Catching People

The good news today is that Jesus likes puns. Dad joke aficionados, rejoice! Did you catch the pun, so to speak, in today’s Gospel from Luke? It may be helpful to review the story.

In his approach to those who would become his first disciples, Jesus takes a bit of a social risk. These are exhausted working class folks at the end of a long, disappointing shift. Who’s to say they’re in any mood to receive Jesus, the quirky itinerant rabbi, not to mention the throng of people he’s attracted? I imagine these fishermen might prefer to finish cleaning their nets and go home to rest before having to embark again the next night.

Nevertheless, Jesus asks to borrow one of their boats for a makeshift pulpit, and proceeds to teach the people for a time from slightly offshore. Then, incredibly, he prods Simon to head out onto the lake again for one more shot at a catch. And at this, Simon finally complains: “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing.” Still, he gives Jesus the benefit of the doubt. And lo and behold, the second-chance fishing trip yields a catch greater than any of the fishermen could have imagined.

In light of this marvel, Simon seems to perceive Jesus for who he is, falling down at his feet in humility. And Jesus replies with a wink and an invitation: “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” You see, Peter has been catching fish all these years, or struggling to, depending on the day. But by leaving his nets behind and following in the way of Jesus, he’ll have the chance to “catch” people instead. And there you have it; Jesus likes puns.

The question remains, however: what exactly does Jesus mean by “catching people”? We may be primed to hear this phrase in narrowly evangelistic terms, supposing that it has to do with religious conversion. That is to say, discipleship is like fishing in that Christians are meant to “hook” other people for Christianity.

But isn’t that metaphor problematic from the start? Fishing is about deceiving and capturing animals in order to kill and eat them. Is that really the image we want to use for conversion? Indeed, critics of Christian evangelism over the centuries might appreciate the implications. How many indigenous communities were betrayed and disempowered, even destroyed, in the name of “Christianizing” colonial territories? Surely, that can’t be what Jesus means by “catching people.”

As it turns out, his pun is a more brilliant rhetorical flourish than the English translation conveys. In the biblical Greek, the word here for “catch” means to “capture alive,” to “spare life,” or to “save.”[1] As one interpreter explains:

“To take [people] alive” is a very different image from simply catching them as though they are food to be consumed…. The verb is “used in [the ancient context] to denote rescue from peril of death, not the capture of animals….” [So according to Jesus,] the kingdom [of God] requires not dead fish, but human beings fully alive– not creatures writhing in the last gasps before death, but people living the life of the good news in all its fullness.[2]

Jesus’ pun, in other words, is more than a clever play on words; it’s a summons to Simon and the others to make a wholesale change in their way of life, to radically realign their sense of purpose. The work won’t necessarily be easier– and the risk certainly won’t be less– but rather than labor for a modest life on the shores of the lake of Gennesaret, they now have the chance to strive first for the reign of God.[3] Quit catching fish, Jesus urges them, and come captivate people with the promise of abundant life.

The real miracle in the story is that Simon, James, and John say yes.  How remarkable that they would haul in the single biggest catch of their lives only to leave it all behind to follow where Jesus leads. Clearly, the fishermen are themselves “caught” by Jesus,[4] reeled in by his magnetic presence. Maybe there’s something mysteriously compelling in his voice; maybe he’s so persuasive that he inspires trust with a word. And maybe it has something to do with the vision that Jesus casts for the world– good news for the poor, release for the captives, freedom for the oppressed[5]– maybe the fishermen know deep down that his is a movement they want to join.

And maybe that’s why we’re compelled by the same invitation so many generations later– an invitation not only to steer seekers to the Christian confession, but to partake in God’s much larger project to “capture the world alive,” to save us all for a better life together. “Catching people” is a metaphor for everything we’re gathered as church and sent back out into the world to do– the small mercies and grand works of justice alike.

Friends, when Jesus encounters you with astounding grace and summons you to the task of sharing it with others, don’t you want to say yes? Let me give you the chance to do just that. There is an option within the sending rite of the Sunday liturgy for the assembly to affirm our sense of purpose as disciples of Jesus, just like Simon, James, and John. It’s called “Affirmation of Christian Vocation.” But instead of waiting for the end of the service, let’s do it now. Follow along on page 84 of the red hymnal, if you like.

Let me invite you to stand, or stand in your heart:

People of Peace, both your work and your rest are in God. Will you endeavor to pattern your life on the Lord Jesus Christ, in gratitude to God and in service to others, at morning and evening, at work and at play, all the days of your life?

Response: I will, and I ask God to help me. 

Let us pray. Almighty God, by the power of the Spirit you have knit these your servants into the one body of your Son, Jesus Christ. Look with favor upon them in their commitment to serve in Christ’s name. Give them courage, patience, and vision; and strengthen us all in our Christian vocation of witness to the world and of service to others; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.[6]

[1] Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke, 234; Peter Eaton, in Feasting on the Word, Year C, Vol. 1, 335.

[2]Eaton, quoting John Drury.

[3] Luke 12:31.

[4] R. Alan Culpepper, The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. IX, 117.

[5] Luke 4:18.

[6] Evangelical Lutheran Worship, Pew Edition, 84.