‘if you love me…then show it!’
May 1, 2022
Scriptures: John 21:1-19
Today’s reading tells us that the disciples were not quite ready to assume the mantle that Jesus had given them…not ready to go it alone without Jesus leading them. Instead of going out and continuing to minister in the name and manner of Jesus, they decided to do something quite different…but not all that surprising.
John recounts that somewhere after Jesus’ recent post-Easter visit in the upper room; Peter announced to the other disciples that he was ‘going out fishing’. A number of the others quickly agreed to go along and so off they went. We don’t know why Peter decided to go back to his former vocation, but it may have been out of perceived economic necessity. Perhaps those who had been supporting Jesus’ ministry from the beginning were not all that anxious to continue doing so after the death of their leader. If that was true, then the disciples would have had no income to live on…so perhaps they went back out fishing because they were just plain hungry.
Most of those who went along with Peter that night knew how to fish. They had fished all their lives up until Jesus had called them away from their nets and boats some three years earlier. And so, as was their habit in the past, they set out late in the day to try and catch some fish, working through the cool of the night, casting out their nets and hauling them back into the boat, hoping to trap some fish as they did so.
But on this particular night out on Lake Galilee their labor seemed to be all for naught. Time after time they threw out the nets, and time after time they brought them back in completely empty! Nothing, nothing at all to show for all of their hard work. Not even one single fish for them to eat, let alone any extra they might have been able to sell.
And I think that Peter probably worked the hardest that night. For the scripture tells us that he was barely dressed except for a loincloth around his waist. He seemed to be working with feverish abandon, almost as if he was trying to do ‘something’ right. For you remember that just the week before, right after Jesus was arrested, he had made his way into the inner courtyard of the high priest’s house where Jesus was being interrogated prior to being handed over to Pontius Pilate the next morning.
Standing there in a small crowd Peter could overhear what Jesus was going through and was surely sick at heart. Suddenly he was found out, as those gathered there with him began to accuse him of being one of Jesus’ close followers. Very afraid, Peter had lowered his head and denied knowing Jesus. Twice more he was accused of being one of Jesus’ followers, and twice more he vehemently denied even knowing him. And then, immediately after the third denial a nearby rooster crowed into the predawn darkness, and Peter remembered Jesus’ words of the night before. In a flush of shame and tears, Peter ran out of the courtyard into the inky blackness of the night.
A week later, as he fished that night out on the lake he must have felt so alone and still so deeply sorry, so in need of wanting his relationship with Jesus restored…but what could he possibly do now? And as the night wore on and dawn approached, the men in their small little boat grew tired of their unproductive labor. I am pretty sure they were as frustrated as they were puzzled by their lack of success at something that had previously come so naturally.
And then, just as dawn was just beginning to break on the horizon, with the morning mist still hanging loosely in the air, the men in the boat noticed a figure standing all alone on the shore’s edge some one hundred yards away. For some reason, Jesus chose once again to appear in a way that they did not recognize him. He appeared as just another man…as any man I guess…but Jesus to be sure.
Just a couple of days before he had come to the disciples in the upper room as himself, they had seen and touched the man they had walked alongside of for three years. And prior to that, Jesus had not been recognizable once before, when he appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus.
After they noticed him, Jesus called out to them asking, ‘Have you caught anything?’ I am not sure how the men felt at hearing this question but they replied, ‘No, we’ve had no luck at all’. Jesus then yelled back out to them, ‘Try casting your net out on the right side of the boat, and there you will find some.’ Now I am not sure if they thought this was a good idea, or a crazy one, for after trying all night long they had surely used both sides of the boat in numerous locations on the lake.
But perhaps there was something in the way Jesus spoke, a tone of authority, or a seeming knowledge…something. Whatever it was, the men complied and cast the net out once more on the right side of the boat. And then, as they began to pull it back in they felt a slight tug, a tug that grew stronger and stronger until by the time they had the net up and next to the boat they were unable to haul it over the side because it was so filled with large fish. Amazed at their sudden good fortune, one of them, the one known as ‘the disciple Jesus loved’, looked up again at the figure on the shore and exclaimed, ‘It is the Lord!’
Although they could not recognize him, there just couldn’t be any other reason, it had to be Jesus. Glancing up quickly at John’s remark, Peter immediately grabbed his outer clothing and jumped headlong into the water, wading towards shore as fast as he could. The others tied the net full of fish to the side of the boat and slowly rowed the small craft back in towards land.
Arriving at the beach where Jesus was standing, they saw that he already had a fire going and that it was ready to cook on, in fact there were already some fish and bread on the fire. Jesus said to them, ‘Bring some of the fish you have just caught.’ Going back to the boat, Peter untied the net and hauled it onto the beach where Jesus was standing.
Bringing some fish over to him, Jesus proceeded to cook them, and then invited them all to sit and have breakfast with him. John tells us that none of the disciples dared to ask Jesus who he was, for they were all very sure that it was him. But it must have been an interesting time, sitting there in silence while the fish were cooking and then again while they were eating. I mean, what do you talk about?
After they finished breakfast Jesus turned to Peter…the one who was surely still so ashamed at letting Jesus down, still so wanting and needing to be forgiven…still wanting some assurance that his treasured relationship with Jesus might be restored and made whole. ‘Simon, son of John’, Jesus began, ‘Do you love me more than the rest of these here?’ Peter replied, ‘Yes Lord; you know that I love you’.
Jesus’ response back to Peter reveals that we have a conditional question at work here…for Jesus responds back, ‘if you love me, then feed my lambs’. If you love me, then ‘show it by doing this’.
A second time Jesus said to Peter, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ Peter replied again, ‘Yes Lord, you know that I love you.’ Jesus then replied, ‘Tend my flock.’ And then yet a third time Jesus asked, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ Peter, feeling hurt that Jesus asked him a third time, said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep.’
Jesus continued, ‘When you were younger, you used to fasten your belt and go anywhere you wished. But when you are 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…’. After this, Jesus said to him, ‘Follow me’.
This ends our gospel reading for today…thanks be to our God.
So…what have we seen and heard so far? To start, let’s go all the way back to the beginning of our faith story…back to another place on the shore of Lake Galilee, near the region of Gennesaret. Here, as we see in the fifth chapter of Luke’s story, Jesus was on the beach trying to teach a large crowd that was pressing in on him. Seeing a couple of boats there Jesus waded into the water and got into one belonging to a man named Simon and pushed off from shore in order to more effectively share his message. After he had finished speaking he told Simon to go out into deeper water and to let down the nets for a catch. Simon answered Jesus saying, ‘Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.’ When they had done this they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it he fell down at Jesus’ knees saying, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’…then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’ When they had brought their boats ashore they left everything and followed him.
The story of our faith begins and ends with a story about men going out fishing in boats. Three years before Jesus had called these same first disciples to follow him after providing an abundant catch of fish, telling them that from then on they would be fishing for human souls. That they would be seeking out and finding the lost and the hurting. And from that moment on Jesus had walked with them demonstrating to them what he had meant by those words.
Now once again, three years later he finds them fishing on the same lake, and again having no luck at all. And once again he provides an abundant, net-straining catch…this time to show them that indeed he had risen and that divine gifts of grace in abundance were still available even after he had been taken from them. Jesus showed them that he was still the Lord of gracious and overwhelming provision, even when those who received the gift had been asked to be about a very different task than fishing for fish! How gracious and loving is our Lord in that he still speaks to us in ways and with language we all understand and are familiar with…thank goodness he still knew how to talk to some old and very tired fishermen!
In the first story, the one in the beginning of Luke, Jesus tells the disciples to go out further away from shore into ‘deeper water’ and to let down their nets. In today’s story, Jesus yells out to them to try fishing on the ‘other side of the boat’. Both instructions seem innocent enough, however both can yield deeper insight if we take a step back. How often are the things that we do out of faith, ‘safe things to do’? MIght not Jesus be asking us to try ‘deeper water’ as well? How often do we prefer the comfort of shallow water? Water in which we can still see and feel the bottom, water in which we are still standing on solid ground? Are we willing to push out into water that is much deeper and perhaps nowhere near as clear? What if that is where the ‘abundant catch’ which will so enrich our own lives is waiting for us?
In our second fish story from our reading today, ‘throwing our nets out on the other side of the boat’ can also be understood in several ways. First, it may seem like we are being asked to do yet again something that has been quite unproductive in the past…something we may have tried many times before, something that seems like such a waste of time. Something to which we may feel like responding wearily to, ‘Really’? And yet, if such indeed is the call of our Lord, then it will remain there, pestering us until along with Peter we finally say, ‘If you say so Lord, I will do it’.
Or perhaps, ‘throwing our net out on the other side of the boat’ is a call to go off in a new direction altogether. Putting our energy, skills, talents, and enthusiasm into a wholly new endeavor, leaving behind old and tired ways, trusting in the Spirit’s urging deep within to step out in faith, reaching for a different goal, seeking to serve the Lord in a totally different way, or to a totally different degree than before. Truly there are things to consider when Jesus calls to us from the shore, after we have spent long and sometimes fruitless hours out on the sometimes stormy seas of our daily lives.
When we say yes to our Lord’s call, there is not just the abundant catch, tho’ that is always impressive, and affirms that the call we heard was indeed from our Lord, but even more than that, Jesus is inviting us to share at his table of fellowship with him, and with those who have been ‘caught in the nets’ of our faith. The truth is, faith is often best shared around a table, sharing God’s gracious abundance together with those who are seeking to walk along with us. All of us helping one another to better understand our Lord’s call to service and sacrifice within the comfort of fellowship, laughter, and loving kindness.
When we say ‘yes’ to our Lord’s call, when we agree to commit to ‘fish’ for those in need of knowing our Lord…either by ‘letting our nets down in deeper water’ or by casting them out ‘on the other side of the boat’, we will find ourselves together at the table with the one who promised, ‘Whenever two or more are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them’.
The fact that each of Jesus’ 3 questions to Peter was asked in a conditional format speaks clearly both to Peter, and across the span of time. Telling us as well, that the way to love our Lord, is to reach out and to love one another…to feed and to tend the flock of the Lord.
Now who is that flock? The ‘flock’ of our Lord, the ‘sheep’ Jesus is referring to, are those that most need to hear a voice of compassion and love, those out on the hillsides lost and alone, those who need a shepherd. The ‘flock’ that we are asked to feed and to tend to are all those we encounter as we walk in faith under the guidance of God’s Spirit.
‘If you love me’, Jesus tells Peter… ‘If you truly love me, as you say you do…then show it by living a life of action and service in caring for all of my sheep’. Here in today’s reading Jesus pleads with us to do what we have been trained and equipped to do…to take the abundance with which we have been blessed, and use it for the glory of God by sharing it with all who are in need around us.
…‘if you love me, then feed my sheep, and tend my flock…’
…amen
