26  Characteristics of  Jesus’ Divinity  (Luke 5:1–11)

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; 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. 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. When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” 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.” When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; 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. 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!” For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of 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 fear, from now on you will be catching men.” When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him. (5:1–11)

The last few centuries have seen an enormous number of books written about the Lord Jesus Christ. The nineteenth century quest for the “historical Jesus” saw countless explanations written about Jesus. Most were generated from a rationalistic, naturalistic perspective, in a purported attempt to get behind the fantasy biblical “Christ of faith” to the nondivine, nonsupernatural real “Jesus of history.” Their authors’ antisupernatural presuppositions controlled their research, as I. Howard Marshall notes:

It should come as no surprise that those who began with an antisupernatural bias wound up with a nonsupernatural Jesus. Marshall goes on to note that

Albert Schweitzer’s famous book, The Quest of the Historical Jesus, written early in the twentieth century, chronicled the nineteenth-century quest for the “historical Jesus” and pronounced all such efforts futile. (Ironically, he then proceeded to set forth his own skeptical, non-biblical interpretation of Christ’s life.) But the twentieth century would produce its own aberrant views of Jesus. The influential German New Testament critic Rudolf Bultmann was noted for his “demythologizing” approach to the New Testament. As a result, “for Bultmann nothing survived of the deeds Jesus and very little of his teaching” (Marshall, I Believe, 126). The so-called “new quest for the historical Jesus” in the post-World War 2 era concluded, like the old nineteenth-century one, that little, if anything, could be known about the life of Christ. The closing decades of the twentieth century saw the rise of the Jesus Seminar, whose members also reinvented Jesus to fit their Scripture-rejecting, anti-supernatural bias. They even had the audacity to arrogate to themselves the right to vote on which sayings of His were authentic. (For a defense of the historical reliability of the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry, see Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998]; for a scholarly critique of critical approaches to the Gospels, see Robert L. Thomas and F. David Farnell, The Jesus Crisis (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1998.)

But all such skeptical efforts to find the “real” Jesus are doomed to fail, because they do not look for Him in the only place where He can be found—the divinely inspired, inerrant historical record of His life and ministry in the New Testament Gospels. To deny the truthfulness of the Gospels and then attempt to construct a life of Jesus is both futile and absurdly hypocritical.

Luke is the lengthiest of the four Gospels, but the reader does not have to work through the entire book for the truth concerning the Lord Jesus Christ to become evident. The real Jesus is unmistakably revealed in every section of Luke, and no more so than in this passage. Its eleven verses portray Him as fully human; He acted and talked like a man, and was accepted as one by the people around Him. Yet these same verses reveal that He is more than a mere man. The profound incident in His life presented here reveals clearly His essential nature as God. As this story of a fishing incident on the Sea of Galilee unfolds, five of Jesus’ divine attributes are manifested. He is the source of truth, omniscient, omnipotent, holy, and merciful.

JESUS IS THE SOURCE OF TRUTH

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; 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. 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. (5:1–3)

The phrase now it happened indicates that an indefinite amount of time had passed since the events recorded in 4:38–44. The Lord was still in Galilee, preaching (v. 44), healing, and casting out demons (vv. 40–41), which, understandably, resulted in large crowds following Him (v. 42; cf. v. 14; 5:15; 6:17; 7:11–12, 24; 8:4, 42, 45; 9:11, 37; 11:14, 29; 12:1, 54; 14:25. Writing later in the first century, the Jewish historian Josephus estimated the population of Galilee at about three million, which allows for the vast size of the crowds that followed Jesus.). In a day when no media existed, gifted communicators drew huge crowds, and Jesus was obviously unparalleled (John 7:46).

On this occasion, the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God as He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret. The lake, more commonly known as the Sea of Galilee (the Old Testament refers to it as the Sea of Chinnereth [Num. 34:11; Josh. 13:27] or Chinneroth [Josh. 12:3], and the apostle John calls it the Sea of Tiberias [John 6:1; 21:1], the name by which it was known when he wrote), is a large (approximately thirteen miles wide by seven miles long) freshwater lake (nearly 700 feet below sea level) that is the dominant geographical feature of the entire region of Galilee. The name Gennesaret derives from the fertile plain of that name to the northwest of the lake. The primary source of water for the Sea of Galilee is the Jordan River, which arises from several sources near Mount Hermon (9,200 feet above sea level) and flows into the lake from the north. The enlarged Jordan River exits the southern end of the lake, and flows south into the Dead Sea.

On this as on other occasions (Mark 3:9; 4:1), the eager crowds surged around Jesus, pushing Him toward the water’s edge. What captured their attention was Jesus’ preaching of the word of God (and surely the anticipation of miracles). That term is not here a synonym for the Bible as it commonly is in Christian circles today. The phrase of God is a subjective genitive in the Greek, indicating source; the people were listening to Jesus speak the word that came directly from God. When Jesus spoke, they literally heard God speaking. The subject was the good news of salvation; the truth about entering the kingdom of God. It was the glorious truth that the spiritually poor could be made rich; the spiritual prisoners set free; the spiritually blind given sight; and the spiritually oppressed delivered from their bondage (cf. the exposition of 4:18 in chapter 23 of this volume). It was the good news of forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life. “Truly, truly, I say to you,” Jesus declared, “he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” (John 5:24).

Jesus’ teaching and preaching was strikingly different than that of the rabbis, whose authority was connected to quoting other rabbis. But Jesus, being God, spoke the long-awaited divine revelation of the kingdom, which could be entered through faith in Him. Jesus did not speak as an Old Testament scholar or as a theologian. What He spoke was not philosophical speculation or rabbinic tradition; it was the voice of God. Jesus was the Son of God; God in human flesh (see the exposition of 2:49 in chapter 16 of this volume), and when He spoke He spoke with personal divine authority (Matt. 7:29; Mark 1:27).

Jesus is truth incarnate, since God is true (Ps. 31:5; Isa. 65:16). His word is an expression of His truth (Ps. 138:2). In John 14:6, Jesus de clared, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” Earlier in his gospel the apostle John wrote of Him, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth…. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ” (1:14, 17).

Jesus repeatedly taught that He had been sent by God and thus spoke the truth. In John 7:16, He “answered [the Jewish religious leaders] and said, ‘My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me.’” Later “Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free’” (John 8:31–32). “Because I speak the truth,” He told the Jewish leaders, “you do not believe Me. Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me?” (John 8:45–46). In John 12:49–50, Jesus again affirmed that He spoke exactly as the Father commanded Him: “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.”

Being pressed against the water on that crowded shore, Jesus saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake. These were fishing boats, not small rowboats. They were large enough to hold Jesus and the twelve disciples (Matt. 8:23–24; 14:22–33; Mark 6:31–32; 8:10; cf. John 21:2–3 where seven of the disciples were in a boat). These particular boats were beached or anchored to the shore, and the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets in preparation for the next night’s fishing. Fishing on the Sea of Galilee was generally done at night, and the fishermen washed and repaired their nets and worked on their boats and equipment during the day.

To create some space between Himself and the crowd that was shoving and jostling for position around Him, Jesus got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s (the other may have belonged to James and John; cf. v. 10). The Lord’s decision to enter that particular boat was not a random one; Jesus did nothing without a purpose. The time had come for Him to move not only into Peter’s boat, but more intensely into his life, along with the other two who would become His inner circle, James and John, to lift them to the highest level of commitment.

Since the Lord had first encountered Peter (John 1:41–42) when his brother Andrew brought Peter to Him they, along with John (the unnamed second disciple of John the Baptist referred to in v. 35), began their initial voluntary interest in following Jesus as the Messiah. The Lord’s first actual calling of Peter, along with Andrew, James, and John (Matt. 4:18–22; Mark 1:16–20), drew them in as men chosen by the Lord to be followers of Him. In this passage, Luke alone records their final call, when they abandoned their fishing business and became permanent, full-time disciples of Jesus. The Lord targeted Peter in particular, since he would be the recognized leader of the Twelve (his name is first on all four New Testament lists of the apostles) and have a great influence on the rest (cf. John 21:3).

After entering Peter’s boat, Jesus asked him to put out a little way from the land. Being on the water freed Jesus from being jostled by the crowd, allowed the people to see Him better, and may have provided better acoustics, since the flat, calm surface of the lake would to some extent amplify the sound of His voice. After the boat was moved a short distance from the shore and anchored in place, Jesus sat down (as rabbis traditionally did when teaching; cf. 4:20; Matt. 5:1; 13:1; John 8:2) and began teaching the people from the boat (cf. Matt. 13:2). No matter what the exigencies or difficulties, Jesus would not be deterred from preaching the Word of God, which the Father had sent Him to do (4:43; Mark 1:38).

JESUS IS OMNISCIENT

When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” 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.” When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, (5:4–6a)

The challenge always facing fishermen is finding the fish. Even experienced fishermen, using the latest fish-finding sonar, often come up empty. The Lord Jesus Christ, however, knew exactly where the fish were. As the One who created everything (John 1:3; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2), He has an exhaustive knowledge of all creatures—even to the point of knowing when a sparrow falls to the ground (Matt. 10:29)—since “there is no creature hidden from His sight” (Heb. 4:13). As the story unfolds, Jesus’ omniscience becomes evident.

When He had finished speaking to the crowd, Jesus said to Simon (the verb is a second person singular), “Put out into the deep water and then said to the entire crew let down (this verb is a second personal plural) your nets for a catch.” The nets were not the small ones used by individuals fishing from the shore or in shallow water (cf. Matt. 4:18) but large nets similar to modern seines, and used for fishing in the deeper water of the lake.

Perhaps surprised that a carpenter would presume to tell experienced fisherman how to fish, Simon answered the Lord and said, “Master (epistatēs; “chief,” “commander;” a respectful title for one in authority, but not an affirmation of deity), we worked hard all night (when, as noted above, fishing was usually done) and caught nothing.” Why then should He expect them to catch fish in the middle of the day? Besides, letting down the large nets and hauling them in was hard work. But then again, this was no ordinary carpenter, but one who had healed his mother-in-law, so Peter added, “but I will do as You say and let down the nets.”

If Jesus’ command surprised them, the result utterly dumbfounded them. When they had let down the nets, much to their amazement they enclosed a great quantity of fish. Nothing in their experience could have prepared them for such an unheard of catch in the middle of the day. But the omniscient Savior knew exactly where the fish were. Later He would tell Peter where to find one specific fish with a specific coin in its mouth (Matt. 17:27). And after His resurrection, the Lord would once again tell Peter and his companions where to let down their nets for a huge catch of fish (John 21:1–6).

Knowing where the fish in the Sea of Galilee were is merely one demonstration of Jesus’ omniscience. He described exactly the man who would lead Peter and John to the upper room where they would celebrate the Last Supper (Luke 22:8–12). His supernatural knowledge of Nathanael’s whereabouts (John 1:47–48) led Nathanael to exclaim, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel” (v. 49). He was not deceived by the shallow, superficial, nonsaving professions of faith on the part of some, because “He Himself knew what was in man” (John 2:25). He “knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him” (John 6:64). Christ’s omniscience was convincing proof of His deity, and caused the disciples to say, “Now we know that You know all things, and have no need for anyone to question You; by this we believe that You came from God” (John 16:30; cf. 21:17). Those times when Jesus voluntarily restricted His omniscience (e.g., Matt. 24:36; Mark 11:13; Luke 8:45–46) are consistent with His submission to the Father during His incarnation (cf. the discussion of 3:22 in chapter 20 of this volume).

JESUS IS OMNIPOTENT

and their nets began to break; 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. (5:66–7)

That He knew the location of the fish demonstrated Jesus’ omniscience, but the staggering, unprecedented size of the catch revealed His omnipotence. Peter and the others were shocked and amazed at the enormous number of fish, knowing that there was no possible human explanation for it. Nothing like this had ever happened before; no catch had been anywhere near this size. They were witnessing a display of divine power as the Lord gathered together in one location the vast number of fish that were now causing their nets … to break. Frantically, Peter and his crew signaled to their partners in the other boat (v. 7) for them to come and help them. Hurrying to their partners’ assistance, the other boat came alongside Peter’s and working frantically, the crews filled both of the boats. But so enormous was the catch that both boats began to sink under the staggering weight of the fish.

As they knew from the Old Testament, God not only created the world, but also controls it. Nehemiah prayed, “You alone are the Lord. You have made the heavens, the heaven of heavens with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them and the heavenly host bows down before You. You are the Lord God” (Neh. 9:6–7). Extolling the Lord’s sovereign control over His creation the psalmist wrote,

In Isaiah 50:2b, God declared, “Behold, I dry up the sea with My rebuke, I make the rivers a wilderness; their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst.” Even the pagan king Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged God’s sovereign control over all of His creation: “All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’” (Dan. 4:35).

Those shocked, amazed, and frightened (see the exposition of v. 8 below) fishermen knew that they were witnessing confirmation of the truth that “power belongs to God” (Ps. 62:11).

JESUS IS HOLY

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!” For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. (5:8–10a)

The Lord Jesus Christ had just revealed Himself to be the omniscient, omnipotent God of the universe. When Simon Peter saw the evidence of that in the miraculous catch of fish, he was overwhelmed with the realization that he was face-to-face with Holy God. Peter, fully aware that if he saw deity, deity saw him too, and realizing that the One who could see the depths of the lake could see the depths of his heart, felt exposed. He immediately fell down at Jesus’ feet (lit. His knees), saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” No longer did Peter use the respectful term epistatēs as in v. 5, but kurios, by which he means, “God.” As a devout Jew, Peter knew that God alone was to be worshiped (4:8; Deut. 6:13), yet he fell down before Jesus in the posture of a worshiper. The Lord’s masterful teaching in the synagogue, His power to cast out a demon, and heal his mother-in-law, and above all the stunning catch of fish for which there was no human explanation, had brought Peter to the place where Jesus wanted him—to the recognition of his sinfulness. Whatever he may have thought about Jesus before this incident, Peter had no doubt now that He was God, and he recognized his unworthiness to be in the Lord’s presence. Peter’s attitude was like that of the repentant tax collector who, overwhelmed by his sinfulness, “was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’” (Luke 18:13).

Peter’s response of fear and penitence is typical of those in the presence of God. Abraham described himself as “dust and ashes” (Gen. 18:27); Job humbly said, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees You; therefore I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5–6); after encountering the angel of the Lord (the preincarnate Christ) Samson’s father “Manoah said to his wife, ‘We will surely die, for we have seen God’” (Judg. 13:22); when the Israelites “perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain [Mount Sinai] smoking … they trembled and stood at a distance. Then they said to Moses, ‘Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die’” (Ex. 20:18–19); after seeing a vision of God in His heavenly temple, Isaiah cried out in terror, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Isa. 6:5); after he saw a vision of God, Ezekiel fell on his face (Ezek. 1:28); when the apostle John saw the glorified Christ, he “fell at His feet like a dead man” (Rev. 1:17).

The amazement that had seized Peter was shared by all his companions, who were equally overwhelmed by the catch of fish which they had taken. Luke specifically names James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Along with Peter, they would form the inner core group of the apostles. Later, all three would see an even more awe-inspiring revelation of Christ’s divine glory at the transfiguration (Matt. 17:1–6). That incident also traumatized them, and “they fell face down to the ground and were terrified” (v. 6).

JESUS IS MERCIFUL

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. (5:10b–11)

In the terror of the recognition of his sinfulness, Peter wanted to send the Lord away, but Jesus wanted to draw Peter closer. The very point at which the sinner feels the most alienation is the point at which the Savior seeks reconciliation. In Psalm 51:17 David wrote, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” Through the prophet Isaiah God declared, “For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, ‘I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite’” (Isa. 57:15; cf. 66:2). At their moment of deepest alienation when, overwhelmed by their sinfulness, Peter, James, and John sought to flee, Jesus reached out to pull them to Himself. This is the glorious moment of their repentance. He did the same with Isaiah who, in the presence of God, cursed his own sinfulness and deemed himself unworthy to be in the presence of the Holy One. But the Lord sought to cleanse him and use him as His instrument (Isa. 6:5–9).

Seeking to calm and reassure him, Jesus said to Simon, “Do not fear.” There was no need for him and his companions to be terrified. There is a proper, healthy fear of God, expressed for instance in Deuteronomy 13:4: “You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.” That reverential fear is different from the terror of the demons or the sinner, who fears the judgment of God and seeks to flee from His presence (cf. Rev. 6:15–17); it is the fear of love, awe, and adoration that causes the believer to cling to the “Father of mercies” (2 Cor. 1:3) and serve and obey Him (cf. Deut. 10:12–13; 1 Sam. 12:24). The proper fear of the Lord results in wisdom (Ps. 111:10; Prov. 9:10) and worship (Ps. 2:11).

Mercy would take them from cowering in fear to catching men (zōgreō), which literally means, “to capture alive.” They had spent their lives catching fish for the purpose of killing them; now they would spend the rest of their lives catching men to give them life. Isaiah feared he would be destroyed, but instead was called to preach (Isa. 6:8–11). John feared that he would be destroyed, but instead was called to write (Rev. 1:19). Divine grace and mercy moved Peter, James, and John from cringing fear of judgment to evangelizing the lost, laying the groundwork for the great commission.

This was Jesus’ formal and permanent call of these three men to full-time discipleship, so when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him (cf. vv. 27, 28; 9:23, 49, 57, 59, 61; 18:22, 28, 43). At the very pinnacle of their earthly careers, having just made the greatest catch of fish ever seen on that lake, they abandoned their boats, turned their backs on their fishing business, left everything, and followed Jesus (cf. Luke 9:23–25).

Those who recognize their sinful unworthiness and embrace Jesus as the truthful, omniscient, omnipotent, holy, and merciful God are the ones He reconciles to Himself. He forgives their sin, takes away their fear of judgment that sin causes, and commissions them to the great task of evangelization, of catching men alive for the kingdom of God.