Today’s Gospel reading is the miraculous catch of fish at the Sea of Galilee, or as Luke refers to it, the Lake of Gennesaret. If you close your eyes and try hard you can almost hear the lapping waves, the squawking gulls, the bustling activity, and the creaking of the boats. You can almost smell the salty air and the rank seaweed which has been lying on the sand exposed to the sun, the warmth of which has just started to sting your shoulders.
Perhaps the human title of “the miraculous catch of fish” that is often attributed to this gospel account would be better rephrased “the miraculous work of the living and active Word of God.” For what Jesus says, happens. With this miracle, Jesus intends to remind His audience of the creation account: God said let there be light…and it was so. God said let the land produce vegetation…and it was so. God said let there be lights in the sky…and it was so…and so on, the creation account goes, showing the power of God’s living and active Word to create. He speaks creation into existence.
Here in our Gospel reading, Jesus, the Word of Life, shows Himself to be God by exercising His divine authority over creation, and with His powerful Words, speaks re-creation into existence. In doing so, He vindicates His earlier posture of sitting to teach. His Word has authority not only to impart wisdom and knowledge, but to re-create.
