Jesus was quite intentional about who He wanted to be His first disciples.  Today we start the account of how He called Simon, who He later renamed Peter (Matthew 16:18).  This fisherman already knew Jesus; the Master had stayed in his house at Capernaum and healed his mother-in-law (Luke 4:38-39).  But Simon was still going about his usual business - mending nets and preparing the boat in the daytime, and fishing at night.  Jesus deliberately chose that shallow bay, where the boats were partly hauled-out, to teach the crowd.

This passage should surprise us.  First, Simon Peter caught a shoal of fish but describes himself as a 'sinful man': then Jesus is kind to the self-confessed sinner and makes him the first disciple!  What is going on?  Well, Simon Peter did not really believe any fish would be caught.  He protested to Jesus and then put out his nets to demonstrate that Jesus did not know what He was talking about (Luke 5:4-5).  In fact, it was Peter who was out of order. That was proved when so many fish came aboard the two boats that they were in danger of being swamped by the waves (Luke 5:6-7).  

A leper had just been healed (Luke 5:12-13).  But Jesus wanted no credit, and certainly no advertising.  However, He instructed the man with new normal skin to go to the priest to certify that the disease had gone – the priests acted as the Public Health Officers of Israel using Leviticus 13:1-46 as their dermatology textbook - then to offer the sacrifices required under Moses' law to complete the ritual cleansing (Leviticus 14:1-32).  It was a ceremony of thanksgiving and consecration to God.  So, the leper’s need and the religious law were both satisfied by Jesus (Matthew 5:17-18).

Jesus had become a major focus in the region of Galilee.  Although He had made clear that He had come to announce God’s kingdom (Luke 4:42-44), He was also full of compassion and often responded to the needs of broken people (Psalm 116:5).   The religious leaders were feeling under threat from this Man whose healing was miraculous and teaching was the breath of God, and they searched through all the good He said and did to find something that would discredit Him.