Boats, Sheep and Resurrection
John 21:1-19
4.12.26
Matt Goodale
Last week was…what was it?? Easter!
Once, during an Easter morning service at a particular church, the pastor invited the kids up for the children’s sermon. And she asked them, “What does Easter mean to you?”
Well, the kids thought a little bit, and then one girl raises her hand and says, “At our house it means egg salad sandwiches for the next two weeks!”
And then another little boy, after looking around intently at everybody in the church pews staring up at them, thinking very hard, eventually raises his hand and says, “Easter means that church is full!”
I love the candid responses you get from kids.
But if someone asked, “What does Easter mean to you?” how do you think you might respond?
Some of us, of course, will know what the correct Sunday school church answer should be: “Easter means that Jesus has risen from the dead, conquering death and promising new life! Come on, Give us a harder question, pastor.”
This question reminds me of another question a good friend of mine asked me several years ago in seminary. We were talking about the Easter miracle of resurrection and he has some rather unorthodox Christian beliefs that I actually really respect. And he asked me a question that has stuck with me for many years now, “What difference would it make in your life today if you didn’t believe in the resurrection…if you didn’t believe that God raised Jesus from the dead.”
The question really caught me off guard, because believe it or not, after growing up in the church and studying theology for most of my life, I had never been asked to think about that question. The question of “So what?” You believe something, but so what? God raised Jesus from the dead…so what? What difference does it make today?
And you know, if you’re someone sitting here today wondering that same thing. Easter has come and gone and “So what?” You look around and nothing much has changed. You still wake up and eat the same breakfast and go through the same routine. If you’re asking the “So what?” question, then you’re in good company.
The disciples we encounter in our reading today, are in the same boat. Metaphorically and literally.
Because we find them literally sitting in a boat, out at night fishing. Which is strange. It’s strange, because this is about a week after Jesus rose from the dead and Peter and the other disciples saw the resurrected Jesus. It’s a week after everything changed and Jesus fulfilled all that he said he would, conquering even death and the grave.
And yet, here the disciples are, sitting in a boat at night, fishing. Doing the one thing they were good at before they met Jesus. We should wonder, why aren’t they with Jesus, celebrating and planning where they would go next with his ministry? They were present for the actual Easter miracle, so what the heck are they doing here on a boat instead of following Jesus?
Maybe it’s because it was also about a week ago that Peter and the other disciples abandoned Jesus on the cross, too scared and despairing to do anything else. It was a week ago that Peter, while sitting around a charcoal fire denied he had anything to do with Jesus, to save his own skin.
The disciples are not with Jesus, because I don’t think they can’t bare the shame of it. They’re not with Jesus because they think he won’t take them back.
I can imagine they think there’s no way Jesus would take back Peter after what he did. There’s no way he would take back this sorry lot who abandoned him on the night he most needed them. There’s no way he would trust them again with his ministry after they gave up hope and thought it was all over at the cross. Surely Jesus would find some new disciples who weren’t as worthless as they were.
And so, they went back to doing the one thing they knew how to do. Fishing. Because Jesus may have risen from the dead, but they still have to work to eat. Jesus may have risen from the dead, but they still carry their shame heavy on their shoulders. Jesus may have risen from the dead, but Rome still rules with an iron grip. Jesus may have risen from the dead, but they can’t see what difference it makes, and so perhaps it’s just best to get on with the rest of life.
I love the disciples. I love them, because they’re so gosh darn relatable, aren’t they? Because just last Sunday, we gathered together to celebrate that Jesus is risen. Jesus may have risen, and yet a week later war is still raging in parts of the world. Jesus may have risen, but children are still starving, families are broken, death still takes away loved ones. Jesus may have risen, and yet we still live in a world where discrimination, mental illness, trauma and loneliness reign.
And so, perhaps the disciples can’t be faulted for wondering whether Jesus’ resurrection actually changes anything. As we open the news and see the headlines each day, we probably wonder the same thing: what good is the Easter miracle in my life, in my community, in my world today? If it was so world-changing, then why hasn’t our world changed?
And you know, I wonder if on these big church holidays we can go to church, celebrate, nod along to the sermon (or maybe catch up on some sleep), and then go back to our lives as if nothing has really changed. Like the disciples, we just kind of move on with life as normal. It’s easy to do.
And so the disciples go back to what they were good at doing before following Jesus around, and funny enough they find they’re not very good at it anymore. All night long they catch nothing. What do you do when your backup plan fails?
Imagine how discouraged they must have felt. Like come on, we couldn’t catch one fish? The disciples are having a bad week.
They must not have been far from shore because as the first light of dawn starts to creep over the water, a stranger calls out to them, telling them to try casting their nets to the right side of the boat…as if they probably didn’t try that over the course of the night. But they do as the stranger says, and guess what happens?! They catch so many fish they can’t even haul the net in. And one of them realizes at this point that that stranger is in fact Jesus!
The disciples are so excited to see Jesus that they immediately turn the boat towards the shore. But Peter—always Peter— can’t contain himself. He can’t wait. He has to see Jesus now! And here the text tells us something else strange: “When Peter heard that it was Jesus, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea.”
Now I don’t know about you, but if I’m about to jump into the water, I’m not going to put more clothes on, I’m probably going to take clothes off. This detail doesn’t seem to make sense, especially considering it wasn’t a custom at all to fish while naked…that’s not a thing. We’ve got some fishermen and women in here who can probably confirm that’s a weird thing to do.
So either Peter is just a very strange man who enjoys fishing buck naked at night and meanwhile prefers to swim encumbered by lots of soaking wet clothing…OR, something else is going on here.
Perhaps this reminds you of another story in the Bible where some people covered up their nakedness before meeting God. Ring any bells?
That’s right – it takes us all the way back to Adam and Eve, when they committed the first sin, resulting in their banishment from the Garden. They too recognized their nakedness, felt ashamed, and covered up before meeting God.
So perhaps Peter isn’t really that strange, but in fact the author is trying to communicate something to us here. Because when we notice this connection to the story of Adam and Eve, we start to see all sorts of connections between these two stories.
We see the disciples working fruitlessly through the night – working hard to catch nothing, which mirrors the curse given to Adam when he’s banished from the garden, that mankind would forever toil fruitlessly. And then there’s the shame of nakedness and covering up in God’s presence. In both stories, it is God who comes seeking the main characters. In both stories, it is God calling out to them when they’re hiding.
Only, here is where the similarities end. Because we all know how Adam and Eve’s story ends. Banishment from the garden. Exile. Fruitless labor. Shame. Sin and death. Broken relationship. And that’s not only Adam and Eve’s story, but that’s the predominant story throughout scripture. Almost every story in the Bible is a recapitulation of this first story, all of them eventually ending in exile, shame, death, basically ending up where nobody wants to be.
Until Jesus’ story. Until Easter morning. You see, John, the author, is intentionally reminding us of this Adam and Eve story, only, the ending has changed. Because this time, Peter and the disciples aren’t banished and they aren’t cursed.
No, they’re actually embraced by Jesus. Jesus helps them catch tons of fish, effectively undoing the curse of fruitless labor. He cooks them a meal and invites them to join him for breakfast.
And then, Jesus asks Peter three times to affirm his love for him around a charcoal fire. The exact same setting where Peter denied Jesus three times a week ago! Jesus is offering Peter redemption. A chance to try again. To be embraced and move on from his shame.
Jesus is writing a new ending to that age old story in the Garden of Eden. Jesus is showing his disciples, “Hey, this old story doesn’t have to be yours. Here’s a new ending to the story. It’s called resurrection. It means that no longer do death, shame and sin get the final word—yes, they still have a part in the story, but not the final word.”
Those of you who are familiar with Star Wars will know that a new trilogy came out recently, episodes 7, 8 and 9. And I know someone who after watching episode 7, thought that was the end of the series, and the story ended there. I remember her saying to me, “That’s it? Kind of a weird, sad ending.”
Which is funny, because it does end on a sad note after a major death; the main villain and his cronies are still at large. If that’s where you think the story ends, then that’s a major bummer! This person I know was relieved when she found out that wasn’t in fact the ending—there were two more episodes to go! Even though the ending to episode 9 ended being trash anyway, but we won’t talk about that!
This is what Jesus is offering his disciples after the Easter miracle: a new ending. The disciples thought they knew how the story ended, but Jesus rewrites it. The Easter miracle is God’s promise that the ending to our story will be life, healing, wholeness.
It’s taken me many years of wrestling with my friend’s honest question to realize that Easter isn’t about just believing in whether one man rose from the dead or not. Easter is about deciding which story we’re living in.
The newspaper headlines seem suggest one ending. But Jesus promises another. Jesus promises that those heartbreaking headlines we read day after day, and that we live through in our own lives are not the final word.
Just as Jesus offered his disciples a new story to live into, he is offering us a new one as well – one defined by renewal, healing, justice, mercy and new life. Easter reminds us that the ending matters. Where you think your story is heading will determine how you live out the plot of it right now.
You see, for as much as I wondered over my friend’s question, “What good is the resurrection for you today?” Jesus shows us right here!
I love this story because there is nothing earth shattering about it. Jesus has risen from the dead and we find him sitting on a beach eating breakfast with his friends. After such an incredible miracle we might expect to find him marching on Rome with his good news or making massive political maneuvers or heck, out raising an army of dead bodies or something crazy like that. But instead, we find Jesus healing some broken hearts, getting rid of some shame, and restoring friendships.
THIS, Jesus shows us, is what resurrection in action looks like for us today. No fanfare, nothing earth-shattering in the Hollywood sense. Just a guy who quietly offers a new ending to that age-old story. And in doing so, he plans to change the world, one story at a time. Amen.