Luke 5:1-16

The Progression

Where I come from when you say that someone is “in deep water” you mean that they are in trouble. Usually the idea is that they can’t swim and they are now in deep enough that they can’t walk on the bottom either.

Jesus started by asking Peter to let Him aboard and put out a little from the shore. There was a crowd and this was a brilliant solution to crowd control. Furthermore, the surface of water conducts sound wonderfully. It was a small request which is how God starts out with us. Once God finds us willing in small things He often asks for something bigger.

And so we find Jesus telling Peter to put out into the deep water. Peter could likely swim but he still didn’t relish the thought of going out into deep water. He had been up all night out in the deep water and had absolutely nothing to show for it except fatigue.

But Jesus didn’t just say, “Put out into the deep.” He also said to let down the nets for a catch. Bless him, Peter only did it because Jesus said to. He would learn that there is no better reason in the entire universe. Of course there was a remarkable catch of fish. When you go where God says and do what God says to do those sort of things tend to happen.

But it didn’t stop there. Peter and the others were overwhelmed and even afraid. Jesus told them to not be afraid. From now on they were to “catch men.” What does that mean? It meant more than any of them could imagine.

So here is the progression we see. Jesus asks an easy thing and Peter says, “Yes.” Jesus asks a harder thing that Peter could do and Peter says, “Yes,” with a resulting fruitfulness. Jesus tells Peter that next he will do something that Peter can’t even imagine with a fruitfulness beyond his wildest imagination. That was the progression then. That is the progression now.