To this point, we have seen different reactions to Jesus in Luke’s gospel. Overall, the people of Galilee have been impressed by Jesus’ teaching and authority over impure spirits and sickness. This favorable view led the people of Capernaum to invite Jesus to stay in their town, though he turned them down. On the other side of things, the people of Nazareth took great offense at Jesus when he described God’s movement of redemption in unexpected and unwanted ways. Rather than inviting him to stay, the people of Nazareth tried to kill Jesus by stoning. Today, we see yet another reaction to Jesus, this time on a more personal level. And, it is this reaction that Luke would commend to his audience. As commentator Joel Green has put it, Peter displays “the nature of appropriate response to the ministry of Jesus.”1
The scene of Peter’s response opens with Jesus teaching an audience by the lake. Presumably to escape the press of the crowd, Jesus steps into a boat and asks a local fisherman - Simon Peter - to put out into the water a little way from shore. We don’t know if Peter has been impressed by Jesus’ teaching, already knows of Jesus by reputation, or is simply aware of the crowd’s eyes on him. Whatever the case, he does as Jesus asks, and the teaching continues, this time with Jesus using the water for crowd control.
An important point to note about Peter and his companions in this story is that by the time Jesus commandeers Peter’s boat, they are completing an unsuccessful night of work. Having failed to catch anything through the long watches of the previous night, the fishermen have docked their boats and are cleaning their nets. How surprising it must have been, then, for Jesus - at the conclusion to his sermon - to tell Peter to “put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch” (Luke 5:4; NIV). Here is the point in the story where we get an inkling of Peter’s respect for Jesus. Though he is incredulous that doing as Jesus says will be worth the extra work, Peter names Jesus as “Master” and follows instructions. In no time at all, Peter has so many fish in his net that he has to signal his partners in another boat for help.
Now comes Peter’s model response. Going beyond the amazement that often followed Jesus, Peter becomes aware of his own unworthiness to stand in Jesus’ presence or benefit from Jesus’ power. “Go away from me, Lord,” he begs on his knees, “I am a sinful man!” Peter has discerned God’s holy presence in Jesus and become dreadfully aware of his own sin. The good news for Peter (and all of us) is that Jesus is not repelled by his flaws and failures. Rather than casting Peter away in scornful wrath, Jesus offers him a new way forward. “Don’t be afraid,” Jesus says, “from now on you will fish for people.” Hearing those simple words, Peter and his companions leave their boats, their nets, and a record catch behind to follow Jesus. In this, they opt for the presence and instruction of the Miracle Worker rather than the good of the miracle itself. To be sure, these aspects of Jesus’ ministry are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but in this story, following Jesus and reaping the goodness of Jesus’ ministry play off one another. Whereas others have been amazed at Jesus’ teaching and power, for Peter and his companions these same elements provoke a complete change in life trajectory.
Sometimes when we consider responses to Jesus, we can think in binary categories of rejection or acceptance. Luke, however, challenges us to nuance the latter. For some in Luke’s gospel, acceptance meant amazement. For others, like Peter and his companions, acceptance meant a completely new direction in life. Perhaps we can borrow terms from a New Testament scholar and farmer named Clarence Jordan to illustrate this point: admirers and disciples. As the story goes, in 1942 Jordan founded an interracial farming community in Georgia called Koinonia Farm. At one point in the farm’s life, Clarence asked his brother Robert, a lawyer who later became a successful politician and judge, to represent Koinonia in a dispute over gas delivery. Though it was illegal to withhold gas in the winter months, Koinonia was not receiving its deliveries, presumably because of its commitment to integration. In response, Jordan’s brother demurred. When Clarence asked him about his commitment to Jesus, Robert said, “I follow Jesus, Clarence, up to a point … I follow him to the cross, but not on the cross. I’m not getting myself crucified.” To which Clarence replied that his brother was an admirer rather than a disciple.2 Do you see the difference? We can admire Jesus all we want, but it’s only when we follow him in the sometimes costly way of discipleship that we find the correct response. For many of us, the call won’t be as radical as it was for Peter and the other fishermen, who left their livelihoods behind. Yet, it is radical all the same. For whether we are called to new spaces or to inhabit the same spaces as before, Jesus leads us in a new way. Will we follow him or only admire from a distance?
Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, 230.