John 21. 1-21: Fishing and following…
Teaching broken into two short talks...
Talk 1: Fishing…
It is after the resurrection. Peter and his friends have seen Jesus, talked to him, and even touched him.. They know he is alive. They are kind of stuck though. They wonder what to do next? They know Jesus is alive, but they are waiting for the “promise” the Father has yet to send – the Holy Spirit to live inside them. So Peter decides to “go fishing”.
I wonder, was going fishing a good thing or a bad thing?
If it was about having a bit or relaxing time with friends, or perhaps using the time to earn a little bit of money, it could have been a good thing.
But I suspect it was a bad thing – if Peter was still unsure about himself, unsure about the way forward, and had decided the only forward was back: back to what he knew; back to what he was good at; back to what would provide him with a sensible income for his family… So he says “I’m going fishing!” and the rest of them went too.
So Peter and his friends put their net out the left side of the boat, like they always did… let’s try. And they caught … nothing!
What a disappointment. What a let-down. What an embarrassment. Peter, the big fisherman, had let Jesus down a few days before, lying that he didn’t know who Jesus was. He couldn’t stand up for Jesus. And now he couldn’t even catch any fish…
Then Jesus was there, standing on the beach. He shouted “What have you caught?”
And they answered “Nothing!”
So Jesus told them to put the net out on the other side of the boat. “But we’ve been working all night and not caught anything. Now the sun’s coming up, and all the fish will be down on the bottom of the lake to stay cool. And anyway, rat's the wrong side. We never put the net out on that side. But just to humour you we’ll do what you say.”
This time the disciples took such a huge catch they could hardly drag the net back to the shore.
Jesus had called Peter and his friends, three years before, to be catching people for God’s Kingdom. “From now on you will fish for people.” (Lk 5. 10) Peter needed to learn that he couldn’t go back to his old fisherman life. He had to keep going forward.
And he needed to learn to be a fishermen for people.
And he needed to learn to do that Jesus’ way, not the way he had always done it. And he was learning he couldn’t do it on his own. He needed God’s help, the promised Holy Spirit.
We need to keep going forward. To keep fishing for people. And we need to do it Jesus way, not the way we’ve always done it. Guys, there are fish in the lake. There is a catch to be had. In the power of the Spirit, doing it Jesus’ way instead of the ways we’ve always done it, we can bring lots of people into God’s Kingdom.
Talk 2: Following…
It was a hard lesson to learn: Peter couldn't succeed as a Christian worker – catching people for the Kingdom – and he couldn’t even succeed at life, his old day-job of catching fish, as well as Jesus could. We have already talked about Peter’s big failure: boasting that he was so much better than all the other disciples, and then lying, swearing, trying to blend in so nobody would realise he had anything to do with Jesus. And Jesus had warned him it would happen, before the rooster crowed at the break of day. And as soon as it had happened, the cockerel crowed… And Peter went out and burst into tears.
And when he went fishing, when he pulled the net in, when they ate the fish that Jesus had cooked and some of the ones they had caught, Peter was still crying on the inside. As some of us are today, Yes?
Time for a quiet walk with Jesus. It was Jesus who decided that, not Peter. And Peter had to face up to what he really was. “Do you really love me more than these – more that the fishing? More than the rest of the guys?” Three times Jesus asked that. John uses two different words, for the sake of variety and colour. But Jesus asked the same question, in the same words, in Aramaic, three times, “Do you love me”
Following Starts with love
If we are going to follow Jesus, that is something we need to get straight in our minds and in our hearts… “Do you love me?” Are we in love with Jesus? Are we ready in our own humble, fumbling, way, a way that is no better that anyone else and possibly bely worse that anyone else, to say “Jesus, I love you.”
Following is an intimate connexion with a person. It’s like the love you have for a parent or a brother or sister. And some of us are not good at that sort of love. Some of us are too matter of fact, too practical and pragmatic. We love sparingly, in dribs and drabs that we can afford. But Following Jesus is a relationship with Jesus.
Following Serves the sheep
Jesus says to Peter, “if you love me, feed my lambs; feed my sheep, tend my sheep”.
Following Jesus is an active thing. It will necessarily affect our relationships with each other. Peter had a call to “Feed my lambs and tend my sheep”. He had people to take care of within the body of Christ. And that is more than functional. It is more than about having a role. It is about attitudes and behaviour, and about getting rid of things like comparisons and competition between ourselves and other people. Peter had to recognise that he didn’t really love Jesus more than John or James or Andrew did.
Following Surrenders everything.
Verses 18-19 make it clear to Peter that he would eventually be crucified for his commitment to Jesus. Jesus says “Take up your cross and follow me” (Lk 9. 23) and a cross is something you die on. Not all of us will be executed for our faith in Jesus. But all of us need to present ourselves as a living sacrifice to him. We are not wired for that. We tell people, “Let Jesus into your life as Saviour and he will make your life so much better. He will make you happy and fulfilled.” You remember Fraggle Rock, the spin-off from “The Muppets”? There was a character called Convincing John who was a send-up of some preachers. His backing group sang “Listen to convincin’ John, and all your troubles – will be gone”. But Paul says Everyone who will live a godly life in Christ will be persecuted (2 Tim 3. 12) Jesus doesn’t come to make our old life better. He comes to give us a new life. But in exchange for that new life – we have to give him our old one!
So let’s get real about what it means to follow Jesus. Hear his voice. He says “Do you love me? He says “Feed my sheep”. He says “Take up your cross.” He says “Follow me”. And – because we can’t do it on our own – he says “I am with you always.” The Holy Spirit is given to us, so that we can fish for people. And so that we can follow Jesus. Wherever he leads us.
© Gilmour Lilly April 2018
