Trusting Jesus When It Doesn't Make Sense: A Spiritual Checkup from Luke 5
Most of us have a whole toolkit for checking how we're doing. The mirror tells you first thing in the morning, sometimes more honestly than you'd like. The scale has its say. A financial statement reports on your money, a performance review on your job, and a report card (sorry, students) on your grades.
So how do you know how you're doing spiritually? And how do you know that you know?
Charles Zimmerman asked us that in week three of The Main Thing, our series on living like Jesus through the Gospel of Luke. Luke set out to write an orderly account, and the order has been clear so far. Week one showed us who Jesus is. Week two showed us his mission: jubilee, healing, freedom for prisoners, and above all the forgiveness of sin. Now, in Luke 5:1-11, Jesus does the next thing. He calls his team. How he calls Peter gives us a checkup we can run on our own lives.
A Long Night and Empty Nets
Ever had a day when nothing goes right? You're exhausted, frustrated and discouraged, and you feel like you got nothing done. Peter had one of those, except his was a night.
On the Sea of Galilee, fishing was night work. As the water cooled, fish rose to the surface, and fishermen threw heavy nets where they thought the fish were and hauled them back in. It was hard, heavy work. Peter and his partners did it all night and caught nothing. They pulled in net after empty net.
Then it got worse. As they came in, a huge crowd was waiting on the shore. What's worse than catching nothing? Having a crowd watch you come in with nothing. They had nothing to sell and nothing to make a living on.
Jesus was preaching there, and he asked to borrow Peter's boat. He pushed out a little from shore, where the hills around the cove worked almost like an amphitheater, and taught from the boat. Peter may have thought, "Well, at least the boat is good for something." When the sermon ended, he could finally go home and sleep. Then Jesus said, "Put out into deep water and let down the nets for a catch" (Luke 5:4).
Trust Jesus' Word
You know the feeling of getting advice from someone who clearly knows less than you do. It's like the WIP callers who know more than the host, the general manager and the coaching staff put together.
Peter was the professional here. He had his own boat and partners in James and John. Jesus was a preacher, and what does a preacher know about fishing? Charles pictured Peter muttering, "I'll fish, you preach."
That isn't what Peter said, though: "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets" (Luke 5:5).
Because you say so. That's the first item on the checkup: Do you trust Jesus' word?
Casting nets in daylight made no sense, and God still asks us to do things that don't make sense:
Forgive people who don't deserve it.
Show kindness and grace to the people who hurt you.
Give generously to meet someone else's needs when you could keep the money for yourself.
Put your time and energy into serving others, at Calvary or somewhere else, when you barely have any margin as it is.
There's probably something like that in your life right now. You may be resisting it because it doesn't fit what you think or how you feel. That means you're trusting your own reasoning over what Jesus is calling you to do.
Obedience Is Not the Same as Agreement
We often think we're being obedient when really we just agree. Follow Peter's logic: "You fish at night on this lake, not during the day. I just cleaned these nets. This makes no sense." If what Jesus asks happens to match our reasoning and we say yes, that's agreement. We're still trusting ourselves.
Obedience gets tested when your reason, your gut or the culture around you points one way and Jesus points the other, and you follow him anyway.
Notice where the story starts. Jesus doesn't open with "Follow me." He opens with "Let's go fishing." God initiates and we respond. Before Peter ever follows Jesus, he trusts him.
Encounter His Grace
Peter let the nets down, probably reluctantly and without much effort. Then the nets filled so full they began to break. He waved over his partners, and both boats filled until they started to sink. Charles said he pictures Jesus doubled over laughing in the boat while the fishermen scrambled to haul it all in.
That catch was the first way Peter encountered Jesus' grace. This isn't a promise that trusting Jesus always brings a big catch. It is a promise that trusting his word puts you on the path where you will meet his grace. Sometimes that grace brings a payoff you never saw coming. Jesus' blessing often comes in a different currency than we expect.
But grace also has a harder side.
"Go Away From Me, Lord"
Peter doesn't say, "Thanks, Jesus. Same time tomorrow? At this rate we only need to fish once a week." He falls at Jesus' knees and says, "Go away from me, Lord. I am a sinful man" (Luke 5:8).
At Calvary, we define worship this way: when you see God accurately, you respond appropriately. Peter caught a glimpse of who Jesus really is and saw his own sin more clearly than ever. There is no more frightening place in the universe for a sinful human being than the presence of a perfectly holy God, and Peter knew it.
Scripture shows this pattern again and again. In Isaiah 6, a prophet sees God in the temple and cries, "Woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips." That same encounter ends with God asking whom he can send. In Revelation 1, John has followed Jesus for decades, yet when he sees just a fraction of Jesus' glory on Patmos, he falls at his feet.
Each time, Jesus says the same thing he tells Peter: Don't be afraid. That's grace too. A sinful person stands in the presence of a holy God and is not consumed. It's as if Jesus is saying, "Don't be afraid, Peter. I've got this."
The pattern also works in reverse. If we aren't responding appropriately, we probably have a flawed picture of who God is. That's why Scripture matters so much. It's where we see him clearly.
Follow His Call
Only now does Jesus call Peter: "Don't be afraid. From now on you will fish for people" (Luke 5:10). He's offering Peter a new line of work.
Charles pointed out that the illustration isn't perfect. When you catch a fish, you take it from life to death. Fishing for people works the other way. It takes people from death to life and brings them into the jubilee of Luke 4, where sins are forgiven, debts are cancelled and you can live the life you were made for. That's the mission Jesus started, and it's the mission Calvary exists to continue.
Peter didn't know the rest of his story. Following Jesus would bring ups and downs, and church tradition says Peter was eventually martyred for his faith. If he had known all that, maybe he would have really meant "go away from me." But if we could ask Peter today whether it was worth it, Charles is sure of the answer: "You bet. I wouldn't trade it for anything." Luke tells us they pulled their boats ashore, left everything and followed him (Luke 5:11).
Getting the Order Right
It's always the same progression: trust his word, encounter his grace, follow his call. Underneath it runs an order that shows up all through the Bible:
If you see God accurately, you see yourself accurately. If you see yourself accurately, you will recognize your sin clearly. If you see your sin clearly, you will encounter God's grace completely. And once you encounter his grace, you will respond in obedience and service.
The trouble is that we keep reversing it. We tell ourselves that if we build up enough discipline, learn enough and obey enough, then maybe God will accept us. We want something we can point to, as if we could add our 10% to Jesus' 90%. How much can we actually add? Zero. As the old hymn says, Jesus paid it all.
Charles made this personal. When he and his wife, Kim, eat dinner in front of a ball game, he's learned to change first into a shirt he'll either work out in or throw out. Whatever he eats, especially anything greasy, ends up on the front of his shirt, and those stains don't come out.
Our souls get stained the same way when we live by our own reasoning and let our own desires call the shots. You can't wear stained clothing into the presence of God. We try to scrub the stains out by going to church, saying our prayers and reading the Bible, but none of it gets them out. Peter realized that in the boat. Only Jesus can make us clean. Our part is to admit the stains and bring them to him.
And the response isn't "Great, now I can coast." The response is gratitude, obedience and service. We don't obey to earn his grace. We obey because we've already received it.
Carry It Into Your Week
This week, take the checkup again. How are you doing, and how do you know?
What is Jesus asking you to do right now that doesn't make sense to you, and what is really holding you back?
Where have you been calling agreement "obedience"?
When did you last see God clearly enough that it changed how you saw yourself?
What stains are you still trying to scrub out on your own instead of bringing them to Jesus?
Where are you on the trust, grace and follow path this week, and what's your next right step?
Join Us This Sunday
Jesus didn't call Peter to a better fishing business. He called him into a mission that is still moving forward today, bringing people from death to life. That's what we mean when we say Calvary exists to continue what Jesus started. Wherever you are in your spiritual journey and whatever stage of life you're in, you're welcome here, and there's a place for your whole family, from Calvary Kids on up.
Join us this Sunday! Souderton: 9:00 & 10:30am | Quakertown: 9:30am