By: Tim Keller
This is a famous passage when Jesus calls His disciples and
takes them to ministry with Him. But the reason we are looking at the lengthier
of Luke 5, we are looking at 3 incidents: the calling of disciples after the miraculous
catch of fish, the healing of the leper, then the healing of the paralytic. The
entire passage shows us what it really means to be in mission with Jesus. The
word mission is from the Latin word "be sent", and Jesus sends us,
and anyone who comes to know Jesus Christ is sent into the world to serve
others. Most of us thinking that being sent (mission) as a something very
draining, but it's ironic, it is almost paradoxical that when you come to see
that you should not live for your own fulfillment, but you should live for the
fulfillment of your brother, your sister, or your neighbor. Ironically, that is
a very fulfilling life. So what we want to look at here tonight is what it
means to be in mission, what it means to be sent by Jesus into the world to
serve others. There are three aspects to what it means to be in mission with
Jesus: 1. Jesus sent us out to take our
faith in our work, 2. take our faith out to the marginalized society, 3. and to
help people change their hearts toward God. And each of the three tells us some
aspect of what it means to be in mission with Jesus.
1. Jesus sends us out
to take our faith in our work
Verses 4 to 7 is about the miraculous catch of the fish. Jesus
said to Simon Peter, "Go on out, and throw your nets in." And Simon was skeptical, for one of the
reason is because it is not the best time of day (which is dawn or dusk - fish
doesn't like wearing sunglasses :p) And as a result, it also was a bad day, for
they already fished. But Peter does it, and the response is not only that they
caught some fish, but they got a miraculous catch. Not only their ship was
sinking because of the fish, but another ship comes by and began to sink, and
clearly this is a miracle. Peter knows this is a miracle, that is why he
responses the way he does. And slightly these professional fishermen never seen
a catch like this in their lives. And Peter's response is, when he sees the
miraculous power of Jesus, "Go away from me." (Old King James:
"Depart from me, O Lord for I am a sinful man.") But Jesus says
"Follow me, and I will make you fisher of people." And they followed
HIM. What are we supposed to learn from this? First, when you come in contact
with Jesus, there is a self-quake, like an earthquake, with radical change in
your identity. For example, if you think you are smart, and you meet someone
who is just far smarter, that is painful. But if you like to think that you are
smart, in fact that being smart is a part of yourself image, which makes you
feel good about yourself and you come in contact who is way smarter than you ,
that is not just painful, that is psychologically disorienting, dislocating. If
the basic of your identity is thrown out, you will experience a self-quake. It
is very difficult. And that is just with people. For example, when you say that being with the
nature is the way that make you feel close to God, and give you the feeling of
peace. However, let's say you are in a bad mood, then let's think that if there
is a God, then HE will be infinitely beautiful, which should make you feel
ugly. He is infinitely wise, that should
make you feel stupid. And He is infinitely good, which should make you feel
small, and sinful, and flawed. That is what happened here. When Isaiah comes in
contact with God (Isaiah 6), Isaiah says, "Woe to me! I am ruined! For I
am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips."
(Isaiah 6:5) And when Job gets near to God, he says, "I heard you with my
ear, but now I see you with my eyes. And I despised myself with ash and dust"
And when Peter gets near, the divinity of Jesus, "Depart from me O Lord,
for I am a sinful man." See, that is reality! When you get near something,
or someone, that caused a question of your very identity to self-quake. But
when you come in contact with Jesus, there are 2 moves: First is when you get
near to Jesus, it is humbling. Martin Luther says that all human being s are
sinful, which means that we are curved in ourselves; we are self-centered. When
you get near Jesus, in other words you know you are getting near Jesus, and the
Gospel's starting to come home to you and you are beginning to see how
radically self-centered you are, you start to feel like Peter. Second move is
that Jesus speaks the words of grace. When Peter says "Depart from me... I
am sinful" Jesus doesn't say, "Yea, you are right! you'd better stay
away for you are sinful." NO! He says "Don't be afraid, and come with
me. I got work to do, and I want you to be my partner of work" So it is
not just charity, it is grace. Jesus want you to be a full and love partner of
what He is doing in the world. So because of that move, being radically humble,
and also built up in a firm, suddenly the old thing that is used to be the
basic of your identity is not there anymore, and you have a solid,
unconditional, something that is not based on your performance, something that
is not up and down depending on circumstances, and knew solid identity and
secure in who Jesus is. And the minute that begins to happen is lots of things
to happen. But in this text, you are told that it affects your work. In fact,
this section is often thought that way. When they change their identity, they
walk away from their "catch". Keep this in mind, commentators say ,
almost certainly, that is the biggest fish catch in their lives. You never see
so many fishes that even 2 ships begin to sink. That was an enormous amount of
assets. And Jesus says "FOLLOW ME! Leave everything and follow me!"
And Simon doesn't response, "next week but not this time for we got stuff
to market. We will be rich and we will be so much more a service to you, Jesus
with this asset and investment." That was an enormous amount of money they are leaving on the beach.
And actually Jesus say "You get a new identity in ME." And they walk
away from all that profit. And this really happened, not just a legend. It is
almost comical when you think about when other people see them leaving that
enormous amount of money, they would be "Go get it guys!". But when
you get a new identity in Jesus Christ, it means success and profit, no longer,
anything like, is important as it was before. Being successful, making money was
a base line before you. You don't want just do your job, or work. You want to
be successful. How important that is?!
What if, in order to make that profit / deal, you have to do something illegal,
or you have to do something unethical or
even ruthless? But it is a big deal!! If you have a new identity in Christ, you
will walk away from it, because it is not your identity. It is not that
important to you. Do you have that identity? But not only that it would make
you more honest, but it would affect everything you do in your job. Have you ever
noticed how many English names are actually from jobs, e.g. Fisher, Baker,
Smith, etc. Those are jobs and become identities. What it is saying is,
especially in Western world, our jobs often become our identity of who we are.
Because we are good, because we are successful, we feel good, which means we
are enslaved! Because if you are successful, it will destroy you by going to
your head (make you over confident, arrogant). And if you are unsuccessful, it
will destroy you by going to your heart. But Jesus is saying - You've gotta
have fishing beyond fishing. You've gotta have wealth beyond your wealth.
You've gotta have art beyond your art. You've gotta have some meaning beyond
the art, wealth, or beyond the work. Something to make the work just work, just
a way of serving people, a way of using your talents; not a way of getting
yourself, otherwise your work will strangle you. If you have a Christian
identity, which is an enormous impact, in how you do you work out in the public
sector of life. Jesus is not just for a private world. So, do not keep your
faith private, take it out to your work!
2. To be in mission
with Jesus is to go to the marginalized society - the healing of the leper.
If you go to the historical and social context, the word
leprosy, used by ancient people and the Bible, refers to kind of family of a
various very serious skin disease, physical disorder, most of were very fatal.
But when you get leprosy, because of the fear of contagions, you are thrust out
of the community completely. You are not just sick, not just like the cripples,
or the paralytic, because they were not just physically sick, they didn't have
jobs. They were not allowed in the city or town or in human community, or be a
part of the economy. So, they were absolutely poor, absolutely emotionally
isolated, no one would come near them. They couldn't go to worship. They were
considered cursed. Now, when you keep that in mind, look at what this is
saying, "When Jesus was in one of the town..." This is what the
commentators' saying, "What in the world a leper doing in a town?"
Lepers could not walk to town. They couldn't be there. So, almost certainly
this leper has made a mad dash in to town, knowing that Jesus is there, trying
to find HIM, falling on the ground. See how dramatic this is? Mad dash for
life. And you know, he would have rightly known that he was taking his life in
his hands, because if someone saw a leper they wouldn't arrest or touch him,
they would have stoned him. And so this is why it is so moving. Put all his hopes in Jesus. But when it gets
to Jesus, he says, "Lord, if you are willing..." You would have
thought he was going to say "You've got to heal me or they would kill me.
I pinned everything on you. You've got to help me! You've got to!!"
Instead, he says, "Lord, if you are willing..." See what respect,
what trust, what humility. And Jesus responds in an amazing way, "Jesus reached out His hand and
touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" And
immediately they leprosy left him." (v. 13) The fact that Jesus Christ
healed the man of physical disease should not be a shock, right?! It is not
that surprising. But there is something that is kind of shocking in there. He
is not just healing him of his disease. First of all, He touches him. Now, we
know that Jesus does not have to touch him in order to heal him. Jesus does not
need hocus pocus. Jesus can heal from a distance. Jesus can heal without a
word. So, when he's touching him, he's
not healing him physically. What is He doing? He is touching the man, a man who
probably had not actually been in human
contact in a long time. And he is not just saying, "Be hold!" but
"Be clean!" - meaning, I am taking away your being an outcast. I am bringing you back
to the community. I want you in the community. He is healing him emotionally.
He is bringing him to the community, says 'come on back'. This is one of the
them in the book of Luke. People asked me, why in the world we have 4 biographies
of Jesus - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? What is wrong with just one
comprehensive one? The answer is that Jesus is just too wonderful to one
biography. It's too many great things to see in HIM. You need different people.
In fact, there is no one person who can see all the wonders and all the glory
of Jesus. You need a community. Everybody sees a little bar of it, a part of
who HE is, then you have to share it. And one of the things Luke loves to do is
to show how Jesus Christ reaches out to people that world considers failures,
people who are exclusively from the center of power, such as lepers. Luke tells
more about Jesus dealing with lepers than everybody else. He deals with tax
collectors. Tax collector were collaborator with the enemy. They were Jews collaborating
with Roman occupiers. This isn't more like the French Norwegians that
collaborating with the Nazi during the occupations in the WWII. That's what we
are talking about. Jesus is always reaching out to women who are considered
women or their repute. There are lots of places in the book of Luke where Jesus
reaches out to people where the world can't stand, and excluded. And HE brings
them in, into the Christian community, and often makes them prominent and
leaders. Matthew, one of the 12 disciples, was a tax collector, a collaborator.
Peter denies Jesus 3 times very publicly. Mary Magdalene, etc. And they are
prominent. They are leading light. One implication and one big question. The
implication, if you want to follow Jesus, then you need to follow him to the
margins. That is where HE wants you to go.
He loves to be with the poor. He loves to be with the oppressed and the
needy. He cares about them. And Jesus says to you - 'Come up! I want to give
you fishing beyond your fishing. I want to give you a service beyond your
service. Meaning I want you to be in mission with me, which means, caring about
those folks, caring about those margins, caring about the people who are poor
and oppressed.' But we shouldn't just think about this. The leper was not just
poor and sick. He was also not loved. One of the problem that we are talking
about this is, young New Yorkers, whether they are Christian or not, say
"Yea! Social justice! Big deal!" They all want to be about social
justice. They also only want to be with cool kids. They only want to be at the
hot spots. They want a network. They want to be with people who wants to open
doors for you. But if you are following Jesus, you should just love the person
next to you, no matter how many social media followers he/she has. It doesn't
matter a bit! The Christian gospel should make you so anti-glitz. Implications,
we have to follow Jesus out to the margins - to love the people that other
people don't really love. The average elite New York people does love working
with the poor. But they don't love people who they consider ordinary, without
credential, without money, without smart. And we should be willing to love who
is next to us, whoever that person is. Secondly, what Jesus does here also
raised a big question. Do you know why? An astounding thing that Jesus does,
when He's reaching out and say "Be clean!" Do you realize that He is reversing
everything that anyone knows that the physical or spiritual realm about how
things work. And the physical realm, if you are healthy and you touch something
infected, you can get infected. Your health does not heal that person. That
person's infection can make you sick. And in every religion, including the Old
Testament, when the clean touches the unclean, it becomes unclean. When you
touch something that's defiled or soiled, then you have to do all things of
purifications. And for most religions, that's how salvation works; you have to
purify yourself, and make yourself ready for God. But Jesus astoundingly
touches an unclean person and says "Now you are clean." There is no
indication Jesus went off and did purification or something like that because
he touches a leper. He is the first and only person in history who says, 'when
I touch an unclean person, I don't become unclean. The person becomes clean. I
don't care who you are. I don't care what you've done. I don't care your
record. I don't care how defiled you are. Though your sins be like scarlet, be
whiter than snow. Just a touch, contact with me.' How can that be? What He is
saying that 'I am not a prophet telling how to purify yourself to fit for God.
I AM cleanliness itself. I make you fit for the present of God. How can
salvation be that strong?
3. To help people
change their heart - a paralytic man
A man who is paralyzed, a terrible disease, was brought to
Jesus. And Jesus looks at him and even though He's not asked to do this, He
says, "Friend, you sins are forgiven."And that says volumes. Jesus
can heal you psychologically, change your identity. He can heal you sociologically,
bring you into the community. He can even heal physically. But unless you are
made right with God, unless He restores you spiritually, unless He is between
you and God, so you are reconciled with God, all those other things can happen.
Look if someone wrongs you terribly, really sins against you, there is the
barrier between you and the other person. Something has to be done. You can't
just ignore it. And because of the way we live our lives, there is a barrier
between us and God. And Jesus is saying 'The most radical thing I can do for
you is not to heal your body, as terrible as that disease is. You got 2
diseases, you got one in your body, but also you got the disease of sins, and
that is the only disease that can kill you forever. So what I am going to do is
I am going to deal with that. I am going to put you right with God. The most
radical ministry I can do. I can go to the margins. I can help the poor. I can
help you with your work. I can change your identity with the most radical thing
than anybody can do with anyone else, which is to reconcile them to God and
forgive their sins. But what interesting is, Jesus actually says, and we have
to look at it carefully that as easiest as it seems to be, the salvation, it is
not. What is so intriguing, HE touches the leper and say "You are
clean" In all the other religions of the world, if you are ceremonially
unclean or defiled, you have to walk through all kind of rituals, washing, etc.
to get yourself right. And yet Jesus says "Even though it is easy for you,
it is not easy for me." Notice what is interesting? He does a little
riddle here, "Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven, ' or to
say, 'Get up and walk'? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority
on earth to forgive sins. So he said to the paralyzed man, "I tell you,
get up, take your mat, and go home." Immediately he stood up in front of
them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God."
Commentators have been obsessing over this for years, because there are layers
here. It is a bit of a riddle here. Because on one hand, which is easier to say
"Your sins are forgiven" or "Take up your mat and walk"
Now, for me, frankly, it's easier to say "Your sins are forgiven". I
mean I can walk up to you and say "your sins are forgiven" and that
is easy. No one has any idea whether your sins are forgiven or not. But I can
say it. But if I say to a crippled man, "Get out of your wheel chair and
walk" and he doesn't, then I am revealed. So there is a certain sense to
what is easier for me to say. But for Jesus, what He is actually saying is,
"I am going to heal this man as a sign that I can do far harder thing, which
is secure forgiveness of sins.
" See, any old supernatural
magician can do healing. But as the Pharisees said, to actually forgive
sins is really hard. Do you know why it is hard? It says in 2 Corinthians 5:21
"God made him who had no sin to be
sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." God
made HIM all that we were, and HE took our punishments so that we can become
all that HE is and gets HIS rewards, the rewards that HE deserves. And what it says, "GOD made HIM all that
we were..." Take that principle and walk back to the passage. Why can He
heal this paralyzed man? Because Jesus Christ became immobile on the cross. He
was nailed to the cross. Why can He bring the leper in? Because Jesus was
crucified outside the gate. Jesus was cast out, outside the wall of the city.
He became a pry. He became a leper. And why was it possible for the disciples
to leave everything and follow HIM? Because Jesus Christ left everything, HIS
father's throne, HIS glory to came to earth and die for us. And because HE
became all that we are, we became all that HE is. And that is why HIS salvation
is so powerful. BE CLEAN! HE is cleanliness. It is salvation by grace.
Three practical applications:
1. Would you please trust this MAN? JESUS. Let me show you how much you can trust
HIM. When HE says, "My friend, your sins are forgiven." Put that up
against the fact that everywhere else in the Bible that God says God never
forgives sins unless you repent, right?! So, how in the world HE says
"your sins are forgiven"?? And the only possible answer is that HE
perceives an unspoken, unexpressed, imperfect, hard longing for forgiveness. So eager is HE to give us HIS grace. Don't
think that we have to get ourselves together, pull together and say it just
right. You can trust HIM. He desires to bless you. His desires to give you grace. Here is a man,
who had not had gotten it out, and yet Jesus saw his heart and HE gave him grace.
You can trust HIM. You can trust HIM. You can trust HIM.
2. This great identity I've been talking about, If you know
who you are in Jesus Christ, you can walk away from profit, not be afraid of
how you look. And that takes a long time to work that in. I don't want to give
you the impression the minute you become a Christian, you get this new
identity. Well, in a way, you do. But generally in principle. Because what very
often happens is that, especially the earlier in being a Christian is "Oh
I know who I am in Jesus Christ". And somebody who criticize you, or cut
you off or hurt your reputation, and you turn them on and just operating the
old identity. It takes a long time. And one of the ways that reminds me of that
the fact in this passage when Peter sees Jesus Christ thru HIS miraculous power,
fill a boat with a miraculous catch of fish, what is Peter say, "Get away
from me". But in John 21, sometime later, after Jesus' resurrection, and
Peter is in a boat, and Jesus says "throw the nets to the other side"
And another miraculous catch of fish, and Peter realizes it's Jesus, and what
does he do? Peter runs as fast as he possibly can to get near Jesus. It is
because it takes time from the identity to sink in. It takes years for the
identity to sink in. So give it years.
3. Lastly, Jesus says, "Follow me, and I make you
fisher of people." What's that mean? Literally that actually means to
liberate. The word "fisher" means to "liberate" . What it
means is, in a year of public faith, you need to be willing to let people know
what you believe so that they can even begin to at least have a chance to
imagine the same kind of identity shift, which is like life itself, that comes
to Christian who knows God's words of grace. Let's go to the margin for the
poor. Let's call people to repentance and faith. We'll be a weird church if we
do that, some people say, "that's too liberal for me" or "that's
too conservative for me" That is actually just the church Jesus wants us
to be.
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