— A Sermon by Robert W. Prim —
~~~ Third Sunday of Easter ~~~
John 21:1-19
Scripture Introduction to John 21:1-19
The story at the end of chapter 20, the one we read last Sunday about Thomas and the disciples and the crucified and risen Jesus, is a powerful story. Jesus comes into a locked room and unlocks the fearful hearts of the disciples. Jesus speaks peace to his guilty and frightened followers. Jesus could have offered condemnation for the abandonment he experienced from his closest followers but instead he offered peace. Jesus embodied the ministry of forgiveness and new life and he called his followers to go into the world in the same way he was sent into the world.
The story in chapter 20 ends with these words:
Jesus provided far more God-revealing signs than are written down in this book. These are written down so you will believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and in the act of believing, have real and eternal life in the way he personally revealed it.
If the Gospel of John were a play, the stage hands would be instructed at the end of that line to drop the curtain and turn on the lights. The show has come to an emotional and fitting conclusion.
But then …. someone quietly pulls the curtain back, steps onto the stage and tells one more story… This chapter, chapter 21, is a postscript, and it was probably added by someone other than the original author and at a later date; but, no matter the author or date, this chapter is a wonderful addition to the story of Jesus as it comes to us in the Gospel of John. The author of the postscript is thoroughly familiar with the main work.
A few things to notice as we read the story…
*Seeing the risen Christ on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias feeding the disciples there with bread and fish takes us back to John, chapter 6, when Jesus blessed five loaves and two fish and fed the crowd of five thousand.
*Hearing that the disciples did not recognize Jesus takes us back to Mary in the garden. Mary, too, did not recognize him at first; she mistook him for the gardener.
*And finally, hearing the risen Christ ask Peter three times if Peter loves him takes us back to the three-fold failure of Peter to claim his relationship with Jesus during Jesus’ trial and crucifixion. (See Feasting on the Word, pages 421-425)
The author of this additional chapter has taken the major story to heart and adds an additional appearance of Jesus to the disciples that reinforces the powerful message of the crucified and risen Christ to the beleaguered disciples – a message of peace and new beginnings and a call to carry the message of peace and new beginnings into the wider world.
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Listen for the Word of God in John 21:1-19 (Eugene Peterson)
FISHING
After this, Jesus appeared again to the disciples, this time at the Tiberias Sea (the Sea of Galilee). This is how he did it: Simon Peter, Thomas (nicknamed “Twin”), Nathaniel from Cana in Galilee, the brothers Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. Simon Peter announced, “I’m going fishing.”
The rest of them replied, “We’re going with you.” They went out and got in the boat. They caught nothing that night. When the sun came up, Jesus was standing on the beach, but they didn’t recognize him.
Jesus spoke to them: “Good morning! Did you catch anything for breakfast?”
They answered, “No.”
He said, “Throw the net off the right side of the boat and see what happens.”
They did what he said. All of a sudden there were so many fish in it, they weren’t strong enough to pull it in.
Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, “It’s the Master!”
When Simon Peter realized that it was the Master, he threw on some clothes, for he was stripped for work, and dove into the sea. The other disciples came in by boat for they weren’t far from land, a hundred yards or so, pulling along the net full of fish. When they got out of the boat, they saw a fire laid, with fish and bread cooking on it.
Jesus said, “Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught.” Simon Peter joined them and pulled the net to shore – 153 big fish! And even with all those fish, the net didn’t rip.
Jesus said, “Breakfast is ready.” Not one of the disciples dared ask “Who are you?” They knew it was the Master.
Jesus then took the bread and gave it to them. He did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus had shown himself alive to the disciples since being raised from the dead.
DO YOU LOVE ME?
After breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Master, you know I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
He then asked a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
“Yes, Master, you know I love you.”
Jesus said, “Shepherd my sheep.”
Then he said it a third time: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was upset that he asked for the third time, “Do you love me?” so he answered, “Master, you know everything there is to know. You’ve got to know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. I’m telling you the very truth now: When you were young you dressed yourself and went wherever you wished, but when you get old you’ll have to stretch out your hands while someone else dresses you and takes you where you don’t want to go.” He said this to hint at the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. And then he commanded, “Follow me.”
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When Fred Snodgrass died in 1974 at the age of 86, he was a retired and successful banker, popular city councilman, mayor of his hometown of Oxnard, California. Before moving back to his home state of California, Snodgrass was a professional baseball player for the New York Giants during their three consecutive World Series from 1911 to 1913. During his career in baseball he was, one year, second in “on base percentage” and for two years he finished third in “stolen bases” for the year.
But, in the 1912 World Series, Fred Snodgrass dropped a routine fly ball in the outfield and the error cost the Giants the game and the series. That error has become one of the most famous in baseball. The error even has a name: Snodgrass’s Muff. At his death sixty-two years after dropping the fly ball, the New York Times obituary headline identified him this way: Ball player muffed 1912 fly.
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Society can do this to us.
The families in which we live can do this to us.
The communities in which we build our lives can do this to us.
Sadly, the church can do this to us.
We can do it to ourselves.
We can let ourselves be defined by our worst mistakes –
or, at least, our most public mistakes
be those mistakes of consequence or not.
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God, however, will not do that to us!
Jesus will not do that to us!
The Church, as its best Self, will not do that to us!
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This story in John 21 is a beautiful story of restoration after failure. Peter was given another chance, a new life. For Peter the old life was gone, a new life had begun. Our lives following the risen Lord are based on grace, forgiveness, second, third … chances. God can restore and use each one of us to bring good news to a dying world, especially those of us who know God’s grace in our lives after failure.
So it was with Peter. Peter’s wounded heart was stitched back together with grace, mercy, and forgiveness and it was with the patchwork heart of Peter (and Mary Magdalene, and Thomas and the others) – it was these patched up hearts that Jesus used to begin the building up of the community of faith.
This story of Peter’s restoration demonstrates to those of us in the Church – we are stewards of human broken-ness. Remember how Jesus when he appeared to the disciples the first time, when Thomas was not there, Jesus said to Peter and the rest – If you forgive someone’s sins, they’re gone for good. If you don’t forgive sins, what are you going to do with them? Jesus was calling those early disciples and all of us who would come after to be agents of forgiveness and grace and peace. People will fail and fall away, as all of the disciples did, but Jesus’ word to them and to us is a word of peace.
This story echoes the same message as that story of the locked room and the guilty disciples and Jesus speaking peace to Thomas and the others. Jesus, in this additional story, came to the one who had denied him three times and offered Peter a chance to live beyond his failures. Had Jesus met Peter with condemnation and retribution, then Peter would have been forever defined by his worst moments, by his failures – Peter’s Muffs. Had Jesus met Peter with condemnation and retribution then the Church of Jesus Christ would have been built on the foundation of judgement rather than upon the foundation of God’s grace.
When Jesus came to Peter with an invitation to express his love for him, Jesus was re-imagining Peter’s life from that moment. Peter’s future did not have to be dominated by the ways in which he failed Jesus; rather, Jesus was inviting Peter to live into a new life of doxology. Jesus, like a choir director of prison inmates, leads Peter to sing his way into freedom –
Yes, Lord, you know I love you!
Yes, Lord, you know I love you!
Master, you know everything,
you know that I love you!
(Tune: OLD HUNDREDTH)
Peter’s life went from sorrow to singing because he was given the chance to see into the heart of the divine love of God embodied in Jesus. Peter saw that God in Jesus Christ is a healer of broken-ness. He saw it and heard it and was then instructed to share it – to feed God’s lambs and shepherd the sheep into fields of grace. So it is with us.
Maybe you, too, will sing Peter’s Doxology…
Yes, Lord, you know I love you!
Yes, Lord, you know I love you!
Master, you know everything,
you know that I love you!
(Tune: OLD HUNDREDTH)