This is going to seem like a strange question, but how many of you have heard of “The Amazing Randi?” He was a stage magician, “mentalist,” and escape artist (in the tradition of Houdini). He once escaped from a block of ice and once escaped from a straitjacket while hanging upside-down over Niagara Falls. He once broke a record for staying underwater (in an air-tight coffin) for over two hours in a public pool in London, England. Today, he is something of a “debunker” who reveals the “tricks” behind some stage magic and alleged psychic powers. He even taught me a little trick I want to demonstrate. I’ve never tried it before, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. [Perform “Carnak” Trick where I pretend to know what’s in the envelopes before I open them.] It’s all about disclosure to remind us about Jesus revealing himself like when a message comes out of an envelope. We can’t really see it while it’s in the envelope and, apparently, the disciples still couldn’t see Jesus either.
But the real reason I bring up the Amazing Randi is that Penn Gillette is writing a biography of him and, in that biography, he has revealed that when the fellow was performing as a “mentalist” on-stage, he would awaken each morning and take a note out of his wallet, destroy it, write a new one, and put it in his wallet. The note essentially said: “I am James Randi. This is xx-xx-xxxx and today will be the day I die.” That way, IF he died on that day, someone would find the note, believe that he had accurately predicted the day of his death, and his legend would live on. That’s a lot of trouble to guarantee your legacy when you’re not, by definition, going to be around to enjoy it.
Today’s message is about legacies, too. In one sense, it’s about Jesus’ legacy because He was preparing both Peter and John, in particular, and the other disciples in general for continuing their ministries. In one sense it’s about Peter’s legacy and the fact that he would die a martyr’s death and John’s legacy when he allegedly lived a long, long time. In another sense, it’s about our legacy. Who is going to enter the Kingdom of God because of our faithfulness?
When we read John 21:1, we see that Jesus “shewed himself,” “revealed Himself,” “manifested Himself,” or even “clarified Himself” to the disciples. The evangelist uses the verb twice in verse 1 and again in verse 14 (when it says that this was the third time Jesus revealed Himself to the disciples after His resurrection). As far as the Gospel of John is concerned, the third time must have been the “charm” because he doesn’t recount any of the other appearances, even though Luke tells us in Acts 1:3 that Jesus kept appearing to them over the course of 40 days. Anyway, the Gospel of John uses this verb nine times in total and the Epistles of John use this verb nine times in total. Compared to the two times it is used in the other three gospels, it must have been an important verb to John.
The verb has the root idea of clarifying something that might be in obscurity. With the emphasis on Jesus “clarifying” Himself in this chapter, I would suggest that the main message here is that the disciples still don’t get it. The crucifixion is over, the resurrection is complete, everyone has seen Him, but they still don’t get it. Jesus went through all of this torture and torment on their behalf and for every human in history, and THEY don’t get it. Even after two other appearances, they still don’t recognize Him. But I emphasized the pronoun “THEY” for a reason. WE don’t get it. WE act just like those disciples, going our own way when God wants to use us and bless us. WE just look at the envelope and think we’ve got the message. But getting the message requires watching for Him and listening to Him in the Word on a regular basis.
In verse 2, we discover that there are how many disciples in the boat? I count SEVEN. It seems to me like the evangelist was going to a lot of trouble to let us know just how many disciples were in the boat. It wasn’t the whole TWELVE because they hadn’t replaced Judas yet. So, you couldn’t have 3*4 = 12, the divine times the created order for God and His creation in right relationship, but you have 3+4 = 7—that other symbolic number of God and His creation in right relationship. I truly believe that there were seven disciples in the boat so that the crew symbolically represented God’s people called to go out into the world and do God’s work. The only problem is that they aren’t OUT in the world doing what they were called to do. They were fishing, just like they did before Jesus came.
In fact, we’re told in verse 3 that they were in “the” boat. The Greek uses the definite article as opposed to allowing an indefinite article as with “a” boat. It sounds a lot like Mark 1 where Jesus calls the sons of Zebedee and they leave their father and the hired sailors on THE boat—same wording. It sounds in Mark 1 like the boys left the assets of the family business (including THE boat) with their father and went off on their “adventure” with Jesus, and it sounds suspiciously to me as if they went home with the gang and took out the familiar Zebedee and Sons fishing “trawler” to pick up where they left off to follow Jesus.
Now, I know that not every commentator agrees with me. Some think that Simon Peter’s determination to go fishing was essentially a call to “retreat.” He simply organized a fishing trip (as in Leon Morris’ commentary in the New International Commentary on the New Testament: Gospel of John), a time of enjoying the familiar while he sorted out where he and the others were emotionally and spiritually. This suggestion sounds sort of like a church retreat or a men’s camping trip.
But I notice that the verb is in the infinitive form. I’m convinced that Raymond Brown (The Anchor Bible Commentary: Gospel of John: Volume II) is correct when he recognizes it as the “infinitive of purpose.” Peter and the rest were going back to the familiar, back to the old lifestyle. And if Jesus hadn’t interrupted them they would have probably missed Pentecost because they were on this wild goose chase (only it’s more like a wild “gar” chase, except that the Sea of Tiberias only has freshwater sardines, tilapia, carp, and striped mullet, so I guess my pun doesn’t really work).
This needs to be a warning to all of us. There are going to be times when we aren’t sure what God really wants and we don’t know what direction to turn. On those occasions, the easiest thing in the world to do (and believe me, I know this to be true) is to turn back to something where we feel comfortable and we feel in control. The problem is that when WE’RE in control, guess WHO isn’t?! And just as the disciples ran the risk of trading Pentecost for Tilapia, we run the risk of trading down in life (much like our Chicago Bears letting go of the second round pick yesterday because Jerry Angelo couldn’t figure out what to do with it) so that we miss out on God’s blessing to grab something with which we’re more comfortable. Bad trade!
So, Jesus reveals Himself, but they don’t recognize Him. He calls them “children.” It’s a term of endearment as well as an indication that they are young men of educable age. He’s about to schoolmaster them, tutor them in the very profession at which you’d expect them to have the most competence—fishing. He first makes them admit that they haven’t had any luck. In fact, the word used in verse 5, the word usually translated “fish” and sometimes, “relish” intended for fish, contains the prefix for “for” or “positive” and the root for eating. You could almost translate this, “Students, did you get anything good for you? Do you have anything nutritional?” At least, that’s what this rare noun suggests to me. It reminds me that we can’t really find anything good for us when we avoid the will of God who wants what is best for us.
Next, He tells them to drop the net over the “right” side. Now, in the ancient world (and even in the 20th century), it was sometimes easier for a person on shore to see evidence of a school of fish than it was for the men in the boat. Maybe it was a trick of the glare, but there have been eye-witness accounts of such. Or, it could simply be Jesus’ miraculous knowledge, but I hate to invoke the supernatural when a natural explanation will do. The point is that the disciples, though they were professionals and had been at their work all night couldn’t do it without Jesus—just like we can’t accomplish what God really wants from us without the help of God Himself.
But what I particularly like in Jesus’ statement is not just an indication that the fish are there, but the open-ended promise that “You will find…” I don’t know about you, but I see an echo here of Jesus teaching the disciples to pray. Didn’t He tell them to seek and find, ask and receive? Here they were trying to do things their own way and according to their own expertise when what they really needed was the Master’s Word. And aren’t we too often the same way?
We think we know the best way to structure/organize God’s church. We think we know where the fish are biting. We think we have all we need to accomplish God’s work, but we don’t have His Word.
Well, when they do obey, it doesn’t take very long for Peter to recognize the Lord and rush to greet the Master. But instead of just popping into the sea, stripped for work, he puts his outer garment back on. In the ancient world, it was considered disrespectful to greet someone stripped for work or naked for the baths. One needed to prepare oneself to meet someone who was respected. Now, I don’t know about you, but this makes me feel kind of uncomfortable about our “come as you are” worship services, these days. I sure don’t want to frighten anyone away with a dress code, but just as there is something special about putting on a tuxedo or gown for the Prom or an Awards Ceremony, there ought to be something special about preparing to meet God in worship. And, just as I like to dress up for a gallery opening, a concert, or a show, I want to look my best (to the limit that’s possible) for God. I know this isn’t a popular viewpoint and I normally wouldn’t voice it, but Peter’s action here makes me think.
They finally drag the full net to the shore and discover that Jesus is already roasting fish over the fire. In fact, we’re told that Jesus has both FISH and BREAD for them. To me, though, the interesting thing is that the evangelist changes the noun used for fish from the ordinary word (ι͗χθύων) to the same word used for the preserved fish used for the miraculous feeding in John 6 (οψάριον). Do you think Jesus MIGHT be reminding them about where their resources come from? I sure do. He reminds them with the offering of char-broiled fish and bread, but then invites them to bring some of their fresh catch and share it. You see, just because God’s resources accomplish the task doesn’t mean that we don’t get to share in it.
It’s at this point that the gospel tells us that there were exactly 153 fish. Now, it may be that the evangelist was merely being precise. After all, professional fishermen usually counted their fish so that they could all get equal shares. In this case, someone was getting an extra. Or, it could be a symbolic number. It could mean 100 gentiles saved for every 50 Jews saved by the power of the Trinity (3). It could represent every variety of fish known to that era (a speculative, but not confirmed 153) as a symbol that when the disciples returned to being fishers of men, they would catch the whole world. It might mean that 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10+11+12+13+14+15+16+17 = 153. In that case, 17 might be the operative number: 10 (either the number of sufficiency or the number of the Decalogue) plus 7, the number of God and the created order in right relationship. Some of the ancient church fathers liked seeing 17 at the root of 153 because they observed that three equilateral triangles with 17 dots on each side would equal 153. Actually, it would equal 147 because two dots in each triangle would be reused when counting. But they liked that because it represented the Law coming to fruition in Grace (7) through the power of the Trinity. The triangle was an ancient symbol of the Trinity and what could be better than to use that symbol THREE times?
Well, there is a power of three. Any stand-up comedian will tell you that you can work a joke three times and then, it starts to fall off. In designing computer interfaces, we encourage our students to group choices in threes and sevens. I find that repeating something so that I say it aloud three times means that I’ll remember most of it. And we’re not through with threes in this chapter. Verse 14 tells us that this is the third time Jesus made Himself clear to the disciples and Jesus asks Peter a similar question three different times.
Now, I believe that Jesus gave Peter a question for every time he had denied Jesus. I believe Jesus gave him a chance to AFFIRM Jesus for every time he had failed him. First, Jesus asks Peter if the disciple loves Him sacrificially more than the other disciples. Peter must have been pretty embarrassed in front of his colleagues. He knew he hadn’t followed through on his earlier boasts. He couldn’t claim to love Jesus sacrificially and he couldn’t claim to love Him more than the others, so he appealed to Jesus’ knowledge. The Master KNEW that Peter loved him like a brother, like family, like a close friend. So, Jesus rewarded him with a challenge: “Feed my lambs.”
To be consistent with ancient usage, we have to be aware that lambs are immature believers, new believers, and folks who haven’t grown. If Peter loved Jesus, his challenge was to provide nourishment for these young, immature ones. And, of course, on Pentecost and thereafter, we see Peter doing just that.
But Jesus wasn’t through. Again, He uses the verb for sacrificial love, but He doesn’t embarrass Peter by comparing his love with that of the disciples. Yet, Peter still isn’t ready to claim a superior love. His denials are just too fresh in his mind. So, again, he appeals to Jesus’ knowledge and says that he loves Jesus like a close friend or family member. And again, Jesus challenges him. This time, Jesus tells him to shepherd His flock. This is more than feeding the immature ones. This is about being involved with time, effort, and skill with the entire flock. Jesus broadened Peter’s authority right here.
Then, Jesus asked Peter a third time. This time, Jesus used Peter’s language. He asked Peter if the disciple loved Him like a close friend or family member. This time, Peter not only appeals to Jesus’ intellectual awareness that he loved Him, but appeals to His personal knowledge—two verbs for “knowing.” But even so, we’re told that Peter’s feelings were hurt because Jesus asked him THREE times. The mirror was too clear. But Jesus didn’t dwell on the past. His three questions were designed to get Peter off the sea and into the synagogues and temple. Now, Jesus tells him to feed the entire flock.
Peter isn’t to be just a caretaker, he is to be a minister of the Word. And sometimes, we in ministry find ourselves settling for being caretakers when God wants us to be ministers of the Word. Yet, we get so busy we just can’t deliver. What’s wrong with this picture.
Jesus isn’t through yet. He goes from Peter’s third affirmation and Jesus’ third challenge to prophesy that Peter will die in captivity (v. 18).
Sadly, Peter looks around and sees another disciple instead of accepting Jesus’ promise that he would be “glorified.” Peter understood that when Jesus was “glorified,” there was a heavy cost. So, he wanted to know if everyone else was going to be “glorified,” too. But Jesus said it was none of his business—literally, “What’s it to you?”
And if Jesus could say that to Peter when Peter asked about John, I think it means that we aren’t to compare our spiritual maturity, opportunities for service, experiences of God’s blessing, or anything else with each other. We need to be sure WE’RE on the right path. Tradition has Peter crucified upside-down and John living to a ripe old age. Peter preached the keynote sermon at Pentecost and John seems to have been responsible for being the pastor to pastors in what is now Turkey. Peter became so identified with God’s presence that his mere shadow caused people to be healed. John seems to be responsible for a gospel, three letters, and a book of prophecy (and I believe the core of all of these works goes back to him). They were different, but both dynamic when they acted in faith.
Frankly, this ought to be good news to all of us. Even if we mess up multiple times, God wants to forgive us and get us back on track. It should also help us to remember that God doesn’t treat us “fairly;” faith is not “one size fits all.” God is going to do what’s best for us and what’s best for His plan.
And this leads us full circle to the weird anecdote I cited at the beginning of this message. What if we all had a sheet of paper in our wallet today? What if they all said something like, “I am Johnny Lee Wilson. Today is April 26, 2009 and I know that this will be the day that I die?” Would that day be spent doing something where we’re in control and comfortable, our version of a fishing expedition, or would that day be spent feeding lambs, tending the whole flock, and feeding the sheep? You see, I’m shamed by the useless dedication of the Amazing Randi to go through that ritual with the wallet when I have a Lord that can make sure that every day is His day—even if it’s the day that I die. How about you?
