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Third Sunday of Easter, 04/14/2013
Sermon on John 21:1-19, by Hubert Beck
After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We will go with you." They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, "Children, do you have any fish?" They answered him, "No." He said to them, "Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some." So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. The disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.
When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish that you have just caught." So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." Now none of the disciples dared ask him, "Who are you?" They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." He said to him, "Feed my lambs." He said to him a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." He said to him, "Tend my sheep." He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" and he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep. Truly, truly I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go." (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this, he said to him, "Follow me."
(English Standard Version)
SOMETIMES YOU NEED A REPLAY TO BE SURE YOU'VE GOT IT RIGHT!
Within the last ten or fifteen years the new element of "instant replay" has entered the vocabulary of sports on nearly all professional and collegiate levels. Resisted at first, it became clearer and clearer that, given the instruments making instantaneous replays of questionable calls on the part of referees, umpires and other such officials possible, such forms of reviewing close calls in sports have now become virtually necessary! There are many ways of "seeing" what happens in an athletic contest, and there have always been "conferences of those authorities" who may have seen the same play from different angles to determine who saw what in a particular way. Today, however, cameras set at various angles on different parts of the field of play have made it possible for those same judges of action on the field of play to view what happened from so many perspectives that calls made on the field can be affirmed or reversed within a matter of moments.
Long before such a variety of views was electronically possible, however, the study of a variety of texts telling about what those who saw and interacted with historical events helped to get a clearer vision of just exactly what did happen in those instances in a more objective way. In much the same way the diversity of texts speaking about the risen Christ show us that those who were befuddled at this unimaginable event could speak of it - perhaps even had to speak of it - in distinctive ways in order to affirm the same reality, making "replays" of differing sorts possible for us to better understand this unique and unrepeatable event.
We are never told of anyone actually first-handedly observing Jesus being raised from the dead. All the accounts of the risen Lord are of an empty tomb and appearances of the risen Christ in the hours, days and weeks following his resurrection. It is in the variety of narratives of those manifestations of Jesus in resurrected form, though, that one finds the full affirmation of that which took place in that tomb on Easter morning. Those many and various accounts, sometimes actually "replays" of recognizable earlier moments in Jesus' ministry, are the assurances that those who lived during the days following Jesus' return from the dead "got it right."
Matthew, Mark and Luke each have a version of Jesus' appearances after his resurrection similar in many ways to one another and yet in other ways complementary to one another, some more rich in detail than others.
John's account, however, is by far the most extensive and thought-provoking of any of the other versions. We are told by John of Mary Magdelene's report to Peter that the tomb was empty; of Peter and John's rush to the tomb, only to find it empty as Mary had said it was; of Jesus' encounter with Mary who at first thought him to be a caretaker of the garden; of the appearance of Jesus to ten of the disciples on the evening of his resurrection; and then of yet another appearance a week later to the disciples with Thomas, the "doubting one," present; and then, lastly, to those gathered at the Sea of Tiberius of whom we hear in today's Gospel reading. Our reading today involves two "replays" forming the nucleus of these appearances of the risen Christ.
Replay Number One
Following the appearances of Jesus on two consecutive occasions in Jerusalem as we read about them last Sunday, today we find seven of the same men in Galilee, well to the north of Jerusalem. Perhaps they were there because they remembered that both an angel and Jesus himself had said that he was going to that territory in order to meet them there. (Matthew 28:10; Mark 16:7) Perhaps they were waiting for him to appear there at some undesignated time and place. We do not know how long they had been there, for John only tells us that they were found there "after this" - i.e., after he had appeared to them those two times in Jerusalem.
Whatever the case may be, they seem to have been quite aimless in their waiting, so Peter, bored with the waiting and the resultant idleness returned to the fishing boats so familiar to him from the past - and the others, lacking anything better to do, came along with him. The fishing went poorly, though, and having toiled through the night they were returning to shore just at dawn. Was it the poor light that kept them from recognizing the stranger standing on the shore asking them if they had any fish - or was that stranger so altered from the familiar person they had known earlier that he was not recognizable to them then? We do not know. We are simply told that "the disciples did not know that it was Jesus."
They apparently thought that he saw a school of fish from his vantage point on the shore that they did not have from their boat, so when he told them to "cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some" they did so with no hesitancy. That was the moment of revelation for them, though, for when the net was filled with a quantity of fish so great they could not haul it in John, "that disciple whom Jesus loved," suddenly recognized who that stranger was. "It is the Lord," he exclaimed, and Peter, as impetuous as ever, jumped out of the boat and swam fast as he could toward Jesus, leaving the others to haul in the net full of fish.
It quickly became plain that the man, now identified as the Risen One, hardly needed their fish even though he asked them for some, since he already had a breakfast of bread and fish cooking on a charcoal fire. We are told that Peter then returned to help haul in the 153 fish caught in the net - the specificity of the number has mystified interpreters through the ages - and who bothered to stop and count them at that magical time anyway? Did Peter's return to the ship take place because he suddenly realized that he had deserted his friends and left all the work to them - or did this sudden confrontation with Jesus unexpectedly and abruptly play on his conscience, causing him to occupy himself elsewhere rather than to be forced into making uncomfortable conversation with the one who had named him Peter, "Rock"? We do not know, but as events unfolded one could be led to think that after his impetuous leap into the water to go to Jesus he had second thoughts about how much he really wanted to speak with Jesus.
It surely didn't take long for any of them to recognize this scene as one familiar to them from the time when Jesus first entered his public ministry. Then, too, he had met at least some of those gathered on the shore of the same lake into they were now casting their nets, had instructed them to let down their nets at a most unlikely time and place, resulting in a great catch of fish. It was there where he had called them to follow him and they "immediately left their nets and followed him." (Mark 1:18) It was all too familiar a scene to miss the realization that the one who had called them then was also the one who now invited them to breakfast.
They knew for sure who he was.
But yet they didn't know who he was, either. "None of the disciples dared ask him, ‘Who are you?' They knew it was the Lord." Isn't that a strange sequence of sentences? They knew who he was, but they didn't know who he was! They recognized him, but they didn't dare ask him for his credentials! As it was with the disciples on the way to Emmaus, the man before them was clearly the identifiable man who, upon closer assessment, made it unambiguously plain that he was the one with whom they had walked and talked for months and years - and yet the same man was "different" in some unidentifiable way.
So they just sat down and ate. We are not told here that Jesus ate with them, although we are told elsewhere that he did eat with them at another time. Here Jesus just served them. He "came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish." Some think this is an allusion to the Lord's Supper through which they recognized him with certainty, and it may be. But it is more likely that it is simply a way of saying that he, who had washed the feet of Peter, saying, "I have given you an example ... Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master," was here again exemplifying that his role had always been and still was that of being the Chief Servant to those who would willingly receive his service.
However one interprets this act of Jesus serving them breakfast, the essential "replay" made it plain that he who was now among them as the Risen One was the same one who had first called them into his circle of discipleship. The Master had become the Servant, and he called the servants whom he served to now take up his role in serving others. He who had been recognized by those who had known him closest and best was now to be recognized through them and all those who would follow them as the one over whom death had no claim, the one in whom the fullness of life was to be found. Those who had been with him from the beginning of his ministry saw it all run by them again there on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias.
Replay Number Two
Had Peter suddenly seen something that frightened him when he first arrived on the shore after impulsively jumping from the ship to come and greet Jesus? Is it possible that the charcoal fire on which the fish were being baked of a sudden brought to his mind another charcoal fire - one around which a number of people had gathered in the courtyard of the High Priest - the one at which Peter had denied knowing Jesus? Is that, perhaps, what unexpectedly popped into his mind when he arrived on shore - and made him return to the ship to help bring it to its mooring lest he be confronted with that dreadful moment? We have no way of knowing, of course.
But there was no reluctance on the part of Jesus to bring that moment around the charcoal fire in the High Priest's courtyard to Peter's mind once they had concluded their meal. "When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?'" There is some disagreement about what Jesus meant by "more than these," for he could have been asking Peter if he held Jesus in higher regard than any of those whom Peter would have called his friends gathered with him there - or he could have been asking if Peter loved Jesus more than the others who were gathered there loved Jesus - or he could have been asking Peter if he loved Jesus more than the material things to which Peter had resorted while waiting, his boats, his industry, the life that he had always known before he met Jesus. All are possible, and differences of opinion are expressed by different interpreters, but the major point, no matter how one considers this question of Jesus is simple enough: "Do you hold me in the highest esteem possible - more than anything else? You, who promised that you would never deny me - are you willing now to stand by me under any and all circumstances?"
With absolutely no uncertain tentativeness whatever Peter confirmed that he did love Jesus after the fashion in which he had been asked. Peter was undoubtedly remembering how well Jesus had recognized Peter's frailty earlier, his ability to deny him even before the betrayal, so Peter prefaced his affirmation with a "Lord, you know..." Just as Jesus had known Peter's weakness before the crucifixion, so also now Jesus must know Peter's heart of hearts: "Lord, you know that I love you." Jesus response was simple: "Feed my lambs," as though to say, "Then let that unabashed love be known to anyone and everyone with whom you come into contact."
But Jesus wouldn't let go of the question. Twice more he asked the same question, and Peter became quite agitated, for he undoubtedly had by now recognized that Jesus was "replaying" that night of his threefold denial. "Would you do it again, Simon, son of John?" Or, to put it another way, "Having reckoned with the limitations of the strength of your will, is your love now of the sort that will endure anything, even persecution and the dark night of death in order to avow your love for me?" For the third time Peter confirmed, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you."
Three denials had been replayed resulting in three declarations of abiding love. Surely it was this "replay" of his earlier duplicity that caused Peter to be "grieved because he asked him the third time." And in each instance Peter was reassured, "reinstated," if one wants to put it that way, as one in whom the Lord placed his greatest confidence. Not only was Peter forgiven - he was to lead the way in telling the world that the noose had been cut down from the tree of death and that, in its place, the tree of life had once again been planted by the waters "flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the city ... with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." (Revelation 22:1, 2) Three times he was told to "Feed my lambs," "Tend my sheep," "Feed my sheep."
In addressing Peter in this way, Jesus made it plain that he, the Denied One, was clearly the Risen One, for he knew about the denials that were now being replaced with a new declaration. To put it the other way around - the Risen One was the same as the Denied One. Peter had gotten it wrong the first time around, but he got it right on the "replay." There was no mistaking the fact that he who had initially called Peter to be a primary player in his ministry was now handing the reins over to him who had been forced to come to terms with his humanity so that God could re-shape and re-form him into one through whom the Holy Spirit would powerfully address the world with words of renewal, forgiveness, life and salvation
Jesus made it plain, however, that to do what Peter was being called to do would be done only at the cost of his own safety and security - at the cost of his life, in fact. "When you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go. (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.)" That was what it would cost to do what Jesus called him to do with the simple words: "Follow me." It was a replay in spades of the first "follow me" when Jesus had called him from an earlier set of fishing nets and said that he would make of this man a "fisher of men." But now the words were spoken to a tried servant, a matured disciple, a man now thoroughly prepared for a task that would literally turn the world on its ear.
What was the difference? Peter had seen a man crucified and buried now raised from the dead. He had discovered that the bonds of death were broken and that life burst forth from the tomb of this Jesus who now confronted him with a renewed call to follow him. He would now be able to stand up in the face of an inimical crowd and say, "Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know - this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it." (Acts 2:22-24)
You Can Be Sure You've Got It Right When You Walk With the Risen One
Were these two "replays" meant only for the seven disciples out fishing on the Sea of Tiberias, or even more specifically for Simon, son of John? Hardly! They were meant for the ages - and for your and my age. As the words immediately preceding our text make clear: "These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." (John 20:21) These and all the other accounts of Jesus' resurrection are the touchstones of life itself. Wherever this certainty is proclaimed that, in Jesus, death has met its match and life has become vibrantly available in a new and robustly vigorous form for all who are willing to place themselves into his care and keeping one can confidently trust that sins are forgiven and that God wants his sheep to be tended and fed. Whether you are a "tended sheep" or a "shepherd feeding the sheep of a family, a neighbor, or anyone among whom you journey through life," be assured of this: Dawn has broken over the dark night of death, and you are given the commission to let that be known!
Peter was assured that following Jesus would take place only at great personal cost, for he could not follow him to the open tomb without first following him to the cross, to the death of everything old and dying on this earth. To follow Jesus costs us the same thing! To follow him is to put to death all the instincts that this earthly life plants in us, to make a grave from which the life of Christ might spring forth! He does not propose to simply make old things a bit better. Old things must die and be done away with so that life might spring forth from their grave. It is the drowning in the waters of baptism that makes the way for the waters of life that spring forth from that baptismal font. It is a feeding on the body and blood of Christ so that one is strengthened for the difficult and demanding journey through life that is involved in following Jesus. When Jesus assured Peter that carrying out the responsibilities of caring for those whom the Spirit would call his people he made it plain that one cannot call others to bear the cross of Christ until one has first of all borne it with him themselves.
So let us be instructed by these two "replays" of Christ by which the man who stood on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and who walked the Way of Sorrows in Jerusalem is also recognized as the Risen One who walks our paths with us as we journey through life. He is the one in whom the fullest form of existence is available, the one who goes the Way of Life with us as he once walked it for us. For to follow him is not only a Way of Suffering. It is also the Way to that Eternity in which Jesus now rules as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
When one walks that way with him, one has gotten it right!
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.