“Very God of Very God: His Divine Works”
Luke 5:1-11

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany—February 6, 2022

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

For the remainder of the Epiphany season, throughout the month of February, we will focus on the doctrine of the DIVINITY of Christ, which is a traditional theme for the Epiphany season.  As we just confessed in the Nicene Creed:  “The only-begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God.”

This doctrine of Christ’s divinity is based on the testimony of the sacred Scriptures, in which he does divine WORKS, is given divine NAMES, possesses divine ATTRIBUTES, and has divine GLORY.

The word “epiphany” means “to reveal” and “make manifest,” and the many miracles that Jesus performed during his earthly ministry, such as the miraculous catch of fish in today’s Gospel Reading, reveal and make manifest his true divine nature.  As the Gospel of John says after his first miracle, turning water into wine: “This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.”

There will be two solar eclipses in 2022, on April 30th and October 25th.  Whenever a solar eclipse occurs, there are always news stories warning not to look directly into the sun, because that can damage your eyes. 

Moses once said to the Lord, “Now show me your glory,” but the Lord responded, “No one may see me and live.”  Beholding God in his perfect glory would be like looking directly into the sun, except that you wouldn’t just be damaged, but totally destroyed.  For, God is perfectly holy and righteous, but we are wholly fallen and sinful.  To use another, nerdy illustration from Star Trek, God’s holiness and our sinfulness are like matter and anti-matter.  If they come into contact, the result is our destruction, death, and damnation.  “For no one may see me and live.”

One way to safely observe a solar eclipse is through a welding mask.  In the same way, during his earthly life, the divine Son of God “masked” his glory in human flesh.  Paul puts it this way in Philippians: “But made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”

Just as a welding mask allows you to safely view in action a solar eclipse of the sun, “S-U-N,” during his earthy life, the mask of Christ’s human likeness allowed humans to safely view in action the ministry of God’s Son, “S-O-N.”  As John says at the beginning of his Gospel: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. . .  No one has ever seen God, but the only-begotten Son, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.”

Paul continues in Philippians: “And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!”  That was the ultimate masking of Christ’s divinity: His suffering and death on the cross.  As those taunting him while he hung on the cross sneered at him, “IF YOU ARE the Son of God, come down now from the cross and save yourself.”  But, instead of using his divine powers to save himself, he masked his divinity in a broken, bloody, tortured body, humbly giving up his life to save you, like a lamb led to the slaughter, crucified, dead, and buried, for us men and for our salvation.

Paul puts it this way in Colossians: “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form. . .  For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things . . . by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. . .  he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body, through [his] death, to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.”  That is the essence of our faith: On account of Christ’s blood shed on the cross you are forgiven all your sins, reconciled to God, “without blemish and free from accusation” in his sight.  As Peter says in Acts, “Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Occasionally during his earthly life, Jesus did pull back the mask of his humanity, and gave people a glimpse of his divine power and glory.  We call those occasions “miracles.”  The whole purpose of his miracles was to prove that Jesus is more than a carpenter from Nazareth with a second career as an itinerant rabbi.  As Peter says in Acts: “Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him.”  Jesus put it this way: “The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me. . .  Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.”

His miracles were a peek behind the mask of humanity that he wore during his life on earth, a brief but dazzling glimpse of his true divinity.  As John reports the people saying among themselves: “‘Could this be the Christ?’ . . . ‘When the Christ comes, will he do more miraculous signs than this man?’ . . . ‘Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.’”  And as John concludes at the end of his Gospel: “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.  But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” So, that is the primary significance of all Christ’s miracles, a peek behind the mask of his humanity, a glimpse of his true divinity.

The miraculous catch of fish in today’s Gospel Reading occurs one morning the Sea of Galilee, when Jesus commandeers Peter’s fishing boat in order to teach the large crowds gathered on the shore.  Jesus has Peter put out a bit from the shore and converts that boat into the first Christian pulpit, as he preaches the Word of God across the water to the crowds on the shore.

At the end of the sermon, Jesus adds a personal sermon illustration for Peter, to demonstrate the power of his Word, in the form of an unusual request: “When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.’”

For an experienced fisherman on the Sea of Galilee like Simon Peter, that was a very odd request indeed.  Still to this day, fishing on the Sea of Galilee takes place only at night.  And the best fishing is not in the deep water but along the shore.  And so Peter answers, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything.”  No doubt Jesus is an excellent carpenter, and certainly he is a wise rabbi and a powerful preacher, but as a fisherman, his advice to an experienced professional like Simon Peter is totally off the mark. 

“But at your Word,” Peter continues, “I will let down the nets.”  Peter heeds Jesus’ odd request because this is not the first time that he has encountered Jesus.  Already he has seen him perform many miracles, including the healing of his own mother-in-law and many others in his own house at Capernaum.  Already he has heard Jesus preach, including the sermon given that very day from his own boat.

So, even though the fishing advice this carpenter and rabbi gives him goes against everything he knows as an experienced, professional fisherman, he will do what Jesus says, because he already knows Jesus is much more than a carpenter, more than a rabbi, maybe even much more than a man.

“‘But at your Word, I will let down the nets.’  When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.  So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.  When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, ‘Depart from me, O Lord; for I am a sinful man!’  For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken.”

This miracle brings forth a two-part confession from Peter.  First of all a confession of FAITH that Jesus is the Lord, God in the flesh: “Depart from me, O LORD.”  As he would later confess, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  And this miracle also brings forth from Peter a confession of REPENTANCE, that he is an unworthy sinner: “Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man!”

We have that same two-part confession in our worship service.  Like Peter, we confess our FAITH that Jesus is the Lord, in the Apostles and Nicene Creeds.  And we begin our worship with a confession of REPENTANCE, like Peter, that we are “poor, miserable, sinners.”  “‘Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man!’  Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid.’”  With these words, Jesus pronounces Absolution upon Peter, like the Pastor announcing, “In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins.”

In the same way that Jesus’ teaching, and preaching, and miracles affected Peter, Mark’s Gospel tells us: “Many who heard Jesus were amazed. ‘Where did this man get these things?’ they asked. ‘What’s this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! Isn’t this the carpenter?’”  They knew that a mere carpenter, a mere rabbi, a mere man, could never perform such miracles.  They came to the same conclusion as Peter: His miraculous signs mean he is more than a carpenter, more than a rabbi, even more than a man.  Especially his greatest miracle of all, his resurrection from the dead.  As Paul says in Romans, “He was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead.” 

So, the miracle that Jesus performs in today’s Gospel Reading, and all his divine WORKS, testify that he is, “Very God of Very God.”

Amen.