Devotion by Abiding Savior Lutheran
“Once while Jesus was
standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd
was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the
shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their
nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him
to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds
from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into
the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.’ Simon answered, ‘Master, we
have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will
let down the nets.’ When they had done this, they caught so many fish that
their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled to their partners in the
other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that
they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees,
saying, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’ For he and all who were
with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were
James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners
with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will
be catching people.’ When they had brought their boats to shore, they left
everything and followed him.” Luke 5: 1-11
The anonymous Gentile writer whom we call “Luke” remembers
the morning Jesus called his first students to follow him (Luke 5:1-11).
According to Luke, Jesus was lingering, just chilling, at the lakeshore. But a
great crowd of people gathered around. These people came, Luke says, “to hear
the Word of God” (Luke 5:1). They came because Jesus did and spoke a Word that
made the broken whole, made the unclean clean, worked forgiveness of sins, and
set free the crushed and the oppressed, in short, Jesus actually brought God’s
kingly rule into the world. So wherever he went, even just to chill, people
gathered.
The crowd pressed in to get closer. Jesus picked out one of the fishermen
working on the beach, a certain Simon, and asked him if he might sit in his
boat to teach the people. When Simon agreed, he became the first person to join
Jesus in his going out for the salvation of the world, for the forgiveness of
sins and the resurrection of the dead, for the coming of the kingly rule of the
one God of Israel. What did Simon do, really? He just let Jesus sit in his boat
and do what Jesus always did. And Jesus issues this same call to you and to me.
We are Simon, sitting at our desk, working at our station, fulfilling the daily
responsibilities of our vocation. Jesus comes to us right now and asks if he
might sit in our boat and do what he always does. It is the call to be his
people, his followers and his missionaries. It is the call to let him do and
say his Word here and now, through us. It begins and ends with prayer. “Lord
Jesus, sit in my boat, and do God’s kingly rule in and through me in my
job, in my home, with my neighbors and coworkers, family and friends.” And it always
means both, following Jesus as he is preached in the New Testament, and
allowing yourself right here and now to become his
agent, his instrument. Jesus calls each of us to be his missionary. Will you
let Jesus sit in your boat?
Interim
Abiding Savior
Prayer
Petition:
Loving
God, source of Joy,
We
pray for people in