Bible Text: Luke 5:1-11 | Preacher: Pastor Andrew Richard
“Master, we toiled all night and took nothing!” (Lk. 5:5). Peter is exhausted. He worked through the night: moving the boat, casting the nets, pulling up the nets with nothing in them. “Next time. Next cast.” He drove himself on, spot by spot, throw by throw. And nothing. His exhaustion and despair is common to man. You’ve felt that before. You’ve labored hard at something and seen nothing come of it and known that you have to keep doing it anyway. You finish a project only to realize that the thing doesn’t work. You tell a child something for the umpteenth time, wondering if it’s ever going to stick. You do the same duties over and over again, day in and day out, and there stand the same duties the next day, demanding to be done again. The words of Ecclesiastes come home to you: “‘Vanity of vanities,’ says the Preacher; ‘Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.’ What profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun? One generation passes away, and another generation comes; but the earth abides forever. The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it arose. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full” (Ecc. 1:2-5, 7). All the clothes are washed, but the laundry is not done. All the dishes are clean, but the dishes are never finished. And we could come up with a thousand other ways to speak of the despair we often experience in the face of our duties.
Now this may seem strange, but Jesus will at various times in our lives purposefully lead us into this despair. That’s what He did in today’s Gospel reading. He’s the one who caused the fish to be caught in the end. He could have caused the fish to be caught when Peter was in his boat all night. He didn’t. The fishes and the waters are the Lord’s to command, and the Lord ordered them away from the nets so that Peter wouldn’t catch any. Jesus led Peter to despair of his own efforts, and there’s a healthy sense to this despair. The Lord does not give it to us as a poison, but as a wholesome medicine. This despair teaches us two things.
First, when we despair of our labors the Lord is teaching us that every good thing we have is from God and not from ourselves, as it says in James 1, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights” (Jas. 1:17). Jesus taught us to pray to our Father in heaven, “Give us this day our daily bread,” directing us to look to the work of God and not to our own work to sustain us. The fact that we have many times despaired of our own labors and yet have not starved or died of exposure is proof enough that our daily bread comes from our Father in heaven and not from ourselves. Therefore this is a comforting despair, because it leaves us not looking down to ourselves on earth, but up to our Father in heaven. This is a despair that drives us to speak according to the reality of our situation, saying, “Dear Father, I have toiled hard and have nothing to show for it. I cannot get my daily bread for myself. But according to Your mercy give me my daily bread, for if it does not come from You, then I shall not have it.” That’s the truth.
Second, this despair teaches us how to think about our works in relation to salvation. If we can’t even get earthly things by our works, how much less can we gain heavenly things by them? Sometimes Jesus withholds and shows that my works can’t even get me a single fish. Should I therefore conclude that my works can gain me forgiveness and salvation and eternal life? On what grounds? That is a fine person indeed who cannot lift a hundred pounds but thinks he can lift a million. Such a man must be led to realize the truth, led to despair, led to fall under the hundred pounds so that he thinks rightly about the million. Jesus is gracious and makes the man fall, makes us fall. Only Jesus can bear the million pounds of your sin. His blood alone can pay your debt. If Jesus shows you that you have not the strength to lift a pound nor a penny in your pocket, rejoice that He has been so gracious and not left you to a delusion. Glory in the despair that says, “I am nothing and Christ is everything.” Such despair will not disappoint, but will serve your faith well.
So those are the two reasons Jesus will make us despair of our labors: first, so that we learn that every good thing we have is from God, and second, that we trust in Him and not our works for salvation. Now concerning the first point about daily bread, someone might object, “I work and earn a paycheck, and with that money I buy my daily bread. If I stopped working, I would stop receiving a paycheck, and I would no longer have daily bread. So how do we say that our daily bread depends entirely on God when it seems to depend so much on us?” It is true that there appears to be some cause between our work and our daily bread. Yet I can show immediately that this apparent cause is indeed only apparent. There are many instances of people receiving their daily bread apart from their work. The Lord planted the entire Garden of Eden and made it fruitful before man even existed to work for a single grape (Gen. 2). The Lord gave the Israelites water and manna and quail in the wilderness (Ex. 16-17). What work could they have done to call down bread from heaven or summon flocks into their mouths? The Lord appointed ravens to bring bread and meat to Elijah (1 Kgs. 17:1-6). The Lord then sent Elijah to the widow of Zarephath and made it so that her jar of flour and jug of oil did not run out (1 Kgs. 17:8-16). Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes on two occasions. And there are other examples, all of which show that man’s labor is not the cause of his daily bread. Rather, in these accounts we see the truth of Jesus’ words, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Mt. 6:33).
It is important that we separate our work from daily bread so that we do not trust the wrong thing. If our work earns our daily bread, then we ultimately take care of ourselves. I also give me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, etc. Then we learn to trust mammon instead of trusting God. This danger is again partly why Jesus will sometimes make us despair of our labors. In such times He breaks that apparent connection between work and daily bread and makes us see the truth.
At the same time, if we will not do our duty, we should not expect to receive our daily bread. Our labor is not the cause of our daily bread, but neglect of duty is a cause of lack. Thus it is written in Proverbs: “The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing” (Prov. 20:4). And again, “The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.” (Prov. 13:4). Likewise the Apostle Paul, “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat” (2 Thess. 3:10). God has ordered the world in this way for at least two reasons.
First, God makes neglect of duty a cause of lack so that His Christians are not given to idleness, sin, and living for self. Our flesh is inclined to laziness, and the old saying is true, that “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” Jesus punishes idleness, laziness, and selfishness in order to guard us from temptation and prevent us from falling into great shame and vice. So in our reading we did not hear that Jesus made the fish jump into the boat. We heard Jesus say, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch” (Lk. 5:4). That is, “Go about your duties and do not neglect them.” The new man who is born in the waters of Baptism of course is eager to do his duties because he loves his neighbor and wants to serve him. But the old man would gladly live for himself, and so needs the threat of starvation to make him do his duty.
And this leads to the second reason why God makes neglect of duty a cause of lack. The Christian might have a good reason to do his duty, namely, because his neighbor needs him to do it, and the Christian loves his neighbor. But the unbelieving world does not have that Christian love. The unbelieving world is merely the old man, with nothing of the new, and must be compelled to do anything good. God shows the world by experience that neglect of duty leads to lack. God even lets the world believe that its labor earns its daily bread, as it says in 2 Thessalonians, “God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie” (2 Thess. 2:11). The world trusts in mammon above all else, and God uses the world’s desire for mammon to make the world useful. Otherwise, everyone would only live for himself and never do anyone any good. But God lets the pagan associate labor with earning mammon, and requires that the labor be useful to the neighbor by the fact that the neighbor must be willing to pay for the goods and services. Thus God tricks the world into being serviceable.
Scripture teaches that our labor is not the cause of our daily bread. Daily bread is a gift from God, and we can look to Him for it and trust that He will give it. Scripture also teaches that neglect of duty is a cause of lack. Our God-given duties are good, and we should do them. The Lord will sometimes make us despair of our labors, but we know the good in this and receive such desperation graciously.
It’s worth circling back to that despair, because it can be so hard to bear and because Satan tries to misuse it and make us misunderstand it. While Jesus uses our despair to teach us to look to God for our daily bread and to trust Him alone for our salvation, Satan says, “Your labor is pointless. You might as well not even bother. Don’t do your duty. It doesn’t accomplish anything.” Satan tells the parent, “Your teaching isn’t working. Your kid is never going to listen to you. Stop fighting your child and just let him do what he wants.” And then the child learns to be selfish, disobedient, and a despiser of authority. Satan tells us, “You’re just doing the same thing over and over again. Tomorrow there will be more clothes to launder, dishes to wash, packages to move, grass to mow, groceries to bag, papers to sign, nets to cast, and so forth. If you’re going to get any enjoyment out of life, don’t take those repetitive duties so seriously, and instead live for yourself.” And then we learn to be sluggards and to grumble against God.
But Jesus is not idle in the face of the devil’s lies. Indeed, what Jesus does for the disciples in the reading He does for us all the time. First, Jesus commands them to do their duty. We might feel like our labor is in vain, but Jesus points us back to our duties. He says, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch” (Lk. 5:4). The disciples’ experience has taught them that their effort is futile. Nevertheless, they trust the Word of Jesus. Peter says, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at Your word I will let down the nets” (Lk. 5:5). “But at Your Word.” And we have a word as well. Jesus has recorded our duties in Sacred Scripture. He has given the Ten Commandments. He has given many specific duties in various other places in Scripture, which Luther gathered together into the Table of Duties in the Small Catechism. When the devil harps and says, “Your labor is in vain,” you respond, “Nevertheless, there stands the Word of Jesus. ‘Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them’ (Col. 3:19). ‘Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord’ (Eph. 5:22). ‘Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord’ (Eph. 6:4). ‘Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right’ (Eph. 6:1). ‘Young men, be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another’ (1 Pet. 5:5). My duty may be hard or seem fruitless, but there stands the Word of Jesus, and at His Word I will let down my nets. At His Word I will do my duty.” So Jesus commands you to do your duty, and you can embrace the word of command and hold fast to it even when all seems in vain, knowing, “Even if I see no fruit from my labor, at the very least I can be certain that this work is pleasing to my Lord, because He commanded it, and His pleasure is worth more to me than ten nets full of fish.”
Second, Jesus cheers the disciples by making them see the fruit of their labor. No God-given duty is pointless or fruitless. How could it be? That duty has God’s command behind it, and God’s Word is not in vain. Satan is particularly good at blinding us to the fruit of our labor and hiding it from us. But Jesus will make us see it. Parents and pastors and teachers see this regularly. It seems that someone understands nothing, is making no progress, that all teaching is in vain. And then suddenly something clicks, or the learning that took root weeks or months ago suddenly bursts through the surface of the soil and shows itself. Jesus knows how to add satisfaction to our labor. He knows how to fill nets with fish and give delight in duty. So certainly enjoy a healthy despair of your own labors. Recognize that all good things are from God and that good works are useless when it comes to salvation. At the same time do not sink into the deadly despair of supposing that your labors accomplish nothing at all here on earth, because that is simply not true. If you see the fruit of your labor, thank God for the fruit. And if you don’t see the fruit, then thank God that He is teaching you to trust Him and not yourself. And either way, enjoy the gift of a good conscience and live each day with the goal of saying on your bed that night, “Dear God, I did what was given to me to do, and I know that you do not make me labor in vain.”
There is much more in our reading worthy of comment. God’s Word is inexhaustible, and fortunately we’ll get to hear the reading again in a year. But one final note seems fitting to conclude the themes we’ve focused on today. What was Peter’s reaction when the Lord let him see the fruit of his labor? Because it was the perfect reaction. Peter didn’t occupy himself with thoughts of how rich he would become with this catch of fish. His mind didn’t wander to buying a new boat. His nets were breaking and his boat was sinking, and he wasn’t even thinking about that. “But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord’” (Lk. 5:8). “I don’t deserve such grace,” that was Peter’s reaction. Peter shows what Paul says in Romans 2, “the goodness of God leads you to repentance” (Rom. 2:4). When Jesus gives us anything good, it is right to contrast that with what we deserve and confess, “I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Our sins have earned wrath and hell. But Jesus gives us good things instead, showing us His favor, as if to say, “I do not want to give to you according to your work and merit, but according to my blood and mercy. So do not be afraid. Your sins are forgiven.” And then, like Peter, we return to shore with a glad heart and go about the duty our Lord has given us to do. May He strengthen us to do our duty well. Amen.