Encountering Christ

Luke 5:1 to 11

Peter had been in a boat all night with nothing to show for it. He was experienced and exhausted. Then Jesus told him to do something that made no sense, and the nets could not hold what happened next.

But the story is not really about fish. It is about what happens when a man who thought he already knew who Jesus was suddenly sees Him for the first time.

Here is the proposition I cannot get away from. Contact with God's holiness exposes our sin and produces fearful inadequacy. But God's grace draws us to Himself, and from that nearness He gives us kingdom purpose.

Holiness Opens Blind Eyes

G. K. Beale's book We Become What We Worship has been sitting with me for weeks. Idolatry is fundamentally a blinding condition. We go spiritually numb to the true God by fixing our worship on lesser things. The pattern repeats all through scripture. It is an actual encounter with God's presence that restores sight. We see it in Isaiah 6, in John 9, and in Isaiah 35 and 61, where the blind see when the Lord draws near.

Peter had spent his life fixed on fishing for income. These were competent things, good things, and ordinary things, but they were things nonetheless. When he called Jesus "Master," it was respectful, but it was also a category he could manage. It was a box that fit.

Then Jesus did something Peter's entire trade could not explain, and blindness began to crack into sight.

This is not a morality lesson. It is a worship lesson. Peter had been worshiping, however unconsciously, at the altar of his own competence. Contact with real holiness is the only thing that breaks that spell.

We do not drift into clearer sight of God by trying harder to prove we are good. We see Him rightly only when we actually come into contact with Him, through His word, His presence, and His power breaking into our ordinary competence.

Holiness Exposes Sin and Triggers Flight

The moment Peter's eyes opened, his first instinct was not to draw near. It was to push Jesus away.

"Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord."

That is not repentance yet. That is the same reflex as Adam in the garden. It is the same reflex as Isaiah before the throne. It is the same reflex as Israel at Sinai, begging Moses to stand between them and God's voice. Our natural, unredeemed response to divine presence is retreat, not approach.

This is why discipleship is never natural to us. We are not simply ignorant of God, sitting around waiting to be informed. We are, by nature, people who want distance from holiness once we sense what it actually costs us to be near it. Peter's fear in this moment is the same root fear behind every excuse we have ever made for staying comfortable instead of following Christ.

Here is the theological correction that changes everything. The remedy Peter needed was not to stop sinning and then come to Jesus. If it were, the story would end at verse 9. A sinful man, a holy Lord, and an appropriate distance maintained. Case closed.

But that is not what happens. Jesus does not send Peter away to clean up first. The remedy is contact with God Himself, not moral improvement as a precondition for approach. Grace precedes reform. Nearness precedes obedience.

If you are waiting to get your life in order before you draw near to Christ, you have the order backward. He does not wait at a distance for the qualified. He comes into the boat with the unqualified.

Grace Refuses Our Wrong Prayer and Gives Us Purpose

Peter's actual prayer in verse 8 is a request. Depart from me. And thankfully, Jesus does not answer it.

If Jesus had honored that prayer, Peter would have gotten exactly what his fear asked for, and he would have lost everything that mattered. Instead, Jesus overrules Peter's request with something better. Do not be afraid. Grace does not always say yes to what we ask. Sometimes grace's mercy is refusing to grant our fear driven prayers and staying with us anyway.

So what does that presence produce? It is not a return to fishing with divine blessing stapled on top. It is not "go be successful, but now with My approval." Jesus gives Peter an entirely new purpose. And Peter's response is staggering. He leaves the best catch of his life sitting right there in the boat, and he follows.

The nets were full. The boats were sinking. He had more fish than he had ever caught. But he left it all behind.

This is the real cost and reward logic of the gospel. Life with God is the only fulfilling purpose for a human life. It is not business success. It is not achievement. It is not even a record setting catch that comes once in a lifetime. Peter did not leave failure behind to follow Jesus. He left his best day behind. That is what it costs, and that is the weight Luke wants us to feel. He wants us to see that Christ is better than our best day.

Following Christ will, at some point, ask you to leave full nets behind. It will ask you to leave your version of the best catch of your life. The question this passage puts to us is whether we actually believe nearness to Jesus is worth more than the dream we are most tempted to keep.

What Is Sitting in Your Boat?

Many people who walk away from the faith have an implicit story starting their decent. Rhett McLaughlin talks with Alex O’Connor about his film career clashing with Christian beliefs. And ultimately starts to question his faith shortly after he realized his dreams weren’t being realized. 

It seems we all have a choice to make. When following Christ seems to conflict with achieving our dreams, which one will come out on top. Our dreams or God. 

Have you ever asked yourself what best day would compete with your allegiance to God? What’s in your boat that if you had to choose one, it would make it hard to choose Christ? 

Peter walked into that boat a skilled fisherman with a respectful but limited category for Jesus. He walked out a forgiven man with new sight, an unanswered prayer, and a purpose bigger than himself.

The pattern has not changed. Holiness still opens blind eyes. It still exposes what we would rather hide. And grace still refuses to leave us at the distance we ask for.

The only question left is what is sitting in your boat that you are being asked to leave behind to become a fisher of men? 

Happy fishing,

Jordan