Luke 5:1

‘Now it came about, while the multitude pressed on him and heard the word of God, that he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret.’

The crowds continued to gather around Jesus in order to hear ‘the word of God’, the truth of God taught by Jesus, as He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret. They were so eager that they were pressing in on Him and making it difficult for Him to speak in comfort and safety.

Gennesaret was a region south of Capernaum whose name had become attached to the Sea of Galilee. The lake is know as Gennesaret in outside sources, and is seven miles (eleven kilometres) wide and thirteen miles (twenty one kilometres) long. It is liable to sudden storms because of the wind swirling through the surrounding hills, and is six hundred feet (211 metres) below sea level, being bountifully supplied with fish, and in Jesus’ day its shores were dotted with towns.

The crowds had gathered to hear ‘the word of God.’ The spreading of this word, and its effectiveness, is a theme of Luke and Acts. It is the word concerning the Kingly Rule of God and in Acts includes the proclamation of the name of Jesus Christ. The popularity of it among the ordinary people is brought out here.

‘Gennesaret.’ The lake is called that only here in the New Testament. It suggests that Luke obtained this story from a local who thought of the Lake in those terms. Peter, James and John clearly did not see it as a story to be spread around. They would think that it could only fully be appreciated by fishermen, and by recounting it they may have thought that they would be seen as putting themselves in a position of superiority to those whose calls were less spectacular.