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‘Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.’
Luk_5:10
I. The function of miracle.—What this true function of miracle is may best be gathered from John’s comment on the first miracle at Cana of Galilee (Joh_2:11). By it ‘He manifested forth His glory, and His disciples believed on Him.’ Various words are used in the Gospel narratives to describe miracles. The simplest, and perhaps least significant, is the word which we render ‘wonder.’ The second is a word denoting properly a ‘power’ at work. The third is the word ‘sign.’ Of what is miracle a sign? The answer is clear. It is a sign of the manifest intervention of a superhuman will and purpose in the realms of nature and of humanity, working in the one absolutely, in the other with the concurrence through faith of the wills of those on whom it works. As such, it is intended further to call the world’s attention to the character and mission of Him Who works it, and to incline men to listen reverently to His Word, and bow to His authority. Its function is thus simply preparatory.
II. The symbolic meaning of this particular miracle.—The key to that meaning is given by His charge to the Apostles to be ‘fishers of men,’ and by His parable (see Mat_13:47-50), which likens the Kingdom of Heaven to a ‘draw-net cast into the sea.’ In all points of the narrative we trace the ever-recurring experience of the Church of Christ, especially in the apostolic age, but also at all great epochs of progress and revival.
His messengers are to be earnest and faithful ‘fishers of men.’
Bishop Barry.
FISHERS OF MEN
I. The presence of Christ ensures success.—The net enclosed a great multitude of fishes. We can wash the Gospel nets. We can mend the Gospel nets. We can let down those nets into the seething sea of human life; but without the Spirit of Christ we cannot save, or help, or comfort a single soul.
II. St. Peter’s astonishment.—St. Peter did not mean ‘depart,’ and Christ knew it. There were two causes for St. Peter’s astonishment. He saw the glory of his Lord; he felt the sinfulness of his own heart. Such an experimental acquaintance, both with Christ and with self, is necessary to the salvation of any man.
III. The Lord’s gracious promise.—The Greek is, ‘Thou shalt take men alive.’ Fish are caught for death, for food; men are to be caught for life. Every true minister of the Gospel can look his people in the face and say, ‘I seek not yours, but you.’ The real object of the preaching of the Gospel is a gathering of souls unto God; that men may be brought out by grace from lives of self-pleasing and self-indulgence, and led to consecrate themselves to Christ as their only Lord and Master.
—
Rev. F. Harper.
Illustration‘There was a circumstance connected with the miracle that St. Peter had witnessed, which was especially to be attended to in connection with his future ministry. The general life of a fisherman was no doubt toilsome and hard; but it was also upon the whole successful. Christ chose a moment in St. Peter’s life for the enforcing of the great lesson which He desired to teach when the labour had been peculiarly unsuccessful; they had toiled all night and had taken nothing, and it was after this night of fruitless effort that Christ joined the party and bid them once more cast out their nets. It was not, therefore, the general success of their occupation that made Christ choose the life of fishermen as the type of the life of His Apostles; He would not represent the work to which he called Peter and James and John as an ordinary work, which they had only to go about as they would about any other work in order to ensure success; he rather took the fishermen at a moment when their human sagacity and skill had failed them, and when they had given up their endeavours for the time as useless, in order to show them that the mainspring of their success in their future work was to be, not confidence in their own skill, but faith in Himself. Moreover, the personal presence of Christ could very much strengthen the lesson.’
THE MINISTERS CALLING
I. The sea.—The sea, in which the catcher of men plies his benevolent vocation, is the world of human society. In its vastness, in its vicissitudes, in its uncertainties, in its dangers, this world of humanity is as a great ocean, both inviting and yet often repelling the toil of the toiler.
II. The fish.—The fish which are sought in this sea are human souls. As the disciples, in exercising their calling, sometimes toiled all night and caught nothing, because the fish were wary or were elsewhere, so we are reminded, by the figurative language of the text, that it is a hard, laborious, unpromising task in which the preachers of the Gospel are engaged. Toil is often followed by disappointment and discouragement.
III. The net.—The net which is cast into this sea is the Gospel—an instrument devised by Divine wisdom, and adapted to enclose souls of every kind. Without the net the fisherman is helpless; with the net he is Divinely equipped.
IV. Things which make for success.—The qualities of the successful fisherman are to be imitated by the faithful minister of Jesus Christ. Skill, assiduity, patience, perseverance, with the blessing of God, may effect great wonders.
V. The result.—The catching of the fish may represent the bringing souls within the sacred and secure environment of the Church, and the landing of them may picture the leading them to heavenly felicity. The Christian minister is only satisfied and rewarded when those who are far from God are brought nigh, are made partakers of eternal salvation.
Illustration
‘This miracle had a twofold object. It was intended to produce an immediate effect upon their minds, to deepen their faith in a Master Who had called them, and to set forth His power, His watchfulness, His love. But still more it was intended to take effect in the future; it was emphatically a prophetic miracle, it was to be looked back to and to yield inexhaustible comfort again and again, amid the heavy cares and discouraging tasks of the years to come, when the Gospel net had been finally put into their hands, and they had become fishers of men. How many a time when that net has been cast and drawn to the shore by weary arms and found empty—how many a time the memory of this scene has revived the sinking hearts of workers for Christ! The great triumphs of the Gospel of Christ have often been like the miraculous draught of fishes—overpowering surprises after periods of stagnation. The success has been perilous from its very magnitude, and the suddenness of its demand upon the strength and skill of those who had to reap it.’