Responding to grace

How do you respond when you are given a gift you know that you do not deserve?  This is an important question because every Christian has been given a gift we do not deserve and thus all of us must be asking, what is the appropriate response for this gift of salvation through Christ which we do not deserve?  We have in a brief story in Luke 5 a helpful look at how to respond to grace, to receiving a gift you know you don't deserve.

It is a fairly straightforward story.  Jesus has been teaching and healing people near the Sea of Galilee.  Enormous crowds have gathered and so he asks one of the fishermen, named Simon, who has been out fishing all night and is cleaning his nets before he goes home to sleep so he can go out fishing tonight--Jesus asks him if he could use his boat to push out from shore and teach the people.  Simon obliges him, which means he has to row the boat out and keep it steady while Jesus teaches.  This after having fished all night.

After Jesus finishes teaching the people, we are not told what he said, he says to Simon, "Row out a little deeper and let down your nets for a catch of fish."  Simon, I'm sure in a somewhat exasperated voice, "We fished all night and caught nothing.  But at your word we will let down the nets."  So he and his brother Andrew and their dad row out to deeper water and let down the nets.  The nets are immediately filled to overflowing with fish.  There are so many fish that Simon has to yell to his partners, John and James, who are still on shore to bring the other boat out in order to hold all the fish.  You can be sure these seasoned fishermen have never seen such a catch as both the boats began to sink under the weight of the catch.

It is just at this moment that Peter responds to grace, to unmerited favor, to receiving a gift he knew that he did not deserve.  He falls at Jesus' feet and declares, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord."  He responds with profound humility.  He knows he had a bad attitude.  He didn't believe Jesus when he promised they would catch fish.  He had heard his teaching and at least knew about his miracles; he knew this was a unique man of God whom he had treated with contempt.  Thus he knows, he doesn't deserve the gift and he most certainly does not deserve to be in the presence of such a person.  He knows he is a sinner who does not deserve to be treated kindly nor to have a relationship with such a person.  That Jesus would have anything to do with him was the most preposterous thing of which Peter could think. 

How different his attitude from so much of what passes for Christianity in the USA.  We are told that God loving us is the most natural and normal thing in the world.  The love of God for humans is the most expected thing in the universe.  There is nothing surprising in God wanting to have a relationship with us humans in the modern church.  This is not what Peter thinks.  He realizes that it is an astonishing thing for God to love a sinner.  He would agree with John Newton about God's grace--it is amazing and unexpected and can only be received by the humble, those who know they don't deserve it.

Notice what happens next in the story.  Jesus recognizes in Peter the appropriate response of a sinner in the presence of a holy God.  He tells him first, "Don't be afraid."  Peter was actually responding to Jesus' gracious provision of fish the same way the Israelites responded to God showing up on Mt. Sinai.  They said to Moses, if you will remember, that they did not want to hear God speak anymore because if they did, they would surely die.  The stood far off and told Moses to talk to God for them.  So Jesus, first of all assures Peter that he is not going to die, that God is going to deal with him according to his mercy and not according to Peter's sins.  Then next he says to Peter, "From now on you will be catching men."  Not only does Jesus assure Peter of his love but he appoints this sinful man to one of his chief spokespersons.  From that day on Peter, Andrew, James and John left their old life behind and followed Jesus.  They responded to grace with faith.  They believed that belonging to Christ and being his follower was better than everything else in the universe and so they left their dad and their business and followed Christ because of his grace.