Luke 5:1-11; 2 Cor 1: 21-2:4; Col 1:13-23; Isaiah 11:1-9
The prophet Isaiah was given, many centuries before the coming of the God-Man, insight into a time that God had appointed, when the Messiah would guide God’s people in wisdom and righteousness. Speaking of that hope, and helping the Jewish people to anticipate it more clearly, he wrote this:
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.
And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist, and faithfulness the girdle of his loins.
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall feed; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The sucking child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. (Isa 11:1-9 RSV)
The Messiah to come would not judge by appearances, but with righteousness, justice for everyone, and wisdom. At his coming, those who were enemies would be reconciled, and the whole earth would be “full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” I believe that this is the one of the Scriptures that echoed in the minds of those whom Christ called to be his disciples, and perhaps that Jesus himself even quoted to them as he taught them. No doubt it is one of the passages that Jesus used when he taught the two on Emmaus and the disciples in the upper room that all Scripture witnessed to him. And its words are wonderfully fulfilled that morning when Peter brought Jesus into his boat, heard his teaching, and witnessed the amazing truth that the LORD knew what was under the sea, that very sea that he had created. We Orthodox hear about that event on this Sunday, the First Sunday of Luke, as we read one of the first stories of Jesus in his adult ministry, as he introduces himself to the fishermen on the lake. He uses Simon Peter’s boat as a kind of moveable pulpit, teaching the people from the water. And then, he accompanies the fishermen into the deeps, remarkably helping them to be successful as they let down their nets:
At that time, Jesus was standing by the lake of Gennesaret. And He saw two boats by the lake; but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, Jesus asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when Jesus had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at Thy word I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a great shoal of fish; and as their nets were breaking, they beckoned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the catch of fish, which they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men.” And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him. (Luke 5:1-11)
They were astonished! Indeed, Jesus tells them not to be afraid, so their astonishment must have verged on awe. They have just witnessed the one of whom Isaiah had spoken, that One “upon whom the Spirit of the LORD was resting, who exhibited the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.” It is no wonder that Peter was afraid, for that One was wholly righteous, and saw clean through to the heart. As Isaiah had warned, “He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear…and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.” The wisdom and understanding of Jesus have been evident in his teaching of the crowd; his ability to see (literally!) beyond the surface of things has been evident in his instructions to the fishermen as to where to let down their nets. If he can teach like that, and see the fish in the deeps, then no doubt he can see into Peter’s heart. No wonder that Peter remarks, “Get away from me, for I am a sinful man!” He knows full well what utter truth and righteousness does to lies and sinfulness.
But there is something that he does not know. He does not know how it is that this Righteous One will bring about reconciliation between enemies. Nor does he know the extent of that reconciliation, even though he may have known of the extravagant language that the prophet Isaiah used to describe it:
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall feed; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The sucking child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
Why, after all, was it that the wolf preyed upon the lamb, that the kid was afraid of the leopard, that the calf, lion and little child could not keep company together? Why was it that snakes bit the hand of a human being, the one whom God himself had set in authority over the animal world? Why hurt? Why destruction? Why ignorance of the righteous and loving Lord, who had created earth and sea? That, Peter and the other disciples knew, for in synagogue they would have heard the Torah read out, with its sad story of the rebellion of our first parents. And many young Jewish boys, though they worked with their hands, had been educated to read the Torah, so it is possible that their understanding was from personal contact, and not just from hearing. We just don’t know how literally we should take the amazement of the elite scribes and priests who later hear the words of the fishermen, made “most wise” by the Holy Spirit on Pentecost: “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they wondered; and they recognized that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). But whether or not Caiaphas and the others were surprised because these fishermen had no education at all, or simply not a higher education like themselves, one thing is for certain. They knew, both from Torah and from their own experience, of the sinfulness of human beings. And they knew that that sinfulness made them the enemies of God.
The problem was, of course, that they did not know the reverse wasn’t true. God was not their enemy. For alongside warnings of judgment, and even within the human condition of tragedy and death, God had not abandoned his people. He remembered his words spoken over humanity on that first week of creation: “It is very good!” God’s words are irrevocable. And so, he had entered into the human situation himself. How could they have known it? The Messiah was not simply delegated by God, he was himself the God-Man, the utterly righteous One, the One who created lion, lamb, leopard, kid, and even the serpent! And here He was, though Peter didn’t know it, hiding most of His glory, in a fishing boat. The teaching, the sign of his keen eyesight, were only the beginning of His mighty acts. For not only was He coming to humanity by sitting close to them on the water—the sign of chaos. He had been plunged into that water by the hand of his cousin, John, a sign of His great baptism of death that was to come. He was entering in the most intimate manner possible into our human world—“even to the point of death on a cross” (Phil. 2:5-11).
That is, after all, how the reconciliation would be made. Peter and John, and the whole company of fishermen would be joined by others, including the astute Pharisee, Saul, who would come to be known by his Roman name, Paul, as he worked among GENTILES. He would teach the deep meaning of the cross, that cross whose exaltation we celebrated last week! What Jesus did on that cross not only made for peace between God and humanity—it reconciled US to God—but it also meant peace between Jew and Gentile. Paul sings a great hymn of glory concerning this, rejoicing in all that the God-Man accomplished:
He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation;
for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities — all things were created through him and for him.He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in everything he might be pre-eminent.
For in him all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.And you [Gentiles], who once were estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him, provided that you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which has been preached to every creature under heaven. (Col 1:13-23 RSV)
St. Paul speaks of the us—all of us human beings, who were in the dominion of darkness. He also speaks of the you—specifically the Gentiles, who did not know God’s will, and who acted in every respect against the holy God. Both Jew and Gentile have been brought to God, and brought together by the One who showed forth “the fullness of God” from all eternity. He made peace by the cross, and was working to present to the Father all his new children, made “holy and blameless and irreproachable.” The God-Man, the first over creation and the first over the Church, was in the very midst of the disciples, beginning this great work of fishing in the deep darkness for human beings, bringing them into God’s net. Peter could not have possibly understood all this, for he had not yet seen all that Jesus would do, let alone Good Friday and Pascha. But Jesus comforted him: Do not be afraid! You will join me in this great expedition.
Yes, Peter is a sinful man; but St. Peter will be made holy, righteous, and full himself of the Spirit of God. Indeed, by his very death he will demonstrate his identification with the God-Man, who has fished him first, and who will use him to bring in others. As we sing on Pentecost, “Blessed art Thou, O Christ our God, Who hast revealed the fishermen as most wise by sending down upon them the Holy Spirit – through them Thou didst draw the world into Thy net. O Lover of Man, glory to Thee!”And how is it that the fishermen became “most wise”—by being with Jesus, and by receiving his gifts. The gifts of teaching, of the cross, of the resurrection, of the ascension into glory, and of Pentecost. This Teacher and Messiah is far more, they will discover. He is the Reconciler of all things, the God who brings light into darkness, the One who grants victory to those who have fallen. Because of all these wonders, we can sing, even beyond the season of Holy Cross: “O Lord, save Thy people, and bless Thine inheritance. Grant victories to the Orthodox Christians over their adversaries; and by virtue of Thy Cross, preserve Thy habitation.”
But one of our adversaries is an internal one: the tendency we have as human beings to lapse back into sin and disunity, to even destroy the habitation that God is preserving. This may be unthinkable, but it was certainly foreseen by God himself, who gives us wisdom in knowing what to do about our proneness to wander. St. Paul teaches us about this danger, and shows how he dealt with it in his communion with the Corinthian church. In our verse before the epistle for this Sunday, we hear this cry, “Thou, O Lord, shalt keep and preserve us. Save me, O Lord, for the godly man is no more.” No doubt St. Paul had this heart-cry as he struggled with his children, the Corinthians, to put aside their rancor and pride, and to come to full unity. But he knew that the Lord would preserve them and him, for they were His body:
Brethren, it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has commissioned us; He has put his seal upon us and given us His Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. But I call God to witness against me—it was to spare you that I refrained from coming to Corinth. Not that we lord it over your faith; we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith. For I made up my mind not to make you another painful visit. For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained? And I wrote as I did, so that when I came I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice, for I felt sure of all of you, that my joy would be the joy of you all. For I wrote you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you. (2 Cor. 1:21-2:4)
When there is discord in the Church, we may be tempted to think that Christ has done all his work in vain. We may be tempted to doubt the power of the cross. We may forget the wonder of Easter, the Ascension. We may think that Pentecost is a great story for the past, but wonder about its long-term power for us. This is nothing new. Obviously there is great stress here in St. Paul’s words to his people. He is weeping for them, and has actually delayed visiting so that he would not have to speak harsh words about what they have been doing. But he holds on to his commission by the Lord, and the fact that God has established them with him. They have been seduced by enemies of St. Paul who claim to be wise, but who are arrogant, and in fact in league with Satan. They have been compromised by their own pride, as they have given in to divisions and in-fighting, and almost forgotten the humility of the One who died for them. But St. Paul does not despair. He calls them back to the place where they began—back to the cross, and to what it shows about Who God is, and Who they are called to be. When there is discord in the Church, we go back to the beginning, and remember the One who has reconciled all things. We do this every Sunday, in the Eucharist. We see again the “true light” and remember that the Church has received the heavenly Spirit. And, when all is said, done, and sung, we call on God to keep us in His holiness, so that all the day we may meditate upon His righteousness.
God has given to us, in Himself, everything necessary for holiness and godliness. He has called us to himself, and gathered us in. And He will not stop working through the Holy Spirit among us until Isaiah’s prophecy is wholly fulfilled: “They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” When we are tempted to doubt, let us turn our eyes to Him, and remember his promises!
Edith M. Humphrey 