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When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at IHS’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” To Simon [Christ] said, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”

᛭ INI ᛭

The Lord doesn’t depart from sinners. That’s what we see play out. Peter cries out to the Lord, “Go away!” Christ doesn’t do that. In fact, Christ doesn’t just NOT go away, Christ tells Simon to depart from being a fisherman and NOT to depart from Him. “Follow me” as Matthew records. The Lord’s Word has power over Peter, and the result of the Lord calling Peter, Andrew, James, and John to follow Him is that they follow Him. “Let there be light,” and there was light. (Gen 1) “From now on you will be catching men.” “They left everything and followed him.”

That’s what happened, but again why? Why doesn’t the LORD Christ depart from sinners? How is it that the all-holy, almighty, sinless God in human flesh doesn’t wipe sinners off the map? Why is it that He showed up in Peter’s boat, refused to leave, and then told sinful Peter (as well as sinful Andrew, James, John, and the other Apostles) to stick around with Him, to follow Him, to be His Catchers of men? The answer’s pretty simple, and it’s all tied to our Epistle reading today.

THE LORD DOESN’T DEPART FROM SINFUL MAN, and

CALVARY’S THE REASON THE LORD DOESN’T DEPART FROM SINFUL MAN!

(I. It really is Calvary.)

The Lord doesn’t depart from sinners and Calvary is the reason. In fact, Christ crucified is the reason. And sure, Christ hadn’t been there yet when He’d met Peter by the Lake of Genneseret, that is, the Sea of Galilee, but He was heading there. Calvary was why Christ came. And His whole ministry, as it were, was like being a spiritual garbage man. Wherever Christ went He was hanging out with sinful man, people who had all sorts of sins. From Galilee to Judea, Bethlehem to Nazareth to Jerusalem, from Gentile Tyre and Sidon to the Greek Decapolis, Christ was hoovering up sins, all the various sins of mankind. In fact, all sinfulness and the sins of mankind from Adam and Eve until the end of the world were placed on Christ. As John the Baptizer proclaimed, Christ is “the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.”

But that’s all foolishness to the world. The world prefers the Christ to be some sort of mythical sage who teaches morality, even though they don’t really follow His teachings—a religious Aesop, as it were. Many Christians want that, too. A Christ who will tell them what to do, but they don’t listen either. (You know, don’t you?) Christians might prefer the Christ who blesses them in this life, the Christ of correct answers for Questioning rather than the Christ of Holy Living every day, the Christ of Christmas and Easter rather than Good Friday (church attendance bears that out…), the Christ of fellowship events rather than the Christ who instituted Holy Communion the night He was betrayed…

But there is no other Christ than the Christ who was crucified. All blessings flow down from Calvary’s Holy Mountain. All Questions have their true answer in Christ’s suffering. The Christ rested in manger only as a first stop on His way to Calvary, and the resurrection is empty without a full cross. The only true fellowship that unites isn’t common cause around an event or meal or anything that matters for this life only, the only fellowship that matters is the Supper of Christ’s body and blood, for the body given into death, and His blood shed unto death for the forgiveness of sins is here given for you to eat and to drink for the forgiveness of sins. “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.”

I say all of that to show that Calvary, that Christ crucified, suffering, bleeding, dying, dead on Calvary’s Cross is the mercy of God. That is the proof and the source, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, of why THE LORD DOESN’T DEPART FROM SINFUL MAN. It’s not because He just winks at sin, but closes His eyes in death, having received the penalty for all your sins. He doesn’t shrug it off but carries its weight on His own shoulders, bearing it “in His own body on the tree, by His wounds you’ve been healed,” as Peter says. And that’s the reason, CALVARY’S THE REASON that THE LORD DOESN’T DEPART FROM SINFUL MAN!

(II. Christ doesn’t depart from sinful man, but departs sin from man…)

Now, this truth had implications for Peter, and there’s consequences for you and me, too. When CALVARY’S THE REASON THE LORD DOESN’T DEPART FROM SINFUL MAN, it further means not only that Christ doesn’t depart from sinful man, but He causes that sinful man to depart from his sins.

When the Lord calls sinners to Himself, to follow Him, they are then altogether as much as the Lord works with them, His Spirit through them in their various vocations. Now, what does that mean? Well, first let’s look at Peter. Peter was a fisherman, and then He was called by the Lord of the Church to be an Apostle and Pastor. The Spirit, who comes from the Father, worked through Peter to make a good confession, which we heard about a couple weeks back. But as much as the Lord worked good through Peter, Peter was still a weak vessel as a preacher of the Gospel. He didn’t want Christ to go to the cross, he denied Christ, he was called to repentance by Paul after he forsook the truth of the Gospel. When the sinner is brought to the righteousness of faith in Christ, the Spirit works new motivations and good fruit through that sinner. Whatever sin remains is there but is not credited against him by virtue of Christ’s death on the cross. As Peter says of the Gentiles in Acts 15, “We believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they.”

So it is for you and for me. The Lord calls us to various vocations, callings in life: “father, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife, worker.” When the Lord unites us to Himself in Baptism He begins a lifelong journey for us following Him. Along the way, He works with us, through us, in us, and the end result of His working is that we “delight in His will and walk in His ways.” We follow where He leads. We forsake all things and follow Him. We forsake serving self and serve others. We forsake our grudges and forgive one another as God in Christ forgave us. We forsake our lust and live a chaste life, Christians actually marrying and living faithfully as husbands and wives. We do not steal or claw back from others but rather work hard so that we might have something to give others.

All this is Christ saying, “Take up your cross daily and follow me.” At Baptism the cross first marked on your forehead and heart to mark you as one redeemed by Christ. Baptism itself united you to Christ’s death and resurrection. The Bible is the Lord’s Word to bring you back into the way of life and strengthen your faith in Christ the crucified. Absolution restores you to the Lord’s promises in Holy Baptism. The Lord’s Supper delivers the fruits of Christ’s death: His body and blood for the forgiveness of all your sins.

Now, this all happens for you by faith in Christ the crucified. “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me, and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Gal 2) But how are you “caught” into that? Well, that’s why the Lord snagged Peter by the Lake of Genneseret… “From now on you’ll be catching men,” or more vividly, “from now on you’ll be a catcher of men.” Catch them alive, snag them, draw them to Christ, actually the Spirit working through him to do it…

This is why our Lutheran Confession of Christianity says,

“That we may obtain this [saving] faith, the ministry of teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments was instituted. [2] Through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Spirit is given [John 20:22]. He works faith, when and where it pleases God [John 3:8], in those who hear the good news [3] that God justifies those who believe that they are received into grace for Christ’s sake. This happens not through our own merits, but for Christ’s sake.

[4] Our churches condemn the Anabaptists and others who think that through their own preparations and works the Holy Spirit comes to them without the external Word. (AC V)

(Conclusion.)

The Lord doesn’t depart from sinners. That’s what we see play out. Peter cries out to the Lord, “Go away!” Christ doesn’t do that. In fact, Christ doesn’t just NOT go away, Christ tells Simon to depart from being a fisherman and NOT to depart from Him. “Follow me” as Matthew records. The Lord’s Word has power over Peter, and the result of the Lord calling Peter, Andrew, James, and John to follow Him is that they follow Him. “Let there be light,” and there was light. (Gen 1) “From now on you will be catching men.” “They left everything and followed him.”

So also you: “Take up your cross and follow Me.” This He said to you first in Holy Baptism, over and over again in His Word. He restores you to in in Absolution. He strengthens you for it “in faith toward and God and love toward one another” through His Supper. All of that is just Calvary, Christ crucified, being delivered to you. You see,

THE LORD DOESN’T DEPART FROM SINFUL MAN, and

CALVARY’S THE REASON THE LORD DOESN’T DEPART FROM SINFUL MAN!

He doesn’t depart from you. In fact, He calls sinners all the more, in whom the Spirit is working that they abandon all sins and evil desires. We will not let us depart except in peace according to His Word, after giving us His body to eat and His blood to drink for the forgiveness of all our sins.

᛭ INI ᛭