Title: Simon's Experience of God
Simon's God Experience
editor of the text
In the text we read together, many stories about Jesus that we usually knew are connected relatively intricately. There are three stories. First, verses 1-3. This verse is in parallel with Mark 4:1,2. This is the story of Jesus teaching people on a boat.
Second, verses 4-10a. This verse is a parallel passage from John 21:1-14. The story is that Simon Peter, a fisherman, could not catch any fish all night, but he followed the Lord's command to cast his net into the deep and caught many fish. In the Gospel of Luke, this story appears at the beginning of Jesus' public life, but in the Gospel of John, it appears after the resurrection. The reason for this difference is that either Luke and John knew different traditions, or John edited Luke's tradition differently according to his theological standpoint.
Third, verses 10b and 11. This verse is a parallel passage from Mark 1:16-20, Matthew 4:18-22, and John 1:35-42. This passage is about the scene where Peter, Andrew, James, and John are called to be disciples of Jesus. The Synoptic Gospels report that they were called by Jesus while fishing, while the Gospel of John reports that they were originally disciples of John the Baptist and then followed Jesus.
You don't have to worry too much about the fact that the story of Jesus is reported slightly differently in different Gospels. That difference meant that the early Christian community was very honest and, moreover, entered a much more essential world of faith. If anyone had intentionally organized a Christian community, they wouldn't have left these different elements alone. They must have unified the story of Jesus into a single Gospel, which was clearly arranged at a glance.
Here are the facts we should keep an eye on. Early Christianity, when the New Testament was formed, including the Gospels and the Epistles, was simply obsessed with the events that occurred in Jesus Christ without any sense of purpose. They experienced a great event in Jesus that they had never experienced before. It was God's experience of salvation. It is an experience of the unity of God and Jesus, and it is an experience that God is present in them through Jesus. They experienced it in the teachings of Jesus, in his healings, and in what seemed miraculous to their eyes. The early community took place little by little as they shared it verbally and in writing.
But the problem was that all of those experiences depended on memory. Memories not only fade little by little as time goes by, but there are bound to be slight differences in the process of transmission. Early Christianity did not forcibly eliminate such differences. Because their experience is not at all compromised by such a difference. Of course, we had to exclude documents that were too different, such as the Apocrypha and Apocryphal Sutras. The documents we now accept as the New Testament have been accepted as scriptures, though they differ from each other because they contain the most important beliefs of the early Christian community. It is said that early Christianity recognized diversity while preserving their clear identity.
Today's text is one of these diversity. It is at first glance that this text differs from the composition of the other Gospels, but it was accepted by the early Christian community in that it was Luke's unique spiritual perspective. What is Luke's unique spiritual perspective here?
torn net
Look first at the account of Matthew and Mark of the scene where Simon and Andrew are called by Jesus. Its content is almost identical. The Gospel of Matthew accepted the tradition of the Gospel of Mark as it is without any additions or additions. As Jesus was passing by the shores of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the fishermen who were casting their nets, and said, “Follow me. I will make you fishers of men.” It is said that they immediately left their nets and followed Jesus. After that, James and John also said, “Leaving their father Zebedee and the men in the boat, they followed Jesus” (Mark 1:16-20). . Think about it. It seems strange to Jesus, who says to the people who are fishing, “Follow me,” or the disciples who hear it and leave their work and family and follow him.
Luke, who wrote the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts, has a better writing ability than Matthew or Mark. According to scholars' research, the Greek used by Luke is a high-level Greek. I'd say it's a deep study. The Gospel of Luke also contains quite a bit of historical information about that time. I would say that the historical perspective is also excellent. He was an intellectual. He wanted to convey the fact that the disciples obeyed the call of Jesus, persuasively, not just as simple facts as in Matthew or Mark. So he placed an incident at this very moment in which the nets were torn. The story goes like this:
Jesus was teaching people on the shore of the lake, but when there were too many people, he got into a boat that was lying nearby. The ship was Simon Peter's. Simon worked all night long with no income. Now we're getting our nets cut and ready to go home. You must have heard Jesus get into his boat and preach to the people. Simon must have already been shocked spiritually when he heard this sermon. Otherwise, we would not have followed Jesus' command to go out into the deep and cast our nets. Simon's words. “Sir, we have been working all night and haven’t caught a single one. But, as you said, I will cast my nets” (verse 5) and so many fish were caught that the nets were torn. Colleagues had to come and help. Simon fell down at Jesus' feet and said, “Lord, I am a sinner. Get away from me.”
Simon had a completely new experience in the words of Jesus, and furthermore, he had a religious experience in the incident where many fish were caught. It is said that he was possessed by fear. So I couldn't help but lie down. And I had to confess that I was a sinner. Guys, what did Simon experience now? What was his soul filled with? Simon, who lived a daily life of fishing, has now experienced an experience that shakes the deepest soul of man. I was caught up in fear. What is it specifically?
In my view, this incident on Lake Gennesaret on a boat is similar to what happened on Mount Horeb, a burning thorn. Moses of Horeb and Simon of Gennesaret had the same experience. Moses took off his sandals, and Simon fell on his face. They were all gripped with fear before the event of God's presence. While Moses received the mission of exodus from Mount Horeb, Simon received the mission of being a fisher of men in Gennesaret.
The superficial feature of Mount Horeb is thorns that are lit but not burnt. People are very curious about such strange events. But the thorns are not so important in the Horeb incident. It is a naturally occurring ‘elmo fire’ phenomenon. Already before Moses saw the fire of Elmo, he was gradually getting closer to Yahweh. The very fact that he lived as a shepherd of Midian and showed interest in Mount Horeb, called the holy mountain, indicates that. The thorns can be said to be a symbol of reaching God's experience.
Likewise, it is not particularly miraculous that Simon's nets were caught with so many fish that they were torn. It is not the right attitude of faith to show curiosity only in such things. If you think that if you live according to the words of Jesus, you will become rich enough to tear the net, or that you can revive the church in that way, you are talking about something completely different from the teachings of the Bible. Before the net event, Simon had already begun to be transformed through the preaching of Jesus. Of course the Bible doesn't mention it explicitly, but between the lines we can read it. That is why Luke puts three different events in one place. The catch of so many fish that the nets were torn apart is like a burning thorn, a symbolic event in which Simon experienced the presence of God and became gripped with holy fear. In this sense, the case is important.
throw away
Simon and some of his associates said, “Do not be afraid. From now on, you will be fishing for people.” Hearing Jesus' words, he left everything and followed Jesus. If you are a person who has experienced the presence of God, you can no longer spend your life on anything else. You can no longer stay in your daily life. It is quite natural to say that they forsook everything and followed Jesus.
Consider once again the structure of today's text. When Simon and several other fishermen say that they forsook everything and followed Jesus, the important thing is that they experienced God's holiness to such an extent that they could not help but fear. You can't throw it away and follow it without it. God's experience is of primary importance. But today, many believers leave the experience of God alone and just want to give up on what the Bible says and follow them unconditionally. Without the experience of God's presence, there are many things that follow Jesus according to their mood or to go to Gangnam with a friend, to be swept away by the atmosphere, and to gain religious culture for the sake of face. Those who follow Jesus in this way are very easily tempted. Even the slightest difficulty will shake it. Even if we listen to other people's sad words, our faith itself is shaken because of it.
In the end, what matters to us today is more about God's experience than what we will forsake or how to follow. So did Moses, and so did Simon Peter. They experienced God's presence in their own way. In particular, Simon in today's text experienced God's presence through the words of Jesus and through the incident where so many fish were caught that the nets were torn. What kind of God experience do we have today? Without it, we can never follow Jesus. No, neither should it.