Luke 5:1-11 2024/10/6 Osaka Church
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit
Many of Christ’s disciples were fishermen before they met the Lord. One day, they fished all night on the lake, but they didn’t catch a single fish. No matter how many times they lowered their nets and pulled them in, they didn’t catch anything. “It’s no good. That’s the end of fishing for today.” They were getting ready to go home when Jesus called out to them.
“Put out into the deep and let down your nets.”
They looked at each other.
“Master, we have worked all night, but we have caught nothing.”
But in the end, they said, “Well, since you say so, let’s let down our nets,” and did as the Lord said. They caught so much that it seemed like the nets would burst and the boat would sink.
They obeyed the Lord’s words and tried fishing again. However, they did not simply repeat the same things they had done before. They were able to achieve great results only after they did “just as Jesus taught us,” that is, by “rowing into the deep.”
We too must do “just as Jesus taught us,” and “row into the deep,”; that is, we must change our way of life from the deepest, from the very bottom up, to face the Lord Jesus. We cannot be Christians only when it is necessary for us, such as at weddings and funerals. We cannot be Christians only when it is convenient, such as going to church because today is a day when there are no social interactions or hobby gatherings. We also cannot be Christians only when we feel good because our hearts are filled with joy and we feel like singing hymns for the first time in a while. Rather, we must be Christians when we have to bear our own pain for the sake of love for our neighbors, when we have to endure trials, when our hearts are torn apart by conflicts with others, when we suffer, when we are about to lose hope, in other words, when we “have to carry our cross,” and when we are about to lose sight of the fact that we are Christians.
If we follow Christ, resolve to be Christians from the deepest depths of our lives, and go fishing again without giving up, we are sure to reap great rewards. But the rewards cannot be measured in quantity. Today’s Gospel tells us that when they cast their nets again, they got a “big catch.” But this is a symbolic expression. Even if are only able to invite one person to the church over the course of our lifetime, if that person comes into contact with the Lord Jesus in the deepest part of their life, is filled with the joy of being loved by God, and rises up and begins to live again, then our hearts, sharing in that beginning of life, will be filled with the joy of a “big catch” that will make us soar. Today’s Gospel, the countless fish jumping up in the net, and the trembling feeling that the disciples felt from the net, all symbolize this. Let us remember that the joy of Christ/God was also the joy of finding a lost sheep and bringing it back to the flock.