Our reading this morning comes from the book of John Chapter 21: verses 1-19.
It is a story that we might be familiar with, but if not it is an easy story to follow.
It was written by the Apostle John, who by now if many of you don’t know is my favorite Gospel writer.
John to me is the epitome of who we as Christians should be.
According to our understanding John’s family was well to do.
He was a very eloquent writer, his message was very well thought out and he is the only writer that clearly sees Jesus as being one with God.
I always picture John as someone who spends a lot of time in thought, and contemplation before speaking, or in the case of the Gospel message one who always knew what he was going to write before he put pen to paper.
I love John, if I had a choice I would want to be John.
But unfortunately like most of us today in the audience, most of us are like the other character in the story today, and that is Peter.
Now don’t get me wrong, Peter is a great guy.
He had to be.
Jesus said to Peter that he was going to use him to build his church, and Jesus was not going to put someone who was incompetent in this position of church builder.
Matthew 16:8 quotes Jesus saying to Peter, “that upon this rock, meaning Peter, I will build my church.
So Peter, in Jesus eyes had a lot of potential.
Just like those of us sitting in the pews today.
But you see the Apostle John, if we had to put a face to him would probably be like Pierce Brosnan, you know the actor that played 007 in the movies.
Good looking, somewhat tall, piercing eyes, handsome, smart, can always think his way through tough situations.
Someone you would trust your life with.
Peter on the other hand reminds me of Mo, in the three stooges.
Short, pudgy, always running around getting himself into trouble.
Never thinking out the situation before he acts.
Really loving the people he is with, but never really understanding how to get through the situations he encounters.
So you see we really have two completely different characters here.
But in our story today, we will see that Jesus really does not make a distinction between the two of them in fact, in the story there are more than just Peter and John there, and although it does not say this I am sure that Jesus loved them all equally, just as Jesus loves each of us equally.
But enough of that, because we really don’t have time to analyze the characters so let’s look at where the story begins.
The story that I am going to read today, is the third encounter that the disciples have with Jesus after he has risen from the dead.
The disciples have abandoned the ministry that Jesus had instructed them to do, which is to spread the Gospel message to all the corners of the earth.
Probably because of all the persecution they have endured, or because without Jesus there they might not have had any followers, which could have hurt their bank accounts, so they have returned to the place where they started, where Jesus first approached them, while they were fishing in the sea of Galilee.
They have returned to fishing, because it is the thing they know best, and it was probably a lot safer than talking about a risen savior among people that already did not believe in Jesus, a people who killed Jesus and who would probably kill them for continuing the message.
So let’s begin with the reading.
You can find the reading on page ___ of your pew Bible if you would like although I am going to read the story this morning from Gene Peterson’s the Message.
It reads:
1-3After 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"), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the brothers Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. Simon Peter announced, "I'm going fishing."
3-4The 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.
5Jesus spoke to them: "Good morning! Did you catch anything for breakfast?" They answered, "No."
6He 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.
7-9Then 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, in other words he was fishing naked, and he 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 covered, with fish and bread cooking on it.
10-11Jesus 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.
12Jesus said, "Breakfast is ready." Not one of the disciples dared ask, "Who are you?" They knew it was the Master.
13-14Jesus 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?
15After 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."
16He 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."
17-19Then 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."
(LUP)
Now the reason I used Peterson’s reading instead of the NIV or the NSRV that we normally use is, that it was a better translation to hear what was going on that day.
Not that the other translations were bad, but in the Peterson translation we can sort of hear the vernacular that we might better understand.
First of all a couple of things happened in this reading that we might have missed if we hurriedly read it in the NIV, or didn’t go through the commentaries that I normally look at before I write the message and that is first … that this is the third time that the disciples did not recognize him after his resurrection.
And this has always amazed me.
Think about it for a moment … if you had just spent three years with someone … waking up every morning with that person, scrounging for breakfast, ministering to people, hiding from people that wanted to kill you for preaching the Gospel, eating dinner with that person, bathing with that person, probably sleeping with that person in an open field, under a tree, or in a cave for three years, don’t you think that that person would be instantly recognizable to you when you saw them?
Well the answer is probably no.
You see the risen Christ, was created as a new person, the person that walked the earth was born of human flesh, the risen Christ had taken on the Glory of God and was a new creature now.
Just like scripture says about us that we when we die and we rise with Christ that we will be a new creation.
In our brokenness here if we suffer from any diseases, or are missing a limb, or if we are bald, or if we are fat, or whatever, when we are born again then we will be new creatures and it might even be difficult for our spouses or our children to recognize us.
So for the disciples to not recognize Jesus again for the third time, it really is not that much of a stretch of the imagination.
Second thing that happens in the story is that Jesus has a conversation with Peter.
Now again, I want you not to think of Peter as Pierce Bronsen but I want you to think of him as Mo from the three stooges.
In this conversation Jesus has to ask Peter the same question three times, and three times Peter gives Jesus the same answer.
Or does he?
You see this is where it is important that you have a seminary education, or at least have a pastor that has a seminary education.
Because the question that Jesus asks Peter three times is not the same question.
In the Greek language there are many words for the word love.
And in the conversation there are three different times that Jesus addresses Peter, asking him if he loves him, but each time he asks Peter if he loves him he uses a different Greek word, for the word love.
Now, I don’t want you to give up at this point in reading your Bible because you can’t read Greek, I have a tough time reading Greek and a lot of times I have to go to a Greek dictionary to make sure that I am translating the words correctly.
But think for a moment back to maybe when your kids were little and they did a stupid thing like play with matches and almost burned the house down and you said to them, “Do you understand what you almost did with those matches” three times.
The first time you might have seen them “looking at a book of matches and you explain to them in a very soft and soothing way”
Tommy, if you play with matches you could burn the house down.
You see that is Jesus first attempt with Peter.
Now, the second time you see your child with the matches, the living room curtains are in flames and your frantically trying to remember where the fire extinguisher is and you say to little Tommy, Tommy look what you did with those matches.
And the third time you say, Tommy, look what you did with those matches.
But now you are holding Tommy in your arms, rocking him back and forth and thanking God that he was not hurt.
You see Jesus was asking Peter if he loved him, and Peter replied to Jesus three times three different ways.
First as someone who loved his friend.
Second, as someone who loved his brother.
And the third time he replied to Jesus it was in the words of someone who loved his savior, or his God.
And what Jesus was telling Peter in his reply of Feed My Sheep also was said in three different ways.
He was telling Peter the importance of caring for the flock that Jesus could no longer physically care for.
He was telling Peter that all of us needed special care, that we would stray from Christ Jesus, that we would desire to see Jesus in a world that did not allow that, that as the flock of Jesus we had to also learn to take care of each other.
And you see Jesus was not just talking to Peter, like I said earlier there were other disciples there, and there was also John, the disciple that Jesus loved.
And John wrote these words down so we could read them.
So that we could hear the message and the words of Jesus in a language that we could understand.
Jesus was saying to Peter and to all of us that are gathered here today, that he loves us, he loves us a friend, someone we care for, someone we have encountered life with.
Jesus is saying to Peter that he loves all of us as a brother loves his brother, that they share the same flesh, and the same blood, and that they would do anything for the other person.
And Jesus is saying to Peter that he loves each of us as a parent loves their child, that they would sacrifice all they had for their children, even to the point of dying on a martyrs cross for them.
But even more than that … if we take it quite literal … and take the text in its entirety, Jesus is saying to Peter and to us that the flock, and in its literal sense that flock is all of us.
It is the family that we know as our earthly family, it is the family we know as our church family, that person sitting right next to you today, that you might not even know their name, it is the family outside of our church doors that might not know Christ Jesus yet.
This is the flock that Jesus is talking about, and it’s all of us, it’s all of them, he is saying to Peter, feed my sheep … not just the ones who we know as Christians, but all people.
He is saying to Peter give them the message that I am giving you today, that I love you so much that I was willing to die for you,
That it is your job to take my love and spread it throughout the world today.
And then he ends this dialog to Peter, to the disciple, and to us with just two words.
At the end of verse 19, at the end of reading today, Jesus says to them and to all of us, follow me.
(LUP)
