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| Life Without Jesus (John 21:1-14) |
| Written by Pastor Fausel | |
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Grace, mercy and the peace be to you… Have you ever experienced da ja voux? Something happens, someone says something, you see something … that seems very familiar … you think you’ve been somewhere before, heard something before or seen something before? Perhaps as you heard the Gospel read for today … you were thinking along those lines… that somehow all this sounded familiar. The spotlight’s on Peter. He and some men have been fishing all night and not caught a thing. And then Jesus comes onto the scene and tells Peter and the fishermen to do something that didn’t make sense to them … but they did it anyway. And when they do, they get so many fish they can hardly deal with their catch. And in that “miracle” Peter has an “Ah, Ha” experience; he recognizes Jesus for who He truly is, the God of all Creation! Well, in Matthew, Mark and Luke’s Gospel’s we see all that happen the day that Jesus calls Peter, James and John to be His disciples. He instructs Peter to put out into the lake in broad daylight, and let down the nets. Peter argues that they had been fishing all night without result, but on Jesus’ word, he does so. And the catch is so big that it takes James and John’s boat, as well as Peter’s, to bring it all to shore. Now, the reading we heard this morning is from John’s Gospel. John doesn’t describe that fishing incident that occurs when he and James and Peter are called to follow Jesus as fishers of men…. The event that John has described for us this morning comes in the last chapter of his Gospel and is set in an entirely different time. John describes an event which occurs on the Lake of Tiberias, which to Jesus and His followers was also known as the Sea of Galilee … the same lake where that earlier fishing event occurred, the one that occurred on the day of their calling. John was using the Roman name for that Lake which was based on the name of the town on its shore that had been dedicated to the Roman Emperor, Tiberius Caesar … So, in our Vernacular, John was being politically correct using the Roman name. But it WAS the same lake … and we could well imagine that Peter was even using the same boat and even the same net that he had used the day he and James and John had been called to follow Jesus. “I’m going fishing!” Peter announces. And that’s NOT like you or me saying we’re going to get our rod and reel and go down to the lake cast a line or two … No, Peter is talking about the making-a-living kind of fishing Why does he do that?… Why is He going back to commercial fishing … after Jesus had turned him into a fisher of men????? Well, that goes to the time frame we’re looking at. This event is recorded by John after Easter, after Jesus’ resurrection... We might imagine, that as the Angels had reminded the women at the empty tomb of Jesus’ promise to go ahead of them into Galilee, that what John has recorded here was the disciples attempt to meet up with Jesus there. So here they are, in Galilee … but there’s no sign of Jesus. Some have argued that with Jesus’ death on the cross, and even with His resurrection, that the disciples found themselves lost without the constant physical presence of their leader. So without direction, the only thing left for the disciples to do was to go back to what they had been doing before Jesus had called them into discipleship. For some, especially Peter, James and John … that meant returning to the trade of fishing. After all, a disciple only is a disciple as long as there is someone to be a disciple to. So, no master … no disciple. So what happens? … They go out fishing all night … and no fish. And then someone appears on the shore asking the question that might be best rendered, “You don’t have any fish, do you?” And the fishermen are honest… no they don’t. “Then, put the net down on the right side of the boat,” this person on the shore says. … And they do … and what happens? There’s this huge catch… And Peter sees in this that the stranger on the shore is none other than their Master, Jesus Himself. Now let’s stop right there. And let’s make this assertion. Jesus was teaching His disciples a lesson. And the lesson is this: “Their failure to catch any fish … is a picture of what their life would be without Him.” Remember?… Their failure to catch any fish back when He called them was a demonstration of the same lesson. Even though they were experienced fishermen and knew their lake and the movement of the fish in it very well … who was it that truly provided their daily bread? Or, for them, their daily catch? Themselves? Their skill? No. It was God. Jesus was showing them back then, when He called them to be His disciples … that apart from Him they could do nothing, not even the one thing they thought themselves to be fairly expert at … namely, catching fish. And so, with the catch of fish … Jesus was showing them, and us, that He could also bring the catch into the nets when it came to fishing for men … which is what He was calling Peter, James and John to do. And note the parallel: No fish in the nets … no people to be gathered in the kingdom? Why? No Jesus. So, if a huge catch of fish were gathered in the net when Jesus was present, in the same way, people would be gathered into the kingdom, also when Jesus was present! And so, Jesus’ appearance, His offering breakfast and table fellowship with His disciples was a picture, if you will, a sign, that Jesus is re-calling His disciples to be fishers of men. And implied in that … would be the fact of Jesus’ continued presence with them. The blessing they saw in this catch of fish is the blessing they would continue to see as they practiced their new calling as fishers of men. Underlining that is this cryptic number of the fish they caught on this occasion. John recorded that they caught specifically 153 fish… What’s the significance of that number 153? One very early Christian writer explained that at the time of Jesus, Greek zoologists had identified 153 known species of fish… The implication was that their catch of fish not only indicated that they were to continue to serve God as fishers of Men … but also, that they were called, to reach, or to catch … all nations, all peoples… Perhaps the number 153 is a stretch, but it’s not without some reasonable evidence. So … that’s about the disciples … how about us? Both of the disciples’ fishing expeditions underline a truism … When it comes to the work that we do in this world … it makes a big difference in who or perhaps better said, whose, we are. Take just our daily bread for instance. God’s Word tells us that God brings the rain on the crops of the godly as well as the ungodly. In other words, the blessings of the fruits of the earth are not withheld from the enemies of God… nor do the children of God necessarily get special consideration. The difference is that the ungodly see themselves as the source of what they get, while the children of God see their Heavenly Father as the supplier of all their physical needs, or as we say, our daily bread. Jesus speaks to this in Matthew Chapter 6. There He says… “So do not worry saying, “What shall we eat?’ or “What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your Heavenly father knows you need them. But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well…” See the difference? What can become idols among the ungodly, things they run after … are seen as blessings … that are given by God according to the needs of His Children. The fallacy that the ungodly live under is that by their skill, they can fill their nets. Truth is, their nets are filled only by the grace of God, but they don’t know that. And so, fear and worry about not having enough are borne out of their understanding that what they have depends on them, and how well they can out-smart the fickleness of a universe which they cannot control. Some of the richest men in history have never thought that they had enough wealth … because they knew what was here today, could, despite their skill and best efforts, be gone tomorrow. But for a child of God, daily bread, the necessities of life, become things that are trusted to God’s providence. Not things to run after … to become idols. The second thing we learn has nothing to do with the ungodly… it’s the thing which we see Jesus teaching His disciples about on this occasion as they go fishing for fish … when they should be, by all rights, now fishing for men. The lesson is simple, they can’t go about it without Jesus. Two Bible passages spring to mind … the first from Matthew. There Jesus is directing His disciples to go make disciples of all nations, by baptizing and teaching them … and Jesus concludes with the assurance … “and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Likewise we hear Jesus’ words to the disciples and to us in John Chapter 15: I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in Him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” “Can do nothing …” Not even that thing you think you are good at. Especially when it comes to Kingdom work. In that realm, we join God in what He is already doing … He accomplishes His work through us. The people that are drawn into the Kingdom of God are not brought in by us … but by God, who does it, through us. He is the one who draws, gathers and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it in the one true faith. He is the vine … we are simply His branches through which fruit is borne for the Kingdom. We can do nothing in that realm without Him. Therefore, kingdom work itself cannot/should not/ become an idol for us either. “Come and have breakfast,” Jesus says, “Let me provide your daily bread, as you join me in what I am doing, making you a fisher of men.” Who is the focus on in all this? Jesus. He is the essence of our salvation … for in and through his Death and Resurrection, our sins have been forgiven … And so now … our life is in Him as well, as He daily and richly provides for our earthly needs … while empowering us by His Spirit to do His will … reaching others with the Gospel. Life without Jesus? Could you even imagine it? But Life WITH Jesus? We are blessed to be blessings of God beyond ourselves. Watch and see what Jesus is doing though you and your life this week. In Him. Amen. |