Peter's Miraculous Catch of Fish

A portion of Martin Luther’s sermon on Luke 5:1-11 plus my own comments:

"And although God is near us and will give us what we need, yet he requires on our part both work and hope, even if he delay for a time; therefore he gives Peter here a catch of fishes and says: 'Put out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch.'"

"As if the Lord would say: Let down the nets, and do the work that belongs to a fisherman, and let me care for the rest. The care or solicitude shall not be thine but mine, and the work thine."

How true Luther is. Too often we want the work to be God’s and His alone, while we sit on the sideline. Then we want the worry and care to be our own because God isn’t doing what we want when we want. But Jesus shows us that He only calls us to be faithful. "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch." We listen and we do His work. And we leave the results of the work up to Him.

When we are talking church work, often pastors and people are too result-oriented. The pastor should not congratulate himself too much when the church grows - for it is the Holy Spirit that is growing His kingdom. Nor should the people blame the pastor when the church does not grow - for it is the Holy Spirit who is again bringing souls into His Church. Pastor and people are content to use the Kingdom's fishing tools of faithful preaching and teaching of Law and Gospel.

We do the work and God brings in the results.

“When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.”