Luke 5, a visual study from The Lampstand Project.
From now on you will be catching men.
A miraculous catch of fish. Simon Peter falls to his knees. Four fishermen leave everything. A leper cleansed. A paralytic lowered through a roof. Levi called from his tax booth.
Four scenes. Call, cleansing, forgiveness, calling again.
Luke 5 is a chapter of calls and healings, and they are connected. The miraculous catch produces not celebration but collapse: depart from me, for I am a sinful man. The leper’s cleansing produces the question of authority. The paralytic’s healing produces the charge of blasphemy. Levi’s calling produces the scandal of the dinner table. In every case, something holy enters ordinary life and produces both wonder and resistance.
A chapter in 4 movements.
Tap any numbered marker to read its part
“Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”
The miraculous catch. Simon falls. Everything left behind.
The crowd is pressing in to hear the word of God. Jesus gets into Simon’s boat and asks him to put out a little from land. He sits down and teaches. When he finishes, he says: put out into the deep water and let down your nets. Simon: master, we toiled all night and took nothing. But at your word I will let down the nets. When they do, they enclose a great number of fish and the nets begin to break. They signal partners to come. Both boats begin to sink.
When Simon Peter sees this, he falls at Jesus’ knees: depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he and all who are with him are astonished at the catch. Jesus says: do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men. When they have brought the boats to land, they leave everything and follow him.
“And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ Immediately they left their nets and followed him.”
“Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”
A leper. “If you will.” “I will.”
A man full of leprosy comes to Jesus and falls on his face: Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. Jesus stretches out his hand and touches him — which would have made Jesus ceremonially unclean — and says: I will; be clean. Immediately the leprosy leaves him.
Jesus charges him to tell no one and to go show himself to the priest and make the offering Moses commanded, as a testimony. The fame of Jesus spreads all the more. Great crowds gather to hear him and to be healed. But he withdraws to desolate places to pray. The leper’s request is itself a model of faith: it does not presume, it does not demand, it trusts the will and the power of the one it approaches.
“Therefore he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”
“When he saw their faith, he said, ‘Man, your sins are forgiven you.’”
The paralytic lowered through a roof. Forgiveness and healing.
Men come carrying a paralyzed man on a bed and try to bring him in to lay him before Jesus. Finding no way through the crowd, they go up on the roof and lower him through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. When Jesus sees their faith he says: man, your sins are forgiven you. The scribes and Pharisees begin to question: who can forgive sins but God alone?
Jesus says: which is easier, to say ‘your sins are forgiven’ or to say ‘rise and walk’? But that you may know the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins — he says to the paralyzed man: rise, pick up your bed and go home. Immediately he rises, picks it up, and goes home, glorifying God.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
“I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
Levi called. The dinner table. The physician metaphor.
After this Jesus sees a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth. He says: follow me. Levi rises, leaves everything, and follows him. And Levi makes him a great feast, with a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table. The Pharisees and scribes grumble: why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?
Jesus answers: those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. The dinner table is always a theological statement in Luke. Who sits at it, who is excluded, who gets to host it — these questions run through the entire Gospel. Here the answer is already clear: the one who needs to be called is the one Jesus is looking for.
“The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Simon has just caught so many fish that the nets are breaking and the boats are sinking, and he has fallen to his knees asking Jesus to depart from him. The response is not a rebuke. It is a commission: do not be afraid. What you have seen in these nets is the scale of what I am calling you to. Leave the fish. Follow me.
The chapter of calls.
Luke 5 introduces the disciples through overwhelming provision. Jesus uses Simon’s boat to teach, then tells him to put out into deep water. They have fished all night and caught nothing. They obey. The catch is so large that nets begin to break and boats begin to sink. Simon falls at Jesus’ knees: depart from me, for I am a sinful man. Jesus: do not be afraid. From now on you will be catching men. They leave everything and follow.
Three healings escalate in their theological stakes. The leper: Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. Jesus: I will; be clean. The paralytic: his four friends lower him through the roof. Jesus sees their faith and says: your sins are forgiven. The Pharisees charge blasphemy. Jesus heals the man as proof of the authority to forgive. Then Levi at his tax booth is called with two words: follow me. He does.
“And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.”Luke 5:28 ESV
All scripture quoted from the English Standard Version (ESV). A study from The Lampstand Project.