FROM FEAR TO MISSION

As in the previous divine appearances in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus’ reply to Peter’s declaration sought first to allay his fear. “Don’t be afraid,” said Jesus, acknowledging the divine-human dynamic that Peter had suddenly recognized. At the same time, He gently rejected Peter’s request that Jesus leave him alone, perhaps understanding that this was simply the instinctive reaction of the moment, not what Peter truly desired.

What Peter needed was reassurance that despite what he was coming to understand about Jesus, they actually could be friends, that they could fish and work together. Not only did Jesus seek to calm Peter’s fears, but He also used Peter’s confession—both of Jesus’ power and his own unworthiness—as a catalyst for a closer relationship and for advancing mission. While Peter seemed to push Jesus away, Jesus drew him closer: “Seeing God’s power is not a cause to fall back and withdraw from God, but is an opportunity to draw near to Him.”* Drawing on Peter’s confession, Jesus called Peter and his colleagues to a different kind of life, and while the statement is brief as recorded by Luke, the result was clear in the following verse, which recorded that “they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him” (Luke 5:11). This was more than just a call; it was an affirmation that Peter’s insight into who Jesus was—even as limited as it might have been at that time—was correct.

The call would make sense only if Jesus was who Peter was recognizing Him to be. It was also an affirmation that Peter’s humility, his sense of unworthiness, was the primary qualification for the task to which Jesus had now called him.

* Darrell L. Bock, Luke 1:1–9:50, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1994), 460.