Luke 5:1-11
Good morning, RTB’ers!
In today’s first verse Luke refers to the Lake of Gennesaret. This lake is also known as the Sea of Galilee in Matthew’s and Mark’s gospels and as the Sea of Tiberius in John’s gospel. It is a prominent feature on the map that I posted yesterday and is referred to quite often in the gospels, as in Jesus calming the storm (Matthew 8:26, Mark 4:39, and Luke 8:24); Jesus walking on the water (Matthew 14:22-33, Mark 6:45-52, John 6:16-21); and Jesus crossing “over to the other side” (Mark 4:35).
As I mentioned yesterday, cross-referencing the other gospels is helpful for a better understanding of Jesus’ ministry. For today’s reading, if you only read Luke’s gospel, you might have some sense that this is the first time that Jesus met these three men. But in John 1:40-42 we see Andrew as Jesus’ first follower, and then Andrew bringing his brother, Simon Peter to Jesus (John 1:40-42). It is also quite possible that the other man with Andrew who was following Jesus in John 1:37, 40 was either James or John (v. 10 in today’s reading). Finally, later in John’s first chapter we see Jesus also calling Philip and Nathanael (John 1:43-50). (See also Mark 1:16-20 and Matthew 4:18-22 for other records of Jesus calling His first disciples.)
If you are reading this post and following along in Search the Scriptures, it’s likely that you have also been called. So, when was that? When were you called? What was the occasion? Who was there with you at that time? What was your response? It’s good for us to ask ourselves those questions occasionally, to regularly recall Jesus’ and His Holy Spirit’s ministry into our lives. More Sunday discussion!!
Blessings!