Abundance – what does it mean?

Luke’s supposed reader, Theophilus or ‘loved by God’, may have already been hooked by Jesus moving through Capernaum, that the people were amazed at the teaching of Jesus – all except the time when he was nearly driven off a cliff in Nazareth. Jesus’ teaching is so different in that he speaks of ‘good news to the poor’: the result is an abundance for those who believe. Abundance – what does it mean?

Where are we?

Yes, Jesus has spoken at Nazareth, got a bad reception, then healed Simon’s Mother-in-law, and stayed the night with Simon and his (unnamed) wife. I wonder what impression this had on Peter.

Now we arrive at Luke 5: 1-11, and we are no longer in Capernaum but have moved west, around the lake edge, to the fertile area of Gennesaret. The Sea of Galilee was also known as the Lake Tiberias, Kinneret or Kinnereth, the latter the root of the word Gennesaret. If it is fertile is this why they refer to abundance: Abundance – what does it mean?

Jesus is Mr Popular: so popular that he needs some helpers. He noticed that there were some fishermen cleaning their nets. You might wonder what this actually entails. It is just giving them a once-over; or a thorough check to see if any holes had appeared, any weak areas; or actually a good removal of any vegetation that had also been collected – the lake was not very deep. Their method of catching fish would have involved their nets bashing across the lake bed.

Nets?

Peter might have a collection of nets (amphibleestron, diktuon and sagene) which could be used to catch fish. The first word, amphibleestron, is used only once in the New Testament; diktuon is observed 8 times; and sagene is used again only once). So Simon has many nets : abundance – what does it mean?

The cast net, which can be used from the shore or from a boat, is like a bag with a rope attached to the end of the bag. The fishermen can pull on this rope as it nears the bottom. Both Matthew and Mark seem to indicate that Simon and Andrew were using such a net in the similar parable.

Oddly Luke, in our passage, uses diktuon, which a much larger form of cast net, one used from the side of the boat. It is cast when they believe they are over a large shoal of fish. Once the rope is pulled to close the end of the net, the boats, plural, could pull their haul closer to shore.

Master?

Simon refers to Jesus as Master when asked if he wouldn’t mind putting those nets out again on the water. They’ve been fishing all night and you want to go out fishing once again – you the labourer, not the fisherman! It’s like asking the on-call medic to come off the night shift and do it all again during the day time. I recall, when a colleague and I arrived in Kuwait to support the military we had to set up 24 hour operations. One of us had to go straight into the night shift so the other could rest and take over in the morning. There’s a human reaction here of “What, Why?”

The word that Simon uses “epistata” as Master is only used in Luke’s Gospel and only in connection with Jesus. It refers to person in charge: so not a military commander or a slave owner but one with authority – one you’d follow naturally?

Amy-Jill Levine also notes that it is used when the disciples fail: Luke 8:24 when they are about to drown; in Luke 8:45 when the disciples didn’t recognise who had touched Jesus; in Luke 9:33 when Peter wants to make 3 dwellings for Jesus, Moses and Elijah; and Luke 9:49 John saw that releasing demons was good to the person and to Jesus’ cause. Jesus is different to other ‘leaders’ they have known.

Wow fish!

After a night of fish, these fish are jumping. The cast nets they were using were breaking with the sheer haul of fish gathered. Get more help they cry, and others join in. Simon is beside himself: with joy, amazement and aghast. Odd that, given that his Mother-in-Law had been healed a chapter earlier. Simon says to Jesus “Depart from me for I am a sinner”.

Quick question. They are both in a boat. Where is he expected to go? To walk on water?

That’s another Gospel entirely

All were amazed, including James and John, the sons of Zebedee. They stopped everything upon the return to the beach and went with Jesus – without ever being asked. Seemingly Peter also goes without his wife or concerns for his Mother-in-Law.

Abundance

It’s not about the amount of fish that they catch – as they left it all behind. The imagery of a huge catch of fish is often heralded as a form of evangelism – in fact in other Gospels it speaks of being ‘fisher of men’. I am not taken by the idea of being caught, gutted and fried over a fire…

Luke is describing discipleship, journeying with God. It is going to be hard work at times. Some times it will feel incredible, the exhilaration will be everything. In other times it will feel like the boat is about to capsize.

The disciples have changed their focus: from looking for a miracle worker to one who they would follow, purely because they know Jesus has an authority from God. He can heal, he can captivate audiences – soon even larger ones, he can have insight beyond the capabilities of ordinary fisher folk. This is the start of their journey. There’s a common bond between them all, a fellowship.

What does it mean?

Abundance – what does it mean? Do I get rich?

Notice that Simon, with James and John, leave their lucrative fishing business behind – just when hauls were improving – leave everything. So getting rich isn’t what Jesus means about abundance.

Could it be a tax break, a reduction in prices? – all of which tugs at our understanding capitalist monetary society. Again, why leave everything which brings in an income then?

Simon

When Simon asks Jesus to depart from him (in the small boat), he refers to being sinful. When we hear of that word, what does it mean to us?

If it means that we are nothing until we are forgiven then why has God already given us everything in Jesus? Is God one who will punish us or has already shown God’s love to us all? God has already accepted us, so why the need for forgiveness and repentance?

Repentance

This word might mean to us that it is conditional: we need to repent to be forgiven. Yes?

But Repentance means to “turn, to return”. Thinking of the exile in Babylon, the Israelites saw repentance as a way to return on their journey to their homeland. So it is a journey to return to God. As John the Baptist declares ‘the way of the Lord’.

We don’t need to do anything to warrant God’s love, but returning to God is one of transformation. This is what Simon could see. In the healing of his Mum-in-Law, with this haul of fish, he could see that following Jesus was a life-transforming way of journeying onwards with God.

For many, that liberation of being oppressed, that release from the burden of sin, sometimes even accentuated by the Church, is life-transforming.

They changed direction – all we?