love.

            Do not be afraid. If you say so, Lord. If you say so.

            Thanks be to God. Amen.