Luke 5: Miracles According to the Bible - Why does Luke place Peter at the forefront at the beginning of Jesus' public ministry?

Luke 5: Miracles According to the Bible - Why does Luke place Peter at the forefront at the beginning of Jesus' public ministry?

4 When Jesus had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch."

5 Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets."

8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!"

32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

After successfully overcoming the devil's temptation in chapter 4, Jesus begins his public ministry. Having entered the synagogue to proclaim the word and having extracted himself from confrontations there, Jesus realized his activities were more effective when he drove out demons from possessed individuals. From this point on, Luke introduces Peter. Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law, who had been suffering from a fever. In the context of the society at the time, this would be described as driving out the fever. Luke doesn't stop there but brings Peter to the forefront in chapter 5.

Why does Luke highlight Peter at the start of Jesus' public ministry? And why did Jesus choose to heal the sick instead of engaging in socio-political activities like fighting for independence from Rome or leading a popular uprising? Moreover, winning people's hearts through the power to heal sickness is relatively easy. Yet, Jesus declined such suggestions and opted for healing itself. The incident of Peter catching a large number of fish and his reaction allows us to guess the reason for Jesus' choice.

Following Jesus' instruction to let down the nets, Peter caught a significant number of fish. For the fisherman Peter, who had caught nothing all night, Jesus' direction was a miraculous command. Normally, Peter would not have listened to the advice of a young man who seemed to have never caught a fish before. Yet, contrary to his nature, Peter followed the young man's advice, even to go out into the deep and let down the nets. This is the first miracle. But the real miracle happens next. After catching so much fish that the nets began to tear, Peter fell to his knees before Jesus. "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man." Instead of expressing gratitude or discussing the distribution of the fish, an event occurs where he confesses to being a sinner. Isn't that odd? Seeing the multitude of fish, Peter saw the sins accumulated in his flesh and soul, bursting out like the nets. Peter's illness was healed. Seeing his sin in the fish, this is the second miracle that happened to Peter. Instead of holding onto Jesus to exploit him as a miraculous source for fishing, Peter asks him to leave. Peter was instead caught in the net Jesus had cast. This is the essential miracle God had planned for Peter, the third miracle.

For the sick, healing is a miracle. Those healed were caught one by one in the net thrown by Jesus, as planned by heaven, just like Peter. The healing of diseases broke the social convention and religious common sense of the time, which saw illness as divine punishment for sin. "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (verse 32) is undoubtedly a revelation of God's will and a word of truth. God desires to complete a drama with a happy ending. This is the divine intention that Luke perceived.