In Luke 5:1-11 we find the call of Peter. Jesus asks if He can borrow Peter’s boat to give a sermon to the crowds. After He’s done, He tells Peter to put the boat out into deep waters to go fishing. Peter, thinking he has more experience than Jesus at this (after all, everyone knows you don’t catch fish in the day time), says ‘Master, we worked all night and didn’t catch anything, but I’ll put out a net because You said so.’ Then of course, because Jesus knows more about fish than Peter (after all, He created them), the net was instantly full of fish and between the two boats they had difficulty pulling the nets in. At which point, Peter says, ‘Lord, depart from me, because I am a sinful man.’ At that point Jesus reassures him and invites him to follow Him.
The two words Peter uses in this incident are interesting, because they show the progression to salvation. ‘Master’ is the Greek epistata, which means an appointee over something, a commander, or teacher. Many people today will quite readily admit that Jesus is a good teacher. Jesus commanded Peter to let down the net, and Peter obeyed. But the transformation came when Peter called Jesus ‘Lord’. This word is the Greek kurie, meaning one who has supreme authority and control. Peter then demonstrated that Jesus was indeed his Lord by leaving his boat and nets behind and following Him.
The question for each of us is this: Is Jesus our ‘master’, or is He our ‘Lord’? Does He have complete authority over our life, or does He just command us to do things that we pick and choose whether or not to obey?
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