The Familiar and the Unfamiliar

Luke 5:1-3

“1 Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, 2 he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.”

Christ, looking for a way to preach to the large crowds that were pressing in on him, approached Simon, whose mother-in-law he had recently healed, and asked him to take his boat out just offshore.  

From the boat, Jesus taught the crowd on the shore about the kingdom of God and God’s forgiveness of sins.

Jesus was an improviser; willing to use the things of ordinary life in his parables and sermons; and here we see Him using a fishing boat in order to deliver a message to a large crowd.

Jesus was willing to try different methods, to use the familiar and the unfamiliar… 

for the sake of the gospel.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)