Who's The Boss? Series

John 21:1-14 – Who’s the Boss?

Today, we look at one of my favourite stories in the whole Bible. I can’t exactly tell you why I like it so much. Maybe it’s Jesus’ playful and whimsical nature shining through. Maybe it’s because I grew up in a fishing village, too. At any rate, I love the story when the Risen Jesus shows up to His disciples while they are fishing, and gives them a glimpse of who He is.

This is John 21:1-14 from the Good News Translation.

Now, for something different, because this is a story, I’d like to tell it as that. I’d like to imagine the 7 disciples talking about this afterwards. I’d like us to imagine that they are standing around at a wharf, maybe coffee cups in hand – OK, so they didn’t have coffee, but let’s imagine they’re sipping back on double-doubles – listening to the waves lap up against the dock, seagulls in the background, as they rehash the events of that day, just a few days later.

Quite the day.

Ah-yuh, it was.

Never seen anything like that before.

What’re ya talking about? Jesus did that before. We saw it with our own eyes. He gave us good catches before. And Peter… Jesus gave you a pretty good catch once. Found a coin in a fish’s mouth, dincha?

Yeah, I did.

Jesus is quite the guy, I say.

Yeah, yeah…

Then one of the guys says… Still, I can’t shake the feeling we’re not supposed to be here. Fishing in Galilee. What if’n we’re supposed to be still in Jerusalem? What if Jesus wants us to do somethin’ there?

Look, we been over this. That angel told us that Jesus would see us in Galilee. So here we are.

Besides, what are we s’pose to do? Just sit around, sitting on our hands, waitin’ fer Jesus to show up again? We’re s’pose to do what we know to do, and that’s fish, so we’re doin’ it.

Yah, I guess so.

Besides, Jesus knows how to find us.

Yeah, he knew we were havin’ a rough night o’ fishin’. Sometimes I wonder if God knows where we are and what we’re goin’ through, but I guess He really does know our problems.

That was a rough night for fish. Or I should say, it was a good night for fish. They knew how to stay outta our nets.

Buys, it’s a hard ole’ night when ya don’ts catch nuthin’.

All night long, nothin’.

And then, from the shore, that fella we didn’t know… telling us to throw our nets on the other side of the boat.

I thought, maybe, since we was so close ta shore, maybe he saw a school swimmin’ that we didn’t see.

I thought, maybe that fella shoulda just shut up. Boys, I hate takin’ orders from people that don’t know what’s goin on.

That’s right. Slinging orders at us from the shore, tellin’ us what to do, what not to do… like he was from the Department of Fisheries or something.

But we did it. We tried the other side. And I’m some glad we did.

Yeah, our net just filled right up. Amazin’.

And then Thomas spoke up… Ya know, I got to thinkin’ about it afterwards. I’m thinkin’, there we was, fishin’, doin’ what we know, doin’ our jobs, doin’ the best we could… I mean, it’s who we are right? It’s in our blood. Fishin’ is who we are. And then Jesus… He tells us how to do it. That’s humblin’, ya know what I mean? It just puts you right in your place. Like, I thought I knew how to do this, and then Jesus tells me what to do… that’s humblin’.

Yeah, that’s what it was. I didn’t like being told what to do. Of course it turned out to be Jesus, and it worked out OK. But, I didn’t want to take orders, even from Jesus.

No, me neither, but it was better, doncha think? Taking orders from the Lord turned out better than not.

He wasn’t just telling us how to fish… He was saying He wanted to be boss of our whole lives.

Yeah, He wanted to be our Boss. Master, Teacher, Lord.

So whatcher sayin’… it’s not enough to let Him just forgive us, but we should let Him be our Master, too?

Yeah, that’s about it. Forgiver… and Leader.

It’s a lot easier to let Him forgive me than let Him lead me.

Ain’t that the truth. (PAUSE)

So we catch the fish, and then we figure out it’s Jesus.

Yeah, we come to shore, and there’s Jesus with a fire on the beach.

Smelled some good, too. The fish and the bread.

Now, guys, I’ve been wondering. Jesus already had fish on the fire.