Our text for today is the Gospel reading, but especially these words: “[Jesus] said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.’ And Simon answered, ‘Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.’”
Have you ever noticed how each individual member of a family unit has his or her own role to play? For example, one member of the family might be the one who’s known to provide that bit of comic relief, while another might be known more as the helper of the family. Well, throughout the years, my father has developed his own role. Whenever the family gets together, he is the one who likes to throw out those comments that get a rise out of people, whether it is about a political issue that he knows will get my sister going, or asking, “Why are there so many dirty dishes on the table with all these women around?” Needless to say, all the women who are around all at once start yelling and carrying on. Now the interesting thing is that once he has the argument started, he has no desire actually to participate in the debate. Instead, you will see him lounging back with a smile on his face saying, “My work here is done.”
Now – hopefully with things that are a little more productive – we can certainly appreciate the feeling that comes when a task is completed. After finishing a project, you might just lounge back saying, “My work here is done,” with a sense of accomplishment. In our Gospel reading for today, the disciples were really just moments away from being able to sit back and relax after a long day of work. No doubt, most days were probably quite long for these fishermen, but days when they caught very little I’m sure would have felt even longer. You see, fishing is interesting like that. It doesn’t always follow the “time is money” principle. The reality is that the workload may never change, and how much they make off of the work is based solely on whether or not they have a good catch. So we can just imagine how ready the disciples were just to go home and put this day behind them. There was just one more thing that had to be done. It was clean up time. And as we know from our text, they were mending and cleaning their nets.
It was precisely then, as they were finishing up, that our Lord came to them and told them to get back into the boats and go fishing. Now, this request would have been bad enough following such an unproductive day, but to request it right when they were about to go home for the day… well, we can just imagine they probably weren’t all that excited about the idea. Just when they thought their work was done, the Lord said they had more to do. Not tomorrow, not sometime in the future, but now.
Are Paul’s words to the Corinthians much different? The Corinthians had come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior, they had received the Spirit of God, made evident through the manifestation of Spiritual gifts... you almost get the picture that once they had reached that point, the Corinthians thought their work was finished. Almost as though now that they had received faith, and were blessed with the Spirit, they could just sit back and enjoy: “My work here is done.” You see, they thought nothing about using those gifts to serve others. They thought nothing about how those gifts were actually given for a purpose greater than themselves.
Our work does not end at the moment Jesus enters our lives through faith; it is then that it begins. How could it end with faith, when before we knew Christ, there was absolutely nothing we could do, no words to speak except those spoken by the prophet Isaiah, “Woe is me!”? In the bondage of sin and the power of Satan, our work would never lead to righteousness but, rather, our work would always be centered on self. Instead of doing works of love and service, we would have been stuck in the pursuit of our own gratifications.
Consider our text for today. Before Christ came into the lives of the disciples, what could the disciples point to as the fruits of their labors? Unfortunately, all their labor that day was in vain. Without Christ, humanity’s efforts come up empty. Apart from Christ there is no good work. For it is only in and through Him that we are given the work He has prepared for us before the creation of the world.
But Christ entered the lives of the disciples. Just when they were about to call it a day, just when they were about ready to go home, Jesus entered lives that had no purpose, lives that did not produce fruit. He entered these lives first by His Word; preaching and teaching the Word of God to all those there that day. But notice, immediately following this Word, He sends them out. And once Christ entered their lives, everything seemed to just turn around.
Instead of being fearful of God’s wrath and condemnation, Peter is now received by Christ, standing in the very presence of God Himself. Before Christ, we are all without hope. We are all done. Because of our sinful condition there is no work even to start, much less finish. But in Christ’s grace and mercy, we are called like Peter to start working. No longer toiling in our own hopelessness, but truly living in Christ. And just as Christ gave them the greatest catch of their lives that day, their labors would bear much fruit throughout their ministry.
The reality is that we are often times like the Corinthians in that we don’t always leave our self-centeredness behind us; instead, we bring it into our faith life and walk. Faith and the gifts we receive from our Lord and Savior are often times seen as self-serving. The Corinthians were no doubt grateful for the faith they had received and the truth they had come to know. The problem was, they felt it was a gift they could keep for themselves. A gift that would be sustained not through service, but simple maintenance.
Faith is not about maintenance. It is not about simply retaining what you have received, but about giving what you have received. It’s about using the gifts of the Spirit to build others up.
We all know how common it is in our own churches for teenagers to go through instruction and confirmation only to disappear, never to be seen except maybe a couple of times a year. They reflect this understanding that faith is something that does not have to be strengthened or exercised, but simply something that is received and maintained.
We are called to receive instruction in God’s Word, there is no doubt about that. But that same Word does not call us to go sit back as though our work is done. It is a living instruction, just as the Word is living. It lives, breathes and grows in us each and every day, as we live in the grace and love of God.
You know, we ask ourselves why it is that so many people leave the church after confirmation, but I wonder if we should really be surprised. How often do entire congregations just go into maintenance mode, where the only difference is that the corporate body takes on these self-serving and self-seeking characteristics instead of the individual? How often are we like the Corinthians, considering the many gifts each of us here have been given as though they were meant to serve our own selves and our own interests?
Consider for a moment that our Lord, Christ, was not about keeping and retaining what was His. He gave up His glory, He surrendered his power in order that He might take on our flesh and bring salvation to all mankind. So it is that Christ and His disciples set out to do the work the Father had sent them for. And only at the end of Christ’s life could He say, “My work here is done.” It was not said, however, in a comfortable lounge on the couch, but torn and stretched across a tree. It was not in the sounds of a sigh of relief, but in a cry of agony. Christ’s work was completed on the cross, where He offered to all people a sacrifice for our sins, one that removed our guilt; a completed work for all time.
It is that message that has entered into our lives. A message that took us out of our hopelessness and gave us purpose and life. A message that we are now called to share, one that will produce fruit. Let us always continue to follow our Lord each and every day of our lives, until our salvation finds its fulfillment when we are called to our heavenly home. May this be true for all of us. AMEN.
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