This coming weekend is the 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time. Prior to Jesus calling the first disciples, he was already at the lakeside teaching.

¹ While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret. ² He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets. ³ Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. ⁴ After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”

Twice in this section “the crowd” is mentioned. Who are they? They are people who come to Jesus to hear the word of God (v. 1). They are people who are taught by Jesus (v. 3), but are they people willing to leave everything and follow Jesus (v. 11)? In our text, there is a difference between the crowd (ochlos) and the fishermen (halieus). The crowd listens to Jesus. The fishermen act. The crowd stays on the land. The fishermen will go out into the deep. At first, Jesus and Simon go out just “a little way from the shore.” Later Jesus will ask Simon to go out to the deep water. Could these be images of different levels of trust in Jesus — the safety of the land, the slightly more dangerous position of being “a short distance from the shore,” and the quite dangerous position of being out in deep waters?