Intro
Can you hear the exhaustion in Peter’s voice? Peter knew his livelihood well.
He, his father, and brother had been fishing for as long as he could remember.
He had spent long hours mending nets and long nights casting them. He had
haggled with the fishmongers to get a fair price for his catch. Peter knew how
to judge the weather by looking at the skies. He knew how to sail a boat and
judge his direction in the darkest night by gazing at the stars, and
recognizing landmarks on a moonlit night. Peter was a fisherman.
Yet the night before Jesus stops by, Peter and his brother, Andrew, had caught
nothing. They worked hard all night long, sailing here, rowing there, casting
out and pulling up the heavy nets many, many times. And yet, each time, the
nets were empty. They worked as hard as ever and had nothing to show for it.
Main Body
“Master, we’ve worked hard all night long and caught nothing.” Doesn’t that
sound familiar? You’ve tried your best, but it’s not enough, and you have
nothing to show for all your efforts. You’ve tried to love those whom God has
placed in your life--but you can’t even show love to your family as you know
you should! You harbor resentment. You lose your temper. You get annoyed at
the smallest event.
If we can’t even love our family as we’re supposed to, what hope do we have for
loving others? We’ve labored to keep our promises, only later to break them.
We’ve worked against temptation, only to fall again and again. We’ve poured
out our hearts, only to have them broken. We’ve worked hard the long night of
our lives in this sin-laden world, and we’ve caught nothing.
Such is the exhaustion behind Peter’s cry. After a night of hard work, of
giving it their all, of casting out and pulling in, Peter and Andrew had
exactly nothing. So it goes. Sometimes you do everything right and, still,
the world does you wrong. Such is the way of this fallen world.
And then Jesus comes. He tells Peter to put down his nets right by the shore.
Such foolishness--and Peter knows it! He knows the lake. He knows that you
don’t catch fish so close to the shore in the daytime. It just doesn’t happen.
Peter knows that you catch fish during the night, in the deeper water. But he
also knows that he’s worked all night long and has nothing to show for it. His
calloused hands hurt. His arms and back are weary. You can hear the
exhaustion in Peter’s reply, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night long and
caught nothing.”
And there you are. As it was with Peter, so it is with you. Have you not felt
life wear you down to the bone? After a thousand tries to reign in your
temper, you still lash out in burning anger. After promising never, ever to do
that sin again, there you are, doing it once more, red-faced in shame and
humiliation. You plan to go to church more often, to say your prayers
everyday, to pay attention during the sermon--and still you fall short! Your
mind wanders. You let yourself get too busy. “Master, we’ve worked hard all
night long and caught nothing.”
And if that wasn’t bad enough, God isn’t interested in how hard you try. He’s
only interested in perfect holiness and obedience. And this you do not have.
It is like a bad, but truly sincere, engineer building a bridge. If the bridge
doesn’t hold up the cars that drive across it, do you care? Does it matter
that he tried his best? Is he a good engineer if he tries his best but always
fails to build a bridge that works? Who cares? He needs to be fired, if not
jailed for negligent manslaughter.
So it is with you and me. Even if you’ve always tried your best--and you know
you haven’t--still you fail to live up to God’s standard. Like Peter, you must
learn to admit the truth, to say in humility, “Master, we’ve worked hard all
night long and caught nothing.”
Dear saints of God, do you not get it? In the end, it’s not about your hard
work or your efforts. That’s what Jesus was teaching Peter--and wishes to
teach you as well! It’s not about how hard you work. No matter how beaten and
battered you’ve been in this life, no matter how hard you’ve worked and lost,
no matter how lonely, or estranged, or despised, or sorrowful you are, it
doesn’t matter!
Jesus comes to you as He came to Peter--with his Word. So say with Peter,
“Master, we’ve worked hard all night long and caught nothing.” Yet say even
more with Peter, “But at Your Word, I'll let down the nets.”
At His Word, let down the nets. Let go. Let loose your grip on whatever ails
you. Let loose of your own ideas. See what the Lord will do. Where no fish
should be in the water, a catch so great is swimming one boat cannot contain
it. Where sin abounds, forgiveness will abound even more. Where loneliness is
an unrelenting stalker, there will be the Father of all mercies who will set
the lonely in a loving communion. Where hatred burns in anger, peace will
soothe the burning wound. Where death is dancing in delight, life will
overcome.
For this Jesus has not come to catch fish. That’s but a card trick to show why
He really came. Jesus has come to catch people, even you. And nothing will be
impossible for Him. Although your sins are as scarlet, although you have
fallen down over and over, although you have struggled against God, although
you have been broken and rejected, although you have given up and lost hope--it
doesn’t matter. Jesus sends out the net of His Word to catch you and draw you
in. And His Word, His net, the means by which He will catch you is this: “It
is finished.”
It’s all finished. Although you’ve worked hard during the long night of sin
and caught nothing, Jesus has worked on Good Friday’s cross until the sun
itself gave up and turned dark. Although others have forsaken and despised
you, Jesus took this into His body on the cross, even being forsaken and
despised by His Father so you won’t have to be. Although your sins are as
scarlet, they are now white as snow. It’s over. It’s finished. The Lord has
paid your debt and you are free. Your hard work was not enough, but His work
is!
Everything is now made new. For on the cross, it was water and blood that
flowed from our Lord’s side: the Water of Baptism and the Blood of the New
Covenant, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This, too, is
the net of the Lord by which he will catch you and draw you in. For through
Holy Baptism, in the Holy Spirit, the Father of mercies has claimed you. You
are now His dear child. You bear His Holy Name of Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. You are family. You are blood.
Indeed, God Himself now wears your flesh and blood and is your brother. But
He’s not just your Lord, not just some far-away God, but your flesh-and-blood
brother who knows your hardships first-hand. He took that flesh and blood
through pain and death, and then again in resurrection. And now this gloried,
risen, ever-living body and blood are poured into you for the forgiveness of
your sins. For if your sins are forgiven, how can you not also live forever
like Christ? If His body is raised and put into you, how can your body not
also rise?
So fear not. Although all may look as black as night, it is not so. Although
it may appear that the Lord has forgotten you, He cannot, for He cannot forget
Himself. And since He can’t forget Himself, He fills you with Himself in His
body and blood.
So if all seems lost and hopeless, remember that Jesus wears flesh and blood.
You are not alone. The Lord has been working--and He doesn’t work in vain.
His death on the cross avails for you. His Baptism makes you His child. His
body and blood are put in to you and He remembers you, calls you by name, and
delights in you.
Take a moment now and look above you to the ceiling. Those who designed this
church building 40 years ago knew what they were doing. They built this place
to look like an upside-down boat. Can you see it in the ceiling design? This
is to show you that you’ve been caught by the Lord’s nets. It’s to show you
that He has hauled you into His boat, His ark, His Church, which will not sink
no matter what storm may arise.
In Christ, you are safe. You are covered by, and filled with, the blood of the
Lamb. And so nothing can harm you. Even though you die, yet you will live.
Amen.
--
Rich Futrell, Pastor
Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, Kimberling City, MO
Where we are to receive and confess the faith of the Church (in and with the
Augsburg Confession): The faith once delivered to the saints, the faith of
Christ Jesus, His Word of the Gospel, His full forgiveness of sins, His flesh
and blood given and poured out for us, and His gracious gift of life for body,
soul, and spirit.
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