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The Third Sunday of Easter, 04/10/2016
Sermon on John 21:1-19, by Ryan Mills
1After [he appeared to his followers in Jerusalem,] Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. 2Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. 3Simon 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.
4Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5Jesus said to them, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” They answered him, “No.” 6He said to them, “Cast the net to 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 there were so many fish. 7That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. 8But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off.
9When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread.10Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” 11So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. 12Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord. 13Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.
15When 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.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt 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. 18Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” 19(He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son +, and of the Holy Spirit.
Well it’s now been four years since I got back from travelling on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and in the time since then I’ve thought many times about our first evening arriving at the shores of the Sea of Galilee. It was late in the evening, with a big full moon in the sky as I walked down to the shore of this giant lake. And as I looked out across the water and my eyes adjusted, I saw it: a little boat the size of a couple canoes sitting a hundred yards offshore. The lake was silent, and from the boat I heard the sound of wet rope dragging along the boat’s hull, and then the splash of nets being thrown out again. There, in the 21st century, a man was out fishing by net on the Sea of Galilee. And in the back of my mind, with a chill running down my back, I heard the words of Jesus echoing from our gospel today, “Children, you have no fish, have you?”
It’s now the third Sunday of Easter. Jesus has appeared to his disciples, showing them the scars of the nails in his hands and side; he has convinced doubting Thomas, he has breathed out his Holy Spirit upon them, and he has sent them saying: “Go, tell my brothers, Go, and forgive sins, Go out and tell.” And today, after all of this, we find that the disciples have gone back to their old pre-Easter lives, they have gone back to what they used to do before this all began, they have gone back home to go fishing.
And how often in our lives are we like this? “Everything has changed,” we say. Because of Easter, because He’s risen, death has lost, life has won, sorrow and sin and sadness do not get the last word, our future has opened to eternity, we too have a commission from the Risen Jesus Christ to forgive sins, to receive the Holy Spirit, to not doubting but believing be, we are supposed to be living eternal life, but somehow life seems to have just gone back to the way it was before! We still live like we’re more afraid of death than anything else. We still live like sin and sadness will win in the end. We still live like we don’t have the Holy Spirit poured out on us, we still are filled with doubts. “Everything has changed,” our faith tells us, but like the disciples we too have decided it’s easier to go back to what we know, go back to what used to be, to go back to fishing.
Which is where we find the disciples today. They’re out doing what they used to do, they’re back in the rut they were in before Christ called them, and back fishing they have now been out all night, and have caught nothing. They caught nothing! How often could we summarize our lives like that? “We caught nothing.” Trying and trying, working harder and harder, doing our best, trying to be worthy, trying to earn it, trying to measure up, but with no results to show for it! Our jobs, our relationships, our families, our church, we find ourselves helpless, with nothing to show for it, we are so often left with empty hands, “we caught nothing.”
But it’s into the disciples’ failure, it’s into our own catching nothing, and having nothing to show for ourselves, that Christ himself appears this morning. There on the shoreline he appears, calling out to the failing disciples, “Children you have no fish, have you?” Christ is always open to our pain and failure, always present right where we hurt the most, he always shares in our situation, even when it’s of our own making. “You have no fish, have you? Well cast the net to the other side of the boat, and you will find some.” I’m sure the disciples must have grumbled a little at being told what to do in this way—no one really likes to have it pointed out that you’re failing, and no one likes unsolicited advice from armchair quarterbacks, and this is hard advice, because Jesus says “do the exact opposite of what you’re doing!” We want to control, and Jesus wants us to just depend on him. We want success, and Jesus wants us to just be faithful. We think we know what we need, but Christ already is giving what is best for us.
And so it is that sighing and rolling their eyes the disciples switch their nets to the other side, and now all of a sudden they are not able to haul the nets in because they are filled with so many fish. 153 fish, we’re told, one for every ancient people and nation. See, the whole world will be caught up in the net of the Gospel, God will snatch all people out of sin and death with the strong arms of Christ, and he will do this through us, through you, his church.
At that moment, as the disciples look at their catch, they realize that this man on the shore giving them backseat fishing advice is the risen Lord himself. Peter pulls on his clothes to jump in the water! Because he was naked, and the only way we can come to our Lord is clothed in the water of Holy Baptism, cleansed by his covering mercy for those who don’t deserve it and are stark naked without it.
And when the disciples finally arrive to the shore, there they see a charcoal fire burning, with bread baking on that fire, with fish already cooking, steaming and smoking in the glowing coals. And the one who has prepared this all for them is their Lord. The last time they all sat together around a fire, Peter was denying he even knew Jesus, and now they sit on the beach, early in the morning, the fire crackling, the bread rising up, the fish steaming, ready to eat. Despite their denying him, despite their unfaithfulness, despite their failure, he has provided a banquet for them!
For we know that this bread, this fish, taken, given thanks over, broken, and given to the disciples to eat, we know this is no ordinary lakeside picnic. This is the meal we celebrate here each week: Holy Communion, God meeting us in our unfaithfulness and failure with a banquet, with a feast, with gifts of bread and wine—no fish anymore—but gifts of his true body and precious blood which he gave away for you and for me. It’s the foretaste of the feast that lasts forever in heaven, where forever the great multitude before the throne sings, “Worthy is Christ, the Lamb who was slain, whose blood set us free to be people of God. Power and riches and wisdom and strength and blessing and honor and glory are his!”
Hopefully this spring we’ll have a First Communion class starting up here at Trinity. To prepare our kids for Communion, for weeks I talk about how the bread is Jesus’ body, and the cup is Jesus’ blood, for the forgiveness of our sins. We talk about how God always feeds his hungry people. We talk about how to open your hands and make a cross with them, make a manger for Christ’s body to be laid in, we talk about all these things. But several years ago one of the First Communion kids asked me a question I wasn’t ready for: “So what do we do after Communion then?” Which is a good question, what do you do now?
And this is the after-breakfast conversation that Jesus now wants to have with his disciples and with you and me. What do you do now? What do you do having celebrated Easter, having eaten this meal, having taken this sacrament, having shared in this heavenly banquet, having eaten with your risen Lord?
Jesus asks the disciples, and each one of us this morning, “Do you love me?” We need to wonder about that question for a second. The one who took on our sins and failures, the one who died our death, the one who has fed us with himself, do you love him? Peter says, a little too quickly, and maybe you and me, “Yes Lord, you know that we love you!” So what’s next? “Feed my lambs,” Jesus says. “Take care of my people. My little ones. My vulnerable ones. My broken ones. Tend them. Care for them. Love them. Feed them. Give yourselves to them. That’s what to do next.” “If you love me,” Jesus says, “then show love to my people around you.”
A second time Jesus asks, “Do you love me?” And a third, “Do you love me?” And if we do, if you have love for the one who died for love of you, then what we do next is simple. “Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep.” Love him by loving his little ones here, loving his flock here this morning, loving those who are firmly in the flock, and those who aren’t yet, if you want to know what to do after you take Communion, the answer is always in front of you, is always right next to you, the answer is in those all around you, in your marriage, in your family, in your job, in your neighborhood, in your school, “Feed my sheep, tend my lambs, feed my sheep.” Christ will gather a flock for us to feed that will be just as full as a net bulging with 153 fish. Since we love him, we feed them!
That’s what to do afterwards. But first, we eat. First, come to the shore, you who are tired from catching nothing, you who have been up all night and are hungry, come to the shore, to the table of this altar. Come and have breakfast, prepared for you, given by the Lord himself. Take and eat, and then go and feed.
And the Peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.