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What a story! It begins with hustle and bustle. People flock to hear Jesus teaching; they want a front-row seat, jostling to hear him, pressing forward to see him. This is great cinema for our eyes, so packed with movement. Boats rowing out to sea, men sweating as they fished, nets almost breaking because they are so full, the boat almost sinking under the weight of fish. Another boat has to rush to the rescue.

So much is going on in this story! Only Jesus stands still. He just stands there by the Sea of Galilee. And later, when the boats begin to move, he sits and teaches. In the hustle and bustle, there’s Jesus’ quiet presence.

Let us shift our focus to the other characters. Let’s look now at the fishermen, the ones who fished all night. They are cleaning up after an unsuccessful night. They caught nothing. And then Jesus shows up. They didn’t ask him to come. The fishermen didn’t do anything to attract his attention, to gain his interest. He is simply there. They don't approach him. He approaches them. He is the one who speaks to them.

This story in the Gospel of Luke may remind us of another story from the Gospel of John. Do you remember this story? In this story, two disciples are fishing, and they have had an unsuccessful night. No fish caught. But suddenly they are visited by the risen Christ. They didn’t call him. They did not expect him. He was simply there, on the shore, speaking to them, and speaking to us.

The memory of that story in John helps us to understand better this story from Luke. Jesus is always showing up unexpectedly in our lives. There were these disciples, just doing the routine work of cleaning up their nets after the disappointments of the night. No fish, nothing to show for their work, and then suddenly Jesus is there.

It’s like that for us, too. In the middle of life’s humdrum, routine, and disappointments, Jesus comes unexpectedly into our lives.

You know what I mean. Maybe we are frustrated after endless meetings and defeated hope that something good will finally happen. Or maybe we are frustrated after many prayers for a miracle to happen. Or maybe we are disappointed by the outcome of an election or the seemingly endless wars that ravage our earth. But then, when we least expect it, when we are just cleaning our nets after another day of disappointment, Jesus just shows up. He came to the frustrated fishermen, and he comes to us. He stepped into their lives, and he steps into mine. He spoke to them. He speaks to me. And what is it like when Jesus suddenly appears in our lives?

After he spoke to the fishermen, there was hope and a future. Everything somehow changed. Radically changed.

Now let us focus on another aspect of this story: the water.

It’s significant that this story takes place on the sea, on the water. Water can be beautiful and life-giving, but water is also frightening and dangerous. Water stories in the Bible often have an unpredictable dynamic.

I grew up on a large lake. I loved being on the water, swimming in the water, enjoying the water. But if I ever drifted out into the deep water, things changed quickly. In the deep water, I would lose the ground under my feet, control of myself. The shallow water was safe and comfortable, but deep water is something different indeed.

Did you notice in our story today that Jesus sits down with the fishermen in the swaying boat and says to Simon: “Put out into the deep water.” The deep water! Don’t fish in the shallows, but fish where it’s deep. That makes sense in terms of basic fishing. The fish are sometimes in the deeper water. But it’s also symbolic of what Jesus is doing in our lives. Jesus is sending us to the deep water, to the places where things can be frightening and dangerous, to the places where we are not always in control. This instills great respect in me.

“Put out into the deep water.”
Leave the shallow water behind you.
Head away from the safe shore.
Go where you no longer have safe ground under your feet.
Where the winds whistle and the waves can be as high as a house.

“Put out into the deep water.”
It’s the walk to the place where it is deep, abysmal, and sometimes very uncomfortable.
Jesus goes with us.
It is the walk to the place where depth awaits.
Deep ground, profundity, deep meaning.

“Put out into the deep water.”
So we go with the disciples into the deep water. Even if we are afraid of the depths, we are bold to go, not because we are always brave but because Jesus goes with us.
“Put out into the deep water,” he says. “I will go with you.”

Do I know where in my life the deep waters lie in wait?

“Put out into the deep water.”
This move into deep water marks the beginning of the biggest change in Simon's life.

Now let us focus on another aspect of this story: the miracle that happened out there in deep water. Outside, in the depths, in an uncomfortable place, the miracle happens.

Out in the depths, Simon and his friends find an overflowing catch of fish. This is not just fishing luck or a tribute to their fishing skill.

What the fishermen pull up from the depths, it’s a gift. The gift is overwhelming and abundant. A catch so large it almost burst the nets and sank the boat.

We know this was from Jesus, because this is the way it is with Jesus. When Jesus was at a wedding when the wine ran out, Jesus asked them to fill the water jugs standing around. Water became the best wine. And not a little of it. Abundance is the way it is with Jesus. And there was another time when Jesus was in the great meadow when thousands of people were hungry towards evening, and Jesus asked what his friends had brought with them. Five loaves of bread and two fish fed everyone. And again, it was abundant, an overflowing. They could still fill baskets with leftovers.

And now in our story, it happens after an unsuccessful night of fishing. A catch of abundance. That’s the way it is with Jesus: abundance.

I find two things exciting:

First, I find it exciting that in all of these stories, Jesus takes something that human beings give him and turns it into the abundant gift of God.

He took some water in water jugs and turned it into an abundance of wine.
He took a few loaves and fish and turned it into a feast for a multitude.
And here, he took boats and empty nets and filled them up to overflowing.

We bring who we are, what we are, and what we have, and that's where Jesus picks up. Miracles are sometimes much closer than we think. They happen with what Jesus does with what we bring.

The second thing I find exciting—and also somewhat overwhelming—is that Jesus’ miracles are always extravagant, always somehow too much. Too much. So much so that the boats almost tip over, and it becomes dangerous. Too much. Liters of wine. Too much. Baskets of bread. And in our story: not just a few fish, not just enough for a fish dinner, but far too many fish. It got really dangerous. It's too much of a good thing, even for my enlightened mind. All the miracle stories overwhelm me, and I don't want to override or trick my rational mind. I am overwhelmed. And so was Simon.

No wonder Simon shouted at Jesus, “Go away!” It's too much. Simon falls to the ground in shock. Anyone who encounters God experiences fascination and shock at the same time. Rudolf Otto described this in the book, The Idea of the Holy a good 100 years ago. He described this so aptly that many people have cited his descriptions ever since. Whoever experiences the Holy, says Rudolf Otto, is confronted with a mysterium fascinans and at the same time tremendum, in other words: fascinating and deeply shocking at the same time.

Because we do not understand it.
Because we don't have it under control.
We can't control it.

Simon experiences this power. And Jesus responds to it, which is repeated many times in the Gospel: Do not be afraid!

Even if we are overwhelmed by it: to live, to play in God's overwhelming gift, to think, to enjoy—that is our happiness.

Do not be afraid! Since then, abundance has been flowing out, capturing every pore of our body, every cell of our brain. And the depths of our soul.

Simon was overwhelmed by the abundance of the miracle, but he was also overwhelmed by something else. Jesus’ miracle was not merely dazzling; it was life-changing. Because of what happened out there in the deep water, Simon had to change. Jesus puts it this way, "Don't be afraid, Simon. You’ll still be a fisherman, but from now on you won’t be catching fish. You will be catching people."

Fishing for people? At first, I was uncomfortable with this image. Letting people run into the net like the Pied Piper of Hamelin? Seducing people like a dictator? Disposing of people who have fallen into the net? That’s religion at its worst. Surely Jesus can’t mean that!

When we take one last look at what happens in this story, we see that Jesus means something quite different, quite surprising. Fishing for people is not about clever tactics or strategies, trapping people into our designs on them. No, the abundant catch of fish in our story is a gift from God, not a tribute to our fishing skills or cleverness. The fish in the net turn out to be nothing but a gift. This fishing has nothing to do with pure calculation. Rather, this kind of fishing means going into the depths and letting go. Fishing for people is experiencing other people as a gift from God.

In the end, Simon and the fishermen who have been summoned drag everything ashore. Exciting and almost funny that they still do this. Because afterwards, they follow the word of Jesus. They clear the stage. They left everything and followed him.

A few years ago, Banksy's famous painting of the girl and the balloon was sold at auction for millions of dollars. But there was a surprise. Just at the moment when the new owner took possession of the painting, a secret device hidden by the artist in the picture frame shredded the painting into pieces. One might have thought that the shredded painting was now worthless. But not so. Actually, the shredded painting was eventually auctioned, and it brought in even more millions of dollars. Just so, Simon’s old life fishing for fish was shredded by Jesus’ command to fish now for people. But Simon’s new life, crafted out of the tatters of his old life, was worth even more.

Simon and his friends clear the set. They left everything behind and followed him. The backdrop is empty. The story of people and fish and the experience of overwhelming gift continues in another place. Here, for example. Now. With you. With me. Following him. Amen.