January 21 / John 21

When it comes to apostolic temperament, I’m more of a Peter than a Paul and I’m so glad that John saw fit to wrap up his account with 3 quick stories about my man:

    •  The Second Massive Catch Of Fish,
    •  The “Do You Love Me?” Story,  and
    •  The “What About Him?” Story.  

None of these appear in any of the other Gospels. 

The Second Massive Catch Of Fish, vv.1-14:  The First Massive Catch Of Fish occurs in Luke 5.1-11 when Peter first heard the call to follow Jesus.  In both cases, the focus is on Peter and his reaction when he recognizes Jesus.  What is fascinating is how Peter the Disciple has grown in the 3 years he’s walked with Jesus. 

At the First Massive Catch in Luke 5, Jesus was a stranger to Peter.  Yet, as he hauled in that ripping net of fish, he was filled with a sudden terror in Jesus’ presence. He didn’t know Jesus yet, but for some reason, in His presence, he felt an an excruciating conscious of his own sinfulness. His only thought: put as much distance as possible between himself and the Lord. He cries out, “Go away from me Lord! I’m a sinful man!”    Jesus halted his flight, saying  “Don’t be afraid. Peter. I will make something of you that you are not. From now on you will catch men.”

At the Second Massive Catch, the one in this chapter, there was no terror.  On the contrary, there was eager recognition and haste to get as close as possible to Jesus.  The boat was 100 yards from shore, but Peter threw himself into the water and swam to shore, leaving John and the others to wrestle the net into the boat.  (apparently he had learned to swim since that time he tried to walk on the water.)

“Do You Love Me?” vv.15-17:  The first time Peter had met Jesus, he was overwhelmed by his own sinfulness.  This time, sin is still an issue.   It had to weigh heavy on Peter’s mind that he’d not yet had an opportunity to make right that matter of his denial the night of Jesus’ trial.  In spite of the bitter taste of failure, Peter had learned something: the right response in failure is not to flee, but to face it.  He had become willing to let the Lord confront it, and confront it he did.  Hurt?  Oh my, how it hurt!  But Peter was willing to let Jesus probe his weakness because he had learned that failure need never be terminal for a disciple.  He no longer needed to flee.

“What About Him?” vv.18-23: In the final scene, Jesus gives Peter a  glimpse of what the future holds for him and it sounds scary.  “Well, how ‘bout John?” he asks.  Jesus answers, “That’s classified information.”  I think the point of this story is simply that even though they’ve both had 3 years with Jesus , and they’ve both been turned into fishers-of men, as promised,  this is not the graduation ceremony.  This is only the jumping-off point. They will be disciple-makers, their days of  being disciples themselves are not over.  Come what may, their discipleship will never be complete until they either go to be with him, or he comes back to be with them. 

Duane