What does it mean for the Kingsman to receive His commission for God’s work in the workplace?
Where does Jesus choose to call the Kingsman into His service?
Luke doesn’t place it in a synagogue or on a mountain. He places it on a shoreline at the end of a failed shift, with tired men rinsing out their nets (Luke 5:1-11). Simon had caught nothing all night, and by mid-morning his boat was sinking under the weight of fish. He was following Jesus before lunch. The Kingsman can learn four things here: the workplace Christ borrows (Luke 5:1-3), the word that outranks his experience (Luke 5:4-5), the glory that exposes him (Luke 5:6-10), and the treasure that redirects his labour (Luke 5:10-11).
The Workplace Christ Borrows (Luke 5:1-3). The crowd pressed in to hear the word of God, so Jesus stepped into Simon’s boat and asked him to push out a little from the shore. Then He sat down to teach, the posture of a rabbi with authority. He didn’t ask for a better venue. He took a working boat, still damp and smelling of the night’s failure. Simon was tired and discouraged, cleaning up after a poor result, yet he lent the boat. That ordinary act of availability put Christ’s word in front of a crowd. Paul tells the Colossians that whatever they do, they should work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men (Colossians 3:23). The Kingsman doesn’t have to wait for a platform. The desk, the van, the till, and the rota are already places where Christ can be heard, if the Kingsman makes room for Him there. As the Kingsman recognises where encounters can take place, he seeks God’s wisdom to see the place for such encounters.
The Word That Outranks His Experience (Luke 5:4-5). Jesus tells a professional fisherman where to fish, and the instruction is absurd. Fish were caught at night in shallow water, and the night had produced nothing. Simon says so, and then he says, “But at your word I will let down the nets.” He doesn’t pretend his expertise is worthless, but he lets Christ’s word overrule it. Notice that he calls Jesus “Master”, a title meaning one in charge. By verse 8 it’s “Lord”. Obedience taught him who he was dealing with. Solomon says to trust in the Lord with all the heart and not lean on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6). Isaiah gives the reason: God’s thoughts are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9). The Kingsman is expected to know his trade. Beyond that, God wants a man who will lower the nets anyway when the Master speaks into a situation his competence has written off. The Kingsman understands the Master as the real expert in the situation.
The Glory That Exposes Him (Luke 5:6-10). The nets began to break, and two boats began to sink. Simon’s first reaction isn’t delight. He falls at Jesus’ knees and says, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” The catch wasn’t the main point. It showed Simon who Jesus was, and the sight made his own sin obvious. Isaiah responded the same way in the temple, crying out that he was a man of unclean lips before the King (Isaiah 6:5). In both stories, mercy answers the confession. Jesus says, “Do not be afraid.” Notice also that Simon asks Jesus to leave while kneeling at His feet. A man can feel his own unworthiness and still not want to be anywhere else. The Kingsman should watch what a good week does to him. Success at work can inflate him, but it can also humble him, if he sees the Giver behind the gift. James and John were Simon’s business partners, and they were there for this too (Luke 5:10). Some of the Kingsman’s best moments of worship may happen alongside the colleagues who share his labour. The Kingsman looks to God for opportunities to enable others to see who is the source of success in the temporal and in the eternal.
The Treasure That Redirects His Labour (Luke 5:10-11). Jesus told Simon, “From now on you will be catching men.” The Greek verb suggests catching alive, the opposite of what a net does to a fish. Jesus didn’t invent a new career for Simon. He took skills like patience, endurance, and reading conditions and aimed them at people. Luke then says the men left everything and followed Him. They didn’t leave out of duty. They had just seen something worth more than the catch that nearly sank their boats. Jesus told a parable about a man who found treasure in a field and sold everything he had in his joy to buy it (Matthew 13:44). The Kingsman surrenders his old ambitions gladly, because he has found something better than them. That doesn’t mean he abandons his job. After the resurrection, Peter is back in a boat, and again the night has produced nothing until a voice from the shore tells him where to cast (John 21:3-6). Paul made tents while he planted churches (Acts 18:3) and urged believers to work with their hands so they might walk properly before outsiders (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12). Work has become the place where the Kingsman fishes for people, and he does it for the glory of Christ.
Receiving the commission from God can leave the Kingsman where He is and follow the instructions of the Master. The commission could see Him follow wherever the Master sends Him. The Kingsman is commissioned to do the Lord’s work from wherever the Master finds Him. He clocks in as someone called, and the God who filled those nets sends him out.
This is what it means for the Kingsman to receive His commission for God’s work in the workplace.
For His Name’s Sake
C. L. J. Dryden
Shalom
