"Restore and Recommission"

After Jesus’ resurrection, he showed himself to the disciples on different occasions. They recognized him as he provided for their physical needs, but even more through his presence as the Bread of Life, which was given to nourish them spiritually and invite their participation in his work of service. Jesus does the same for his disciples today.

            After Jesus rose from the dead, he appeared to the disciples and told them they would see him again in Galilee. So they made their way back to the place where they had first met Jesus.

            As they waited for Jesus to show up, Peter got fidgety. Maybe he was smarting over the way he had failed to admit that he even knew Jesus after boasting about his undying loyalty. Perhaps he thought Jesus delayed his arrival because he didn’t really want to see him. Of what possible use could a flunkie like himself be to Jesus, especially now that Jesus had demonstrated his incredible resurrection power and glory?

            “I am going fishing.” Peter announced, to no one in particular.

            Peter’s companions, who had also failed to stick with Jesus at the time of his arrest, seemed to sense that Peter shouldn’t be alone on the water in his present state of mind, so they grabbed their gear and trotted along with him.

Frustration and futility without Christ

            What do you do when things don’t work out the way you hoped they would? Maybe, like Peter, you revert to old ways that feel comfortable, like an old shoe, and turn back from the new life to which God has called you.

            Can you identify with Peter and his friends? Ever feel like a total failure, unfit to serve Jesus? I have. The Gospel lesson for today is for you and me.

            Hours before he went to the cross, Jesus had taught the disciples that apart from him they could “do nothing.”1 What happened on this occasion seems to reinforce that lesson, for the guys worked all night without catching a single fish.

            “God often tries believers, that he may lead them to more highly value his blessing,” wrote theologian John Calvin. “If we were always prosperous, whenever we put our hand to labor, scarcely any man would attribute to the blessing of God the success of his exertions, all would boast of their industry, and would kiss their hands.”2

            Could it be that sometimes God allows us to fail, so we would see our inadequacies and learn to trust him for guidance and effectiveness?

Fruitfulness and fulfillment with Christ

            As the sun peaked over the horizon, the disciples headed back to shore, weary and dejected from their hours of fruitless effort in the darkness. Then a man on the beach called out to ask them how things went, and they begrudgingly admitted to defeat.

            But the stranger told them to try again, to cast their net on the right side of your boat, where, he said, they would find some fish.

            Okay. Maybe from his vantage point he could see something they couldn’t. So, perhaps on a whim, they followed his direction, and suddenly the net was so full they couldn’t haul it in.

            A light then dawned in the mind of one of the disciples, who perhaps remembered when something similar happened a few years before. On that occasion, after the fishermen had spent the night working without catching anything, Jesus had given them instructions to cast their nets once more, and the result had been another huge catch. That was when he told them that from then on, they would be fishing for people.

            “It’s the Lord!” the disciple told Peter, who hastily put on his outer garment and jumped into the sea to swim to greet Jesus, leaving his companions to drag in the bonanza of fish.

            The disciple’s statement, “It is the Lord!” reflected his realization of the identity of the man on the shore, and also his recognition that they’d had success, not because of their skill, hard work or luck, but because they’d listened to the Lord.

Food and fellowship with Christ

            John tells us that Jesus was waiting for his men beside a charcoal fire with fish and bread.

            It may be seeing the bonfire reminded Peter of the night not long before when he stood warming himself by another fire that slaves and police had built in the high priest’s courtyard where Jesus was being arraigned, when a female security guard at the gate had asked Peter, “You are not also one of this man’s disciples, are you?” To which Peter had replied, to his bitter shame, “I am not.”3

            But Jesus said not a word about Peter’s colossal failure. Instead, he asked him to bring some of the fish they had just caught. He knew Peter like the back of his hand. He knew he was a man of action, and so he gave Peter a task. It wouldn’t surprise me if Peter’s eyes welled up with tears when he realized the enormous mercy Jesus was extending to him. Rather than berating him or expressing disappointment in his disciple, Jesus was gently recommissioning him, calling him and the others back into fellowship with him and to the service of God.

            Obviously, Jesus didn’t need their fish. He was the one who told them where to cast their net; he knew where the fish were, and the Bible tells us that all things, including the fish of the sea, “came into being through him.”4

            Besides, Jesus already had fish on the fire, and he could easily provide for his disciples’ needs. So why did he ask them to cast their net into the sea, and invite bumbling Peter to join him in preparing breakfast? For the same reason God calls us into fellowship and service. God is not some kind of vending machine into which we plunk our prayers and out pops solutions to all our problems. God is in the business of transforming people, and that requires making us partners, co-workers with Christ, participants in God’s great experiment.

            So Jesus directed his disciples, but it is up to us to follow his guidance and “bring some of the fish” he shows us how to catch.

            We learn from this that God can provide all that we lack to make up for our inadequacies.

            We also learn that when we answer his call, God equips us for the work to which he has called us.

            Did you notice how Jesus cared for his disciples? He cared for the whole person: body, soul and spirit. That’s why he spent so much time healing the sick and feeding the hungry. He provided for the disciples’ physical need for food and warmth. But he also knew that they needed to experience his presence. After they were fed, they would be ready to hear what else he had to say to them.

            “Is it not wonderful that the Holy Lord should have communion with his faulty followers?” wrote commentator David Jenkins. “Yet he will breakfast with us — with us who doubted him, as Thomas did; with us who denied him, as Peter did; with us who forsook him and fled, as all the rest did.”5

            For some reason, God takes pleasure in spending time with his people, often around a meal, as he did with Abraham in Genesis 18. The psalmist rejoiced that the Lord “prepared a table before [him].”6 And of course, Jesus fed the multitudes, once again with bread and fish.

            We all need times of refreshing in the presence of the Lord. Before we can feed others, we must be fed ourselves, not only with God’s provision, but also with Christ’s presence. Jesus knew that having our physical needs met is necessary, but it is not enough. As he told the tempter when he was tempted in the wilderness, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”7

            He drove home the point when he identified himself as “the bread of life,”8 which satisfies human hunger and provides us with eternal life.

            We can’t survive the toils of serving God if we never leave our boat. Jesus is willing to bless our work, whether it is catching and counting fish or some other labor, but he also invites us to take time for rest and refreshment in fellowship with him.

            It’s remarkable how often Jesus shows up when we break bread together. It happened for the two disciples who recognized him when “he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them”9 as they sat at the table with him in Emmaus.

            It happened for Peter and his companions when they shared breakfast with the risen Lord on the Galilean seashore. The disciples didn’t need to ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord.

            And it happens every time we come to the Lord’s table. When we partake of the bread of life, which is his body, given for us,10 Jesus shows up to restore us to usefulness and to the joy of our calling.

            “Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking,” Jesus says to us. “If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and eat with you, and you with me.”11

            Don’t skip breakfast with the Lord. Come, eat of the bread of life, and be restored!

1 John 15:5.

2 John Calvin, Commentary on John, Vol. 2 (Christian Classics Ethereal Library), https://ccel.org/ccel/calvin/calcom35/calcom35.xi.i.html.

3 John 18:15-18, 25-27.

4 John 1:3; Hebrews 1:2; Colossians 1:15-16.

5 Dave Jenkins, “Breakfast with Jesus” (John 21:12), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Volume 35, February 24, 1889, www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/breakfast-with-jesus/#flipbook/.

6 Psalm 23:5.

7 Matthew 4:4.

8 John 6:35, 48-51.

9 Luke 24:30-35.

10 Luke 22:19-20.

11 Revelation 3:20.

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