Why Me? | Goin’ Fishin’

Luke 5:1-11

Why me? I often ask myself this question. Why should I be up here talking to you about the Word of God? Do I have the skills and the talent and the knowledge to do so? Surely there are better speakers than me, right? Do I have what it takes to write and memorize a sermon every week for the foreseeable future? And that not to mention all the other stuff that pastors have to do throughout the week. Why me? Just in my senior class alone at the seminary, there are other people who are smarter than me, who are more talented, who are more outgoing, who are generally just more likable than me. Why me? Do I really have what it takes to be in this people business when naturally I’m a classic introvert who gets energy from being alone rather than being around people? Why me? Have you asked yourself this question before? I think it’s safe to say that we’ve all asked the question at least once in our lives. Maybe it was in your own line of work. Maybe your boss or your company asked you to do something that you felt a little overwhelmed by. And you thought, “Why me? Why are they asking me to do this? Isn’t there someone else more qualified than me?” And after reading today’s sermon text, I wonder if Peter was thinking the same thing. Why me? And I wonder if he thought that thought more than once in his life throughout his ministry. Why me? Maybe the first time that he thought that was when Jesus asked him if he could use his boat so that he could teach the crowd from the shoreline. Was he thinking, “Why is he asking me? Can he see that I’m washing the fishing nets?” But he listens to Jesus and he lets him use his boat. But now Peter can’t just leave. He has to wait for Jesus to get done teaching so that he can bring the boat back. But once Jesus is done teaching, he makes another request, doesn’t he? He asks them to push out a little farther into the deep end and let down their nets for another catch. Now remember, Peter and his colleagues had been fishing all night with nothing to show for it. And now Jesus is asking them to try again. This would be like if, imagine your current job. Imagine you worked the entire graveyard shift and then you’re about to clock out and your boss comes to you and says, “Oh, hold on a second. Why don’t you work another eight hours before you clock out?” How would you feel? What would your reaction be? Maybe some of you have experienced that. What was your reaction? Well, we’re not told what Peter was thinking, but we are told what he said. He says, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” But how did Peter say it? Was he happy about it or was he a little annoyed? Was it more like, “Because you say so, we just don’t know.” But it seems that Peter didn’t really know Jesus too well yet. This was early in Jesus’ ministry. We’re told that in the previous chapter, in chapter four of Luke, that Jesus goes to Peter’s house to heal his mother-in-law of a fever. But we’re not told if Peter was the one who asked him to come or if it was someone else who asked him to come by. In either case, Peter refers to Jesus as “Master,” which wasn’t an uncommon term for a teacher at that time. And so that’s not remarkable, but what is remarkable is that they listen to this teacher. For one, Jesus is not their business partner. He’s not their colleague. Number two, Peter and his co-workers had already been trying to fish under the best conditions. They already tried fishing at night and in the shallow water. And now Jesus was telling them to do the opposite. I think it’s safe to say that maybe the fishermen were a little bit skeptical. Like, what does this rabbi know about fishing? But they listen to him. They go out into the deep end of the water. They let down their nets. And then what happens? Their nets get so filled up that they’re about to tear. And they have to call the other boat to come and help them. And then they too get so filled with fish that now they’re on the brink of sinking. Just think about how heavy those boats had to be in order for that to happen. And it’s at this point that Peter realizes that this is no ordinary man. Whatever Peter had thought about Jesus before that, now he was painfully aware of who it was that was standing next to him. He recognized that it was God who was standing next to him. God was with him in the boat. And so Peter says, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Why does Peter say that? Well, we see similar things in other parts of Scripture. We saw it in our Isaiah reading for today. The prophet Isaiah was given the blessed vision of seeing God in his holiness with all his angels. And so what does Isaiah have to rightfully confess? “Woe to me, I’m ruined because I am a man of unclean lips, and yet I have seen God.” You see, my friends, whenever we come into contact with holiness, our lack of it becomes painfully apparent. That is because sinful human beings like you and me cannot stand before the living God and live. But Peter and Isaiah didn’t die, did they? No, because God had mercy on them. God had a plan for them. So what does Jesus say to Peter? Does he say, “Now you will die,” or, “Now you will pay for all of the bad things that you’ve ever done in your life?” No. He says, “Don’t be afraid. From now on, you will fish for people.” We’re not told what Peter thought or what he said. All we’re told is that Peter and his colleagues left everything behind and followed Jesus. Why? Because the gospel is powerful. The good news of Jesus affects us. It changes us. When the angel told Isaiah that his sin was forgiven, and God says, “Who will go for us? Who will speak for us?” What does Isaiah do? “Ooh, me. Send me. I’ll do it.” You see, both Peter and Isaiah experienced the power and the mercy of God. And he tells him, “I will make you fishers of men.” And so when Peter heard that, do you think maybe he thought again? Why me? After all, Peter was not a highly educated man. He wasn’t a teacher of the law. He was not a trained speaker. He was just an ordinary blue-collar fisherman. And yet Jesus said, “I will make you fish for people.” Now, this task that Jesus gives to his disciples wasn’t just for the early disciples, but it’s also for us as well, his modern disciples. Jesus is asking you and me to fish for people. And so now you might be thinking, “Why me? I’m not a pastor. I’m not a vicar. I didn’t go to seminary. I don’t come from a family of called workers. I don’t even know the Bible that well. Why me?” Well, you see, my friends, Jesus doesn’t call the qualified. He qualifies those he calls. You see, he uses your experiences to shape you, and he uses his word to equip you so that all of our success really is in ours, but rather God’s. You see, God uses us as his instruments to go and catch people. What was Jesus trying to teach Peter by that great catch of fish? He was trying to teach him that, “I am the all-powerful God, and I’m on your side.” And guess what? Jesus is on your side too. So you see, why me really isn’t the right question. Rather, the right question, or the better question, is why him? Why Jesus? Well, he’s the only one who could. He’s the only one who could live up to God’s perfect standards and did. He’s the only one whose death could count for every single human being. He’s the only one who could rise from the grave as a victorious conqueror. He’s the only one who could make you and me, his sons and daughters, through the waters of baptism, so that when God looks at you, he sees a champion. He sees his beloved child. And so when Jesus tells us, “Go fishing,” we don’t have to be afraid, my friends, because he’s with us. So let me ask you, what kind of bait are you using? Because there are a lot of hungry people out there, people who are hungry for deeper, real meaning in their lives. So how are you going to catch them? For some, it might be just randomly going up to somebody and saying, “Hey, do you know Jesus? Do you know your Savior?” But that won’t be realistic for most of us, including myself. Rather, we draw people in by good works with no strings attached, by loving your neighbor as yourself. And when we do these things, people will notice and people will start to ask questions. Jesus tells us in the book of John, “By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.” In the book of Matthew, he says, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” So what is the tactic that Jesus is telling us to use? It’s love. Love those who hate you and pray for those who persecute you. You see, my friends, you will actually catch way more people than either I or Pastor or Damien, whatever, catch. Not by getting into theological debates with people, but rather by simply saying, “Come and see.” “Come and see.” Ninety-five percent of first-time visitors to a church are people who were invited by their Christian friends. Let me repeat that statistic. Ninety-five percent of first-time visitors to a church are people who were invited by their Christian friends. Do you know, on average, how many church invitations, let’s say Easter invitations, for example, do you know how many Easter invitations we would have to mail out in order to get maybe one person to walk through those doors by themselves? About 19,000 invitations. Do you know how many social media ads we would need to have before one person sees it and walks through those doors by themselves? About 23,000 ads. Do you know how many people would need to see a giant billboard on the highway that advertises our church? Do you know how many people would have to see that sign before just one walks through those doors by themselves? About 400,000. Do you know? How many people would show up on average if just ten of us were to invite someone? On average, four. That’s right. Ten to four. Ten to four is a much better ratio than 19,000 to one, or 23,000 to one, or 400,000 to one. You see, my friends, friendship evangelism through love is the most effective way of catching people. At the beginning of the sermon, I talked about my fears and my doubts, the “why me” of it all. But all this time, I was asking the wrong question. Rather, the question I should have been asking is, “Why him?” Well, because he caught us by his power and his mercy, and he now sustains us through his word. You see, you and I are Jesus fishing trophies. You are that prized blue marlin. And Jesus will never let you go. Amen.