Luke 5:1–11
In Luke’s first “call to discipleship” narrative, Simon Peter has spent the whole night fishing with no luck. Jesus asks him to cast out his nets again and Simon Peter notes his objection: “‘Master, we’ve worked hard all night and caught nothing. But because you say so, I’ll drop the nets,’” (5:5 CEB). He casts his net and it is suddenly overflowing with fish. Simon’s response is “‘Leave me, Lord, for I’m a sinner!’” This is often read as a righteous humility and Jesus’ “Don’t be afraid” as divine mercy. Is this a merciful response to Simon’s appropriate humility or is it a correction to a logic of shame and fear? It might be both, and in both ways it speaks against the logic that undergirds our prison and policing system.
On one level, carceral logic relies on the idea that some people deserve to be dehumanized through violence, exile, or withholding of necessary resources. Ultimately this logic flows from fear: the fear that there won’t be enough, that we need to protect ourselves from the pain that comes from mistakes, that a lack of due-deference for another person should result in condemnation. This fearful logic legitimizes the policing and prison system, which exists to force the most vulnerable populations to bear the weight of the consequences of economic austerity and dysfunctional social systems. From that perspective, Jesus’ miracle and response undermine carceral logic and the dysfunctional, austerity system it upholds. Jesus creates overabundance, corrects Simon when he attempts to exile himself (after his mistake of objecting to Jesus’ request), and asserts that his authority should not evoke fear in Simon Peter.
On another level, there is a sense that Simon’s response is appropriately humble and Jesus’ response a show of mercy. Dysfunctional systems are, at their heart, dysfunctional relationships. Dysfunctional relationships, at their heart, arise from misplaced fear. They result from imbuing temporal things and relationships with ultimate weight or what Paul Tillich calls “ultimate concern.” When we relate to experiences of suffering or acts of harm as ultimately defining experiences, then we create a reality in which a victim of harm is universally a victim and a perpetrator of harm is universally a perpetrator. The dichotomy of victim/perpetrator is also a part of carceral logic and at its heart is the fear of being either. We want the police to protect us from being victims by isolating and punishing perpetrators. We dehumanize perpetrators because we do not want to identify with them. We go to great lengths to analyze “what went wrong” that created a victim, often to the extent of victim-blaming. This is a dysfunctional reality because it is based on placing our ultimate concern on the avoidance of being a victim or perpetrator.
From this perspective, Simon Peter’s confession “Leave me, Lord, for I’m a sinner” represents a transitional space from the fear I described above. Simon can avow his identity as a sinner, but if Jesus does not show mercy he will be stuck in that identity. Jesus does immediately show mercy: “Don’t be afraid.” If Simon has placed his ultimate concern in the appropriate place, God’s regard for him, then he can be free of all the fears that perpetuate dysfunctional relationships. Consequently, Simon Peter must recognize Jesus’ ultimate authority as the only rightful object of fear. Only then will he internalize Jesus’ merciful “Don’t be afraid” and his identity will be transformed. When this is realized within himself he can also become a mediator of God’s “Don’t be afraid,” and begin to “catch” people into life-giving relationships.
From a transformational justice perspective, we must also be able to acknowledge the reality of harm that we do and harm that we experience, but we must also hear and relay God’s response: “Don’t be afraid.” Only through courageously facing the reality of harm (and our role as victim and/or perpetrator) and believing in the possibility of transformation, can we build a system that nurtures life-giving relationships.
Sarah Lynne Gershon (she/her) is an MDiv/MTS student, DOC pastor, and lives at the Bloomington Catholic Worker.