Before you read
- Who is speaking?
- Jesus, early in his ministry in Galilee, teaching crowds by the lake of Genesareth.
- Who is listening?
- Fishermen washing their nets, crowds, a man with leprosy, Pharisees and teachers of the law, and a tax collector at his booth.
- What should I watch for?
- Who Jesus calls. Each scene brings someone the religious world kept at a distance — a sinful fisherman, a leper, a paralysed man, a publican — close to him.
Tap a verse to understand it.
The catch and the call of Simon1And it came to pass, that when the multitudes pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Genesareth, 2And saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets. 3And going into one of the ships that was Simon's, he desired him to draw back a little from the land. And sitting he taught the multitudes out of the ship. 4Now when he had ceased to speak, he said to Simon: Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. 5And Simon answering said to him: Master, we have labored all the night, and have taken nothing: but at thy word I will let down the net. 6And when they had done this, they enclosed a very great multitude of fishes, and their net broke. 7And they beckoned to their partners that were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they were almost sinking. 8Which when Simon Peter saw, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying: Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. 9For he was wholly astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken. 10And so were also James and John the sons of Zebedee, who were Simon's partners. And Jesus saith to Simon: Fear not: from henceforth thou shalt catch men. 11And having brought their ships to land, leaving all things, they followed him.
Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition · Public Domain
After you read
What just happened?
After a night of catching nothing, Simon lets down his nets again at Jesus' word and the catch nearly sinks two boats. Simon falls at Jesus' knees and calls himself a sinful man; Jesus tells him that from now on he will catch men, and Simon, James and John leave everything. Jesus then touches and cleanses a leper, forgives and heals a paralysed man let down through a roof, calls Levi the tax collector and eats at his feast, and answers a question about fasting with images of new cloth and new wine.
Key idea
Jesus calls sinners, not the already-perfect — and the one who can heal the body also claims the authority to forgive sins.
Bible Lens
Look at Luke 5 through…
The heart of it in plain words
Explanation (AI-assisted)
Jesus finds people where they are — at work, sick, stuck, despised — and calls them to come close. Peter's first reaction is to ask Jesus to go away because he feels unworthy; Jesus' answer is to give him a mission.
People you met
- Simon (Peter) — Tired fisherman who obeys, then falls at Jesus' knees
- James and John — Sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners
- A man full of leprosy — Asks to be made clean — if Jesus wills it
- The paralysed man and his friends — Carried through the roof by people who would not give up
- Pharisees and doctors of the law — Ask who can forgive sins but God alone
- Levi — A tax collector who leaves everything; identified with Matthew (Matthew 9:9)
Places
- Lake of Genesareth — Luke's name for the Sea of Galilee
- A house with a roof of tiles — Mark places the healing of the paralysed man in Capernaum (Mark 2:1)
- The tax booth — Where Levi sat collecting customs
Symbols
- The nets at Jesus' word — Mission begins in obedience, not in success
- Catching men — The fishermen's work becomes the work of bringing people to God
- The touch of the leper — Jesus is not made unclean; the unclean is made clean
- New wine — The newness Jesus brings cannot simply be patched onto old habits
Words to understand
- Launch out into the deep
- Put out into deep water — the place where, by the fishermen's experience, it made no sense to fish by day.
- Leprosy
- In the Bible a range of skin diseases that made a person ritually unclean and cut off from the community (Leviticus 13–14), not only what is called leprosy today.
- Son of man
- Jesus' favourite way of naming himself; it echoes the heavenly figure of Daniel 7:13–14.
- Publican
- A tax or toll collector — despised as a collaborator and often as a cheat.
- Children of the bridegroom
- The wedding guests: while the bridegroom is present, it is a time for feasting, not fasting.
Connections to other Scripture
- John 21:1–14A second miraculous catch, after the Resurrection
- Isaiah 6:1–8Isaiah, too, felt unworthy in God's presence, and was sent
- Leviticus 14:1–32The offering for a cleansed leper that Jesus sends him to make
- Mark 2:1–12Mark's telling of the paralysed man let through the roof
- Matthew 9:9–13The call of Matthew at the tax booth
One question to think about
When has Jesus asked you to try again in exactly the place where you had already failed?
Awaiting theological review