In Luke 5, the Lord wanted to be a little apart from the mass of the people to avoid the pressure of the crowd and to be better able to speak to them. For this reason He stepped into Peter’s boat. Note the moral grace that shines here. “He . . . prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land.” Though Lord of all creation — possessor of heaven and earth — He nevertheless, as the lowly, gracious man, courteously owns Simon’s proprietorship and asks, as a favor, that he would thrust out a little from the shore. This was morally lovely, and we may rest assured it produced its own effect upon the heart of Simon.
The Draught of Fishes
“Now when He had left speaking, He said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.” There was power, as well as grace, in the Lord’s word! Simon was about to be well paid for the loan of his boat. As a result, neither their nets nor their ships were able to sustain the fruit of divine power and goodness. “When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” If Simon is to be called Cephas, he must be thoroughly broken up and brought to the end of himself. If he is to be used to catch men, he must learn, in a divine way, man’s true condition. If he is to teach others that “all flesh is as grass,” he must learn the application of this great truth to his own heart.
But Jesus could never depart from a poor, brokenhearted sinner. “Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.” Here was the divine response to the cry of a contrite heart. The wound was deep, but the grace was deeper still. Simon was not only convicted, but converted. He saw himself to be a man full of sin, but he saw the Saviour full of grace; nor was it possible that his sin could be beyond the reach of that grace. Oh, no, there is grace in the heart of Jesus, as there is power in His blood, to meet the very chief of sinners. “When they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed Him.”
Following Christ
How refreshing it is to contemplate Peter’s thoroughgoing style! His start was of the right sort. “He forsook all and followed” Christ. There was no halting here, no vacillating between Christ and present things. Boats, nets, fish, natural ties — all are unhesitatingly and unreservedly surrendered, not as a matter of cold duty or legal service, but as the grand and necessary result of having seen the glory and heard the voice of the Son of God.
Thus it was with Simon Peter, at the opening of his remarkable career. All was clear and unequivocal, wholehearted and decided, so far as the start was concerned, and we must bear this in mind, as we pursue his after history. No doubt we shall find mistakes and stumblings, failure, ignorance, and sin, but, underneath, and in spite of all this, we shall find a heart true to Jesus — a heart divinely taught to appreciate the Christ of God.
Blunders
This is a grand point. Blunders may well be borne with, when the heart beats true to Christ. Someone has remarked that “the blunderers do all the work.” If this is so, the reason is that those blunderers have real affection for their Lord, and that is precisely what we all want. A man may make a great many mistakes, but if he can say when challenged by his Lord, “Thou knowest that I love Thee,” he is sure to come right in the end, and not only so, but, even in the very midst of his mistakes, the heart is much more drawn to him than to the cold, correct, sleek professor, who thinks of himself and seeks to make the best of both worlds.
C. H. Mackintosh, adapted