And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.
Matthew 4:23–25

After being rejected in Nazareth, Jesus makes Capernaum his “base of operations” for some time. Just on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, within the bounds of Herod Antipas, and a short distance from territories under direct Roman rule, this was about as far away from Jerusalem and the religious rulers of the Temple and Synagogue as you can get.

From Capernaum, Jesus sets out on three preaching tours. The beginning of the first is described in the passages above and Luke 4:38–42. According to Luke, Jesus’ first encounter is with four fishermen who had just finished a long night of work and were cleaning their nets.

On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
Luke 5:1–11

Some readers may have questions about this passage.

What do we do with John and Matthew?

In John 1, we read:

One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter).
John 1:40–42

At first reading, this appears to contradict Luke’s description—how can Peter meet Jesus “for the first time” twice? Is this a contradiction?

Luke, however, never says Peter had not met Jesus before. On the contrary, Peter seems willing enough to stop cleaning his nets to carry Jesus out a little way into the water, letting him speak to the crowds. Setting aside this work would not have been a minor inconvenience—it would have left the nets uncleaned and still on the boat (as we later discover) and left Peter’s companions alone to spread and clean their nets.

Those nets wouldn’t clean themselves before the next night’s fishing, nor would Peter have some luxurious amount of time to get things ready for the next attempt at filling his nets—probably slated for that night.

That Peter interrupts his work to allow Jesus to speak for what was probably several hours indicates Peter already knew Jesus. The meeting in John 1 provides a good backstory for Luke’s account, then.

Yet a third version of Peter’s call can be found in Matthew 4:18—

While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him.
Matthew 4:18–19

Matthew’s account is clearly parallel to Mark 1:16–20. There are two ways we can relate these passages.

We could say Luke’s narrative is a more detailed version of Matthew and Mark’s narrative. While this resolves any problems, there are some critical differences:

• There is no mention of the large haul of fish, almost breaking the nets, in Matthew and Mark. It’s easy to understand Matthew omitting this detail, but not Mark—because Mark is told from Peter’s point of view.
• In one of these narratives, Peter is “casting into the lake,” while in the other, he is cleaning the nets. Again, it seems odd that Mark, in particular, would not mention such a detail.
• There is no sermon, nor anything of its contents, in Matthew. The lack of any mention of a sermon seems particularly odd, given that Matthew was a tax collector and presumably one of the primary “recorders” of Jesus’ travels. Perhaps Matthew did not witness these events?

It is possible, then, that we have three different stories about an encounter between Jesus, Peter, and the other fishermen.

The Three Encounters

One possibility can explain all three of these encounters.

John describes the first encounter. Here, Peter and the fishermen are called to repentance but not discipleship. This encounter may have been early in Jesus’ ministry before he started asking disciples to follow him (and providing financial support for his ministry).

Matthew and Mark describe the second encounter. Peter is already familiar with Jesus and agrees to follow him, but only for a short time, perhaps six months or a year.

Luke describes the third encounter. Peter has traveled with Jesus for some time and is familiar with his teaching. Perhaps he has not seen any “large miracles,” however, and decides to return to fishing so he can feed his family. The miracle of the catch convinces Peter to travel full-time with Jesus.

This “double call” is in keeping with Jewish history. For instance, Stephen mentions that Abraham and Moses were both called twice before obeying the call. It would not be unusual for it to take two calls and some great miracle to convince Peter—who was deeply familiar with the Tanach and its stories—to travel with Jesus full-time.

Woe is Me!

But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
Luke 5:8

Where was the living God to go that he would be away from Peter? There is no place.

Peter’s proclamation is one of the first great proclamations of who Jesus is we find in the Gospels. Peter echoes Isaiah:

And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
Isaiah 6:5

An angel brings a coal to make Isaiah’s tongue pure before the Lord:

And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
Isaiah 6:7

Just as the angel took away Isaiah’s guilt with the burning coal, Jesus will take away Peter’s sin on the Cross. In the meantime, Jesus tells Peter not to be afraid and that he will make Peter into a “fisher of men.”