The freedom no country can give you

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5 July 2026 · Trinity 5 · Luke 5:1–11

“Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!… Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.” (Luke 5:8, 10)

In the holy Name of + Jesus. Amen.

This weekend, the whole country is talking about freedom, and make no mistake, that isn’t a bad thing. Freedom from tyrants, taxation, and foreign influence. Freedom of religion, speech, the press, peaceful assembly, and the right to petition the government. Freedom is worth a bonfire, a flag, and a day off work.

But beneath all our talk of freedom lies a deeper freedom that no fireworks can give you and no tyrannical government can take from you. This morning, the Lord hands real freedom to a terrified fisherman in a sinking boat. So let’s hear about the freedom you can only get when you’re caught in the Lord’s net.

Ask many people what freedom is, and they might describe it as the open road or, today, the open sea. The frontier with no borders. Water stretching to the horizon. No one over me. No one telling me what to do. My boat, my water, my catch. To be free is to be uncaught, to answer to no one, to sail my own sea, going as I please. That is what the world calls freedom, and that is what your old Adam calls freedom, too.

But listen: that is exactly how the fish thinks, too, and it’s an illusion. The fish in the open water answers to no one either. It goes where it likes. It calls the whole sea its own. And it is not truly free. It’s just not caught yet. Scripture has a word for the broad, open sea of sin and self-will, where a man does as he pleases and answers to no one. The word is not “free.” The word is “lost.”

Simon Peter had his open sea. He had his own boat, his own trade, his own two hands. He had worked that sea all night long, free and self-reliant, beholden to nobody, but he had caught nothing. Pull your net up empty enough mornings, and you learn what the open water actually gives the man who trusts himself: an aching back and an empty boat. That is the undercurrent beneath all our talk of independence. If it’s true, then you are on your own. And you will ultimately come up with nothing, have nothing, and die with nothing.

And then Someone climbs into his boat. Uninvited. A carpenter, no less, telling a fisherman how to fish. “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch” (Luke 5:4). Everything in Peter wants to laugh. We toiled all night; what would You know about it? But something in that Word bends him. “Nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net” (Luke 5:5). And the nets come up so full they begin to tear. The boats fill so full they begin to sink. Grace comes in over the side like a flood, more than the boat was ever built to hold.

And what does Peter do with a boat full of blessing? He does not throw his hat in the air, rejoicing. He doesn’t celebrate with newfound economic freedom. He falls down on his knees in the pile of fish and says, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” (Luke 5:8). What a strange thing to say? But now he knows he was never free. The nearer God comes, the more the sinner wants Him gone. And that is the tell. That is what all that freedom talk is hiding.

For a man who has run his own sea his whole life, the moment Holiness itself steps into his boat, he does not feel free at all. He is terrified. Luther says the guilty conscience flees from a rustling leaf as though it were thunder. That is the bondage underneath the bravado, a man so afraid of God that his one prayer is, “Please, go!” Get away from me. That is not a free man. That is Isaiah crying, “Woe is me, for I am undone.” (Isaiah 6:5) That is the open sea, at last telling the truth in all its weight and captivity.

And now, this is where your Lord does the one thing the open sea can never do. He does not depart. He doesn’t cast you overboard into the great Abyss. Peter says go, and Jesus says, “Do not be afraid” (Luke 5:10). Do you know what that word is? Do you hear how incredible that is? That is Absolution. That is the very word your pastor lays on you from this before this altar: do not be afraid, your sins are forgiven you! Jesus does not leave the sinful man alone in his boat. He keeps him. He catches him. He holds him fast in that forgiving Word.

And Jesus by that Word transforms Peter (and Andrew and James and John and all those who would come later) into something new. He calls Peter and the Apostolic church out of slavery and bondage to the elementary principles of this world: kill or be killed; eat or be eaten; and all the rest. Now, in Jesus, Peter and the rest will give life rather than take it. They will save rather than consume.

There is a wonder hidden in the words that you would miss in English. “From now on you will catch men” — the word for catch is not the fisherman’s word. When you catch a fish, you catch it to kill it. The word Jesus uses means to catch alive. He is not netting you into His boat to gut you. He is netting you to give you life. That net you have spent your whole life swimming away from, so sure it was a trap, is the one place in all the world where you are actually free. Peter, Andrew, James, and John were brought into the nave of life. So are you, too!

This is the freedom no country can hand you, and no fireworks can celebrate. It is not the open sea where you answer to no one and drown alone, but the net of the love of Christ, where you are held so fast you cannot be lost. The free conscience, finally forgiven, is not the one that answers to nothing. It is the one that no longer has to run, because the blood of Jesus has already answered for it. You were caught alive in the water of your Baptism. You are held in that net every time the words “I forgive you” fall on your ears. You are drawn up out of the deep at this very rail, where He lays His own body and blood on your tongue and will not let you go.

“So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him” (Luke 5:11). Not because the sea had turned on them. Not because they had just given up. Because they had finally been caught by the only One whose grip is true freedom. So bring Him your empty nets. Lay before Him your terror. Bring Him that tired old “freedom” that has never once filled your boat and isn’t freedom at all. Be caught up in Jesus’s Word and gifts, and He will not depart from you. You’re finally free in Christ.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guards your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie · St. John Ev. Lutheran Church & School — Sherman Center, Random Lake, Wisconsin

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