The Gospel for Sunday, February 8, 2004 [Fifth Sunday in Epiphany]
Luke 5:1-11
Now it happened that he was standing one day by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the crowd pressing round him listening to the word of God, when he caught sight of two boats at the water’s edge. The fishermen had got out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats—it was Simon’s—and asked him to put out a little 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 deep water and pay out your nets for a catch.’ Simon replied, ‘Master, we worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but if you say so, I will pay out the nets.’ And when they had done this they netted such a huge number of fish that their nets began to tear, so they signalled to their companions in the other boat to come and help them; when these came, they filled both boats to sinking point. When Simon Peter saw this he fell at the knees of Jesus saying, ‘Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.’ For he and all his companions were completely awestruck at the catch they had made; so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were Simon’s partners. But Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on it is people you will be catching.’ Then, bringing their boats back to land they left everything and followed him. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study
Luke, in his opening preface to "Theophilus," who may have been a real person or only a literary device, says that he is going to write an ordered account of Jesus' time among us, having carefully gone over many others' eyewitness. And further, he says that he writes this account to reinforce teachings that his audience have already received. Since Matthew and Luke are written at about the same time, and John is acknowledged to be 15 to 20 years later, that leaves Mark and some other unknown sources [perhaps] as the sources of the teachings his audience have received.
While Luke's story generally follows Mark's, there is a general lack of lock-step synchronism among the four Gospels. Simon picks up his nickname of Peter in Luke's Gospel with no comment at all. And Simon is the first disciple, in Luke's telling, to recognize Jesus as divine, as he falls about Jesus' knees after the superabundant catch of fish.
In the other three Gospels, Simon and Andrew are mentioned together, first, and, as in this one, then James and John. But in this one, Simon is mentioned first, and it is not until many other events have passed that Andrew's name even appears, during the selection of the Twelve.
As we traverse Luke's Gospel, Jesus' divinity is revealed to Mary first, then to her cousin Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, then to the shepherds, then to Simeon and Anna in the Temple. Thirty years pass until another revelation occurs, and this time it is to bystanders in Capernaum when Jesus encounters a man possessed. The demon he first casts out in Capernaum calls him the "holy one of God," but Jesus forbids the demons he casts out to speak and thereby give a false impression of him. As the Lucan scholar Eric Franklin points out,
"What makes him ‘Christ’ for people will be an acceptance of his way of the cross. Without that acceptance, any ascription of messiahship would be useless." -- Barton, J., & Muddiman, J., Eds. 2001. Oxford Bible Commentary . Oxford University Press: New York
The next to recognize Jesus as more than man was Peter. Prior to this profession, Peter had entertained Jesus at his house, where Jesus "rebuked" a high fever from Peter's mother-in-law, who immediately began to serve Peter and his friends. Peter therefore had knowledge that Jesus was not just some itinerant preacher 20 miles down the road from his home in Nazareth.
For whatever reason of physiology or psychology, Peter's neurons all lined up the right way, and a mountain of fish made Jesus revealed to him as One in Whose Presence he is unworthy to be, the Lord. And then he and his partners left all and followed Jesus.
A Reflection
Eric Franklin's comments produced an epiphany for me.
It never before had got through to me that Jesus never publicly accepted his Messiahship except through his sacrifice on the cross. He became the evidence on which the hope of the ages had been waiting, in faith, but only through his death did he become the Christ. His sonship he acknowledged fairly early in his ministry, but only after the Resurrection did he acknowlege the gift the Father had given.
It was in paying all of our sin-wages for us, at his death, that Jesus saved us. At that moment, he became the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior. Until that time, he was the Word made flesh, dwelling among us, full of grace.
The late mathematician Paul Dirac formulated a concept we now call the "Dirach Delta." Its use in the study of physical systems is as an input which will cause a mathematical model of the system to respond in all its natural ways. The Dirach Delta is a pulse of infinitely large strength, but of infinitely small duration. And it causes systems to behave as they were constructed to behave.
Could Jesus' death be better described?
The sermon we heard at church today on this Gospel selection
6:38:07 AM 
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