Words are powerful. They have the ability to make us think, feel and do all sorts of things. Some words we can ignore, if we don’t like them. You can always walk out of a theatre or close a book or turn the channel on a T.V., if you don’t like the words you’re hearing there. But there are other words that we can’t ignore, words we must listen to and heed, or else there will be consequences. There are words that hurt us and words that heal us, words that express wrath and words that express love. Today’s Gospel text is about the words of Jesus and what they do. Jesus’ words can both kill and give life. He speaks both words of Law and words of Gospel. Sometimes what He says is pleasing to us; at other times He says things that we’d rather not hear or listen to. But His Words we can’t avoid. We might try to shut our ears to them now, but in the end on the Last Day everyone will have to hear Him speak.
But He doesn’t want us to dread that day. He doesn’t want us fearing that we’ll to have to hear His words of judgment and wrath. So, today He speaks different words to us, words that reveal our sinful condition to us, but also words that speak His forgiveness to us. Jesus speaks His words, in order to release us both from the lying words we’ve been fed by the devil as well as those words with which we have deceived ourselves. Jesus speaks His releasing words to us, so that we might be brought into His kingdom, where we can listen to His Words of comfort and peace now and forever.
The first to encounter the Lord’s words in today’s text are the crowds. They were pressing in on Jesus to hear the Word of God. Why they came to hear Him is obvious from what Jesus was doing earlier on: He was healing people of their diseases and casting out demons. No wonder they came to Him from miles around! Many people come to hear Jesus only because of what they want from Him. But if He doesn’t give it to them, then they stop listening to Him. Jesus did indeed heal people of their ailments and rebuked the unclean spirits. But He didn’t heal all the sick people in Israel, and even those whom He did heal eventually got sick again and died. Would people still come to hear Him, even if they didn’t get healed of their sicknesses? Today He doesn’t seem to be miraculously healing anyone, and so the crowds just aren’t flocking to the Church to hear Him. It’s not that Jesus isn’t still in the business of healing people and casting out the devil, however. With His Word He continues to do these things today through the proclamation of the Gospel, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. But because people don’t see His Word at work with their eyes, they aren’t interested in listening to Him. We at one time were guilty of closing our ears to His Word. Even today we often find no time for it. But when the Holy Spirit has His way with us and opens our deaf ears so that we can hear His Word, we too press in on Jesus to hear His Words of forgiveness, comfort, and peace. Here today in this place we are doing just that.
The second group of people to encounter the Lord’s words are Simon Peter and his coworkers. After teaching the crowds, Jesus told Simon to put out into the deep and let down their nets for a catch. Upon hearing this Word, Simon did what the Lord said, but only after expressing his opinion about what Jesus was telling him to do. Peter is an example of those who hear the Lord’s words, but (at least at first) think what He says is ridiculous. What Jesus told Peter to do went against all logic and reason. And Peter made this clear to Jesus: “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing!” - in other words, I doubt it will do any good, as we’ve tried that already and didn’t catch anything. “But at your Word I will let down the nets.” Peter doesn’t even act on faith here. He just does what the Lord says. What could it hurt, after all?
Faith was worked in him, however, once he saw the power of the Lord’s Word in action. In this case, it produced a huge catch of fish, so much so that the two boats began to sink as they hauled them all in. That’s when the Lord’s Word also did its work of bringing Peter to his knees. Seeing what power Christ’s Word has, and by extension what power the One who speaks it has, Peter became afraid of the Lord, confessing himself to be a sinful man. This is what the Lord’s Word does to us too. At first, it may appear that His Word is foolish and irrational. It doesn’t make sense to us, for example, that we should trust in Him as the sacrifice for our sins and be saved. It doesn’t make sense that His Word connected to the water of our Baptism should wash away our sins. It doesn’t make sense that with His Word connected to the bread and wine of His holy Supper we are eating and drinking His true body and blood. But with His miracles Jesus shows us that His Word does what He sends it out to do, in spite of the fact that can’t always see what it does. This can be either a Law experience for us or a Gospel experience. Like Peter, sometimes the power of the Lord’s words creates fear in our hearts. If Christ’s words always do what they say, then we’re in trouble, because in some places in the Scriptures they threaten us with eternal death for having disobeyed His words. Peter realized he was facing a power here in Jesus that he’d never encountered before, a power that can cause things to happen simply by way of a spoken word. No wonder Peter wanted Jesus to leave. Without another word, a word of comfort, all of us would have to depart from Jesus in despair.
But Jesus quickly speaks to Peter a comforting word: “Don’t be afraid!” He says. And here too the Lord’s words do what He sends them out to do: They take away Peter’s fear of Jesus and give him the Lord’s peace instead. And that word of Gospel is for you and me, too. Once the Lord’s words of Law have brought us to our knees, so that we confess ourselves sinners before Him, then Jesus speaks a different word to us, the word of forgiveness. He tells us not to be afraid. Why don’t we have to be afraid of Jesus? He shows that He has the power to commit us to hell with His Word if He wanted to. But He doesn’t want to. Instead, He put Himself under God’s words of wrath and condemnation on the cross for us, suffering hell in our place, so that we might live under God’s words of release, grace, mercy, and peace.
God’s words of release is what the pastoral office is all about. That’s why Jesus called these men and those who would follow after them to become fishers of men. Just as His Word produced the large catch of fish for them, so His Word would produce an even larger catch of people as they cast out the net of His Gospel into the world to gather men, women, and children alike into the kingdom of God, that they might be saved from the words of God’s judgment and wrath to come. At first, the catch of such a large number of fish doesn’t seem to be the best illustration for what happens to those who are caught by the Gospel. Fish are at home in the water. To take them out of the water means death for them. But being caught by the net of the Gospel actually means freedom and life for those who are captured by it. And yet, there is a sense in which a death to this life from which we are taken occurs. In your baptismal waters you drown and die not only to the world and its lusts, but also to your own sinful nature, both of which we felt perfectly free and at home in as we swam around in our sins. But we died to live, just as Jesus did, whose death and resurrection became ours when we were baptized into Him and brought to faith in His words.
And so the net of the Gospel is still being cast out into the world today, as both pastors and lay- men and women alike bring the word about Jesus crucified for our salvation to those around them. Jesus uses not only pastors, but you too in whatever vocation He’s called you to, in order to be fishers of men. But many Christians are worried today because they don’t see the kind of results that these disciples saw. Not seeing a catch, they get discouraged and conclude that the Word is impotent. People just don’t seem to be attracted to it any more like they used to be. Where are the flocks of people pressing in on Jesus to hear His Word today? A little congregation like ours seems to suggest that the Word has lost its power, leading some to conclude that they need to use something else besides the Word to catch people - perhaps a different kind of bait, something that we know attracts people and will bring them in, whether it’s entertainment, psychology, or even the Law. But today’s Gospel text teaches us that the Lord’s Word does what it says, regardless of whether you can see it at work or not. For example, you can’t see the forgiveness of your sins, but based on what the Scripture tells you about the power of Christ’s words, you can know for certain that your sins are forgiven, because of who is speaking these words. And so, the Christian lives by faith, not blind faith, but faith founded on the eye-witness testimony of the Scriptures that God’s Word will not return to Him void; it will accomplish what He sends it out to do.
And you who believe and are baptized are living proof that the Lord’s Word does what it says. You are the men, women, and children that the Lord’s fishermen have caught with the net of His Gospel. You have been brought into the boat of the Church, where you have eternal life and are nourished and strengthened in this life as Christ’s pastoral fishermen continue to give you His Gospel, taking away your fear, delivering to you the Lord’s peace along with His body and blood. Jesus’ comforting words have saved you from having to hear His words of judgment and wrath. “There is now no condemnation for you who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” The Gospel has done and continues to do its job, so that you might stand before the Lord on the Last Day unafraid and hear His words, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Amen.