Luke 5:1-11

Luke 5

The Calling of the First Disciples

1One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, 2he saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
4When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch."

5Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets."

6When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

8When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" 9For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, 10and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners.

Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men." 11So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

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This is only 11 verses, but I think it's important enough (and gets skimmed over enough) that it deserves a post of its own.

We see in the first couple of verses here that Jesus is already a very popular teacher. People are crowding around him to hear him speak, and they generally just want to be near him. He borrows a boat from someone to use a "speaking platform."

After teaching, he amazes the fishermen by allowing them to catch a HUGE amount of fish. They hadn't caught a thing all night, and now they had so much, their nets could barely hold it all.

Simon Peter is so convinced of Jesus' power that he falls to the ground and says, "Go away from me Lord; I am a sinful man!"

Back in a post about Luke 2, I jumped the gun and wrote about the calling of Jesus' disciples. I think some of it is worth repeating here:

At the end of Bet Talmud, only the best and brightest were still studying. The majority had gone home to begin learning the family trade (farming, fishing, whatever). The remaining few would apply to a well-known rabbi to become one of his talmidim (disciples). Kind of like an internship, I suppose. This level of education was called Bet Midrash ("House of Study").

If a rabbi accepted you as a talmidim, you'd follow him around everywhere. You'd want to be just like him. You'd learn everything you could from him. Your life would be devoted to learning how to do what the rabbi did. Only the best were accepted as talmidim. If the rabbi believed that a kid had what it took, he would say, "Come, follow me."

But many weren't good enough. A rabbi very well might say, "You aren't good enough. Go home and learn the family business."

It was at the age of 30 that a rabbi would generally begin his public teaching and training of disciples. This is the age we'll see Jesus begin his ministry.

The last, yet perhaps most interesting thing we'll see later is when Jesus begins to call his own disciples. His talmidim. Who does he call? The best and brightest students? The ones who follow him around and beg to be his talmidim?

No. He calls fishermen. People learning the family business, perhaps not even out of their teen years. Jesus calls the not-good-enoughs. Jesus says to them, "Come, follow me." Jesus believes they can be like him.

I, for one, am thankful that Jesus calls even people like me -- the sinful men, the not-good-enoughs -- to follow him.