Luke 5:1-11

Jesus Reveals His Authority Over Both Fish and Fishermen and Calls the Fishermen To Fish Men (5:1-11) .

The first incident in which Jesus' Messianic authority is revealed is in the calling of fishermen to follow Him in lifetime commitment, with no offer of earthly reward, for the purpose of ‘taking men alive'. This will fulfil the prophecy of Jeremiah 16:16 concerning the last days. ‘Behold I will send for many fishermen, says the Lord, and they will fish them', but it is also evidence of Jesus' supreme authority to call men at His bidding.

The words of Jeremiah did primarily have judgment in mind, but always when God judged men were also won to righteousness. And these Apostles too will, even while taking men alive for Christ, be the cause of judgment on thoe who refuse.

The story here parallels the calling of the four, Peter, Andrew, James and John in Mark 1:16; Matthew 4:18 to be disciples. These were men who were already acquainted with Him and had been disciples of John the Baptiser (John 1:35). They had probably accompanied Him back to Galilee. But He had not at that stage called them to follow Him. There the incident is in a slightly different order, coming before the healing of Peter's mother-in-law, and is more abbreviated. But this merely brings out that the Gospels are not intended to be in strict chronological order. Their order is determined by how will best present the ideas that they want to present. Had Luke had it earlier it would have spoiled the pattern of chapter 4.

Only Luke tells us about the remarkable incident of the fishes. Mark had wanted to concentrate on the authority that Jesus was revealing, and Matthew follows Mark. But Luke not only wants to bring that out, but also wants to bring out His power over nature and His fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy. The gathering of the scattered children of Israel were to be gathered by ‘fishermen' fishing for them (Jeremiah 16:16). Thus He will act to cause the ‘taking of men alive' by fishermen, revealing Himself again as the introducer of the last days, for His disciples were being called in order to carry out God's purposes for the last days. It could well be that Peter did not want to broadcast this story, which he might have seen as glorifying himself and suggesting that he was superior to others, which would explain why Mark did not know of it. Luke appears to have obtained the details from a local (who calls the Lake Gennesaret).

The passage may be analysed as follows:

a Now it came about, while the multitude pressed on him and heard the word of God, that he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret (Luke 5:1).

b And he saw two boats standing by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them, and were washing their nets (Luke 5:2).

c And he entered into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the multitudes out of the boat (Luke 5:3).

d And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught” (Luke 5:4).

e And Simon answered and said, “Master, we toiled all night, and took nothing: but at (on the strength of) your word I will let down the nets” (Luke 5:5).

f And when they had done this, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes, and their nets were breaking (Luke 5:6).

e And they beckoned to those associated with them in the other boat, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink (Luke 5:7).

d But Simon Peter, when he saw it, fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8).

c For he was amazed, and all who were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken, and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon (Luke 5:9 a).

b And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be overawed, from now on you will be taking men alive” (Luke 5:10 b).

a And when they had brought their boats to land, they left all, and followed him (Luke 5:11).

Note that in ‘a' the crowds were pressing Him on the land to hear the word of God, and in the parallel the disciples also come to the land to follow Him. In ‘b' they had ceased fishing and were washing their nets despondently because fishing had failed them, and in the parallel they are to rather have the replacement joy of taking men alive. In ‘c' they obey Jesus and do His will, and in the parallel they are amazed at the reward that they receive. In ‘d' they are commanded to launch out into the deep and let down their nets, and in the parallel Peter has launched so deep that what has happened as a result of obeying Jesus makes him stricken with guilt over his sinfulness. In ‘e' they have caught nothing, and in the parallel have caught so much that they have to call for their associates. And central to all is that when they obeyed Jesus they enclosed a great multitude of fish.