NOTES for Luk 5:1-16
The unexpected and abundant catch of fish where, by every indication, there could have been none is one of the Saviour’s first miracles. What is it: proof? A testimony to His own messiahship? But Jesus never tried to prove anything to anyone. A testimony—perhaps. But a testimony to what? To God’s power? Probably so: it is no accident that Peter asks Jesus to depart from him and leave him. He understands that a sinful person should not draw near to God, for this may end in the profanation of the holy, the debasement of that divine presence which seemed an evident reality both to Peter and to the others. But Jesus, on the contrary, calls Peter to follow Him.
He knows that a person who recognises their limitations and looks at themselves soberly and realistically is more dependable than self-confident enthusiasts of the spiritual life. The miraculous catch truly becomes a testimony, but not only a testimony to a theophany. It becomes a testimony to the Kingdom that has drawn near, whose breath can now touch the waters of Lake Gennesaret so that even the fish feel it.
They feel it and gather where they are not usually found. For the breath of the Kingdom attracts not only people: every living thing feels its presence. But if this is so, if this is about the Kingdom, then Peter cannot turn back either, despite his sinfulness and his unreadiness to follow the Messiah. All the more so because no one is ready: where in a fallen world can sinless people be found? Yet a step after the Messiah is a step into His Kingdom, where He Himself reigns.
And now He Himself will work with those who are not ready to live the life of His Kingdom but are ready to follow Him despite their unreadiness and sinfulness. The path of righteousness has always been precisely this, even before Christ came into the world: following God despite one’s own sinfulness. Now the possibilities are different, and there is another, absolute fullness of life with God. But the path remains the same; even today it is possible for a person only despite their fallen nature—not, of course, because it is nature, but because it is fallen. Thus all the apostles will follow Him, Peter being the first among them. To the end. To that fullness of the life of the Kingdom without which the journey has no meaning.