Post by M.R. Hagerty on Mar 17, 2023 22:06:01 GMT -7
Matthew 4:17-18; Luke 5:1-11
17 From that time Jesus began to preach and say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
18 Now as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 19 And He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed Him. 21 Going on from there He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and He called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him. (Matthew 4:12-22)
1 Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret; 2 and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. 3 And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the people from the boat.
4 When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." 5 Simon answered and said, "Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets." 6 When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; 7 so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink.
8 But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet, saying, "Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!" 9 For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken; 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.
And Jesus said to Simon, "Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men." 11 When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him. (Luke 5:1-11)
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Commentary
Matthew 4:17-19
17 From that time Jesus began to preach and say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
This is John’s preparatory message and Jesus picks it up also. This is not because He owes this to John, but because both men were caught up in what God was now doing. He was inaugurating the Kingdom of God as now being present and at hand.
We cannot minimize this emphasis or rationalize it into just another term for the new life of God in the hearts of men. The Kingdom here means the one Daniel prophesied – the Kingdom that was to come and crush all those preceding it. This means that in this announcement, something linked to Daniel is meant. We are confused by this because we do not see Jesus accomplishing any of this in His first advent. He also deliberately closed the book of Isaiah so as to highlight His peaceful mission only.
But this does not undermine His offer of the Kingdom to the Jews as their Messiah in accordance with Daniel. The offer is not verbalized, except in the simple presentation of Him as their Messiah. The Kingdom is being offered in the act of offering Himself as their King. They must accept Him as King for the Kingdom to become physical fact. This they reject. And the result is that the political and physical aspects of this Kingdom are postponed to His Second Coming. You will note that Jesus leaves off preaching about the Kingdom of Heaven being at hand when opposition to His offer is entrenched beyond hope.
18 Now as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon . . and Andrew his brother . . 19 "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men."
This seems a bit disjointed since Simon and Andrew have been traveling with Jesus since their meeting back in Perea where Jesus also picked up Philip and Nathaniel. Some time has transpired after Jesus’ arrival in Capernaum. Matthew’s Gospel is an independent account, so he introduces Simon and Andrew in this manner. But as we have seen, John’s account shows clearly that this was not their first meeting with Him.
Simon, now being in Capernaum, has had time to return to his fishing trade, and Andrew is with him, having left behind his period with the Baptist.
“Follow Me”- Again, we are puzzled at this calling so late in the order of events, since they had been following Him from Perea to Galilee, then to Jerusalem, to Sychar, and again into Galilee. This is not explained merely by Matthew’s account being separate from John’s, because it is a quote of Jesus that must be coordinated with the information in John’s gospel.
Jesus is here calling them away from their trade for permanent, full-time ministry. As to the contradiction of having already “followed” up to this point, they were essentially on a brief diversion with Him, but had by no means abandoned their trades or made arrangements to transfer their duties permanently to someone else. (Simon is said to be from Bethsaida, but he had boats also in Capernaum.)
“fishers of men”- Jesus chooses a figure with which they can all relate. We can’t press the analogy too far. They are not to catch men for food - there is no parallel here to ensnaring prey. But they will cast their nets, and they will learn its related “trade.” But the catch will be men not fish.
But even here, they did not immediately follow. Perhaps some additional time was needed to make arrangements. We conclude this because there is another call to follow a bit later which states that they immediately did so; and there is the intervening event we see next of Jesus teaching from Simon’s boat and the miraculous draught of fish.
Luke 5:1-11
1 Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him . . 3 He got into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the people from the boat.
Gennesaret is another name for the Sea of Galilee. “Now it happened that” is a phrase that introduces the element of a time gap. Some unknown interval has transpired from his calling the disciples and the events that follow here. While Jesus continued to teach in and around the shoreline, his notoriety was so widespread that he had become the focus of anyone needing miracles and healing.
“the crowd was pressing around Him.”
We have to keep in mind that people were largely without any health care. They were wholly deprived of the kinds of treatment and medications we have today. Ailments went largely untreated. People suffered immeasurably from things we normally treat off the shelf at a drug store. So when someone came along who could cure by his touch, the crowds weren’t merely exuberant welcoming committees, but terribly desperate people fierce to touch Him in the hope of transferring to themselves some lasting relief from all their miseries.
To extricate Himself from them, Jesus asks Simon to take Him out in his boat. Luke mentions that the fishermen had gotten out and were mending their nets. Whether Simon was still among them or these were the men who were now working Simon’s trade on his behalf, Simon himself takes personal command of his boat and rows Jesus out just enough to quiet the people and permit an atmosphere of teaching.
4 . . "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." . . 5 "Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing . . 6 they enclosed a great quantity of fish, . . .8 "Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!" For amazement had seized him and all his companions . . .10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.
After the teaching, Jesus bids them go out for a catch (the other disciples were obviously present.) This was not a matter of exercising their trade but to teach them more about who He was.
The miraculous draught had a profound and humbling effect on Simon. ”Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man. In the presence of someone with this much power, Simon came abruptly face to face with his own unworthiness. It was an overwhelming awareness of who Jesus was and that he did not deserve to be in His presence. As Christians we can easily relate. If Jesus were to appear in our homes, we would be instantly reminded of how we have lived our lives, the sins in which we now stumble and our unworthiness before our Lord and Savior.
Simon cannot bear the gaze of his Lord, for he knows himself, his attitudes and his own sins. We also have here the introduction of James and John, the sons of Zebedee. So the party of the disciples numbers six: Simon, Andrew, Philip, Nathaniel, James and John.
10 . . And Jesus said to Simon, "Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men." When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.
That they immediately left their nets has rational sense only if they were prepared and ready to do so. This can only mean prior contact with Jesus, prior preparation that there would be such a call. The notion that many have held in ignorance – that at their first encountering of Jesus they abruptly abandoned their whole livelihood and followed him - is against common sense. This then is their effective call to ministry, the one that sets them permanently on a new road.