Touching Others: Fishing, Feeding, Following
I’ve said it several times over the last couple of weeks: “The Jesus that the disciples saw after the Resurrection was the same Jesus they had known before the Crucifixion.” They knew him by the way he spoke their names, by the way he blessed and broke bread at a meal, and by the way he tenderly cared for them in very personally specific ways…just like he had done for them before he was crucified. There was no question in their minds or their hearts about who the Risen Christ was. He was the same person they had always known and loved.
When my children were still young they would often crawl on the couch beside me to watch TV ask me to rub their back just like I had rubbed their back when they were an infant who I was trying to get to go to sleep. It was a ‘touch’ of love that they remembered and they wanted to experience it again because it said to them that I cared about them and reminded them that I loved them. I remember how my mother brushed the hair out of my eyes, or patted me on the back, or held my hand when she was alive. She did it in such a special way that even if I didn’t see who was touching me, I knew that it was my mother. I always enjoyed those moments with her because she did those things in exactly the same manner each time telling me that she hadn’t changed the way she felt about me and that she never would.
The interesting thing about such events in our lives, that is, when we remember or realize that another person truly does love us, truly does want to encourage us, is that these events usually occur in the ordinary occasions of life. Your Mom serving you breakfast and then brushing the hair out of your sleepy eyes. Your Dad sitting on the couch watching TV when you sit down beside him. Simply walking past a person you know during the preparation of a family meal and having them reach out to pat your back or take a moment to caress your cheek, and smile at you tenderly. These are the ordinary moments of our lives when we know beyond any doubt that we are truly loved.
Jesus came to the disciples in the ordinary moments of their lives: Sharing a meal, a fishing trip, a walk along the highway home, a moment in the garden. Jesus brought to them miracles of love and hope by what he did that was so extraordinary: a touch, a word, a prayer, cooking a meal for them on the beach. They could not mistake the ‘touch’ of the Master’s hand upon them.
Last week we reflected on Jesus’ first appearance to his followers recorded here in the book of John. They were huddled behind a locked door for fear of their very lives when Jesus appears to them, tells them to stop being afraid because he is with them, and breathes the Holy Spirit of God into them with his own breath recalling the Creation story from Genesis when God intimately breathed God’s Living Spirit into Adam and Eve. Jesus tells them that he is sending them into the world to care for others in exactly the same way that God had sent him to them. You would have thought that they would have been so excited about Jesus’ being alive again that they’d run and tell everyone they knew. But that’s not what happened.
As the story unfolded in the gospel of John, a week later we found them still hiding out behind that same locked door when Jesus appeared to them a second time. Jesus again tells them to stop being afraid that he is with them. Did they get it this time? Did they begin to follow his instruction to take the good news about how much God loves the world to everyone? Nope.
In today’s lectionary we find that Peter and at least six other of the disciples have decided to go fishing. Is this just a little retreat from the stress or is this a return to their former occupations as fishermen? This story reminds us that it was in just such a situation that Jesus first encountered Peter, and John, and James who were professional fishermen when he called them to follow him and become fishers of men and women. Is this just an accidental occurrence, or is this the author of John trying to tell us something special about what it means to be a true follower of Jesus, a true fisher of men and women?
Many of us have gone to church hoping to find something different, something new, something hopeful and helpful. Over the years we may have frequently even volunteered our time and efforts, gotten involved in what seemed to be exciting opportunities of hope and love and community. But when problems came up, when other people didn’t act so Christian toward us or others, when difficulties became too stressful, we pulled out of the situation and we may have told God, “Well, God, that was certainly exciting while it lasted, but I didn’t get involved to be misunderstood and abused. Thanks for the good times, but I think I’m not the one you want for this job. So if you don’t mind, God, I’m going to go back to life as it used to be for me.”
Perhaps that was the feeling of these disciples: “That was sure an exciting ride, Jesus. Wow, did you ever surprise us with that resurrection thing! But it also scared us and we’re not so sure we want that kind of stress in our lives any longer. You can’t blame us. I mean look at what they did to you. Maybe they’ll do the same thing to us. Our lives aren’t safe anymore, not especially if we keep hanging on to what you told us and what you asked us to do. Sooner or later they’ll be coming after us and it wouldn’t do any good for us to get ourselves killed would it? So, if you don’t mind, we’re just going to go back to our fishing jobs, at least we know what to expect when we’re fishing.”
And so these fishermen, these former followers of Jesus, go back to what they knew before they met Jesus, they go back to fishing. Only there is a slight problem. These professional fishermen, these guys who know all about how to fish and all about the fish, work all night long throwing their nets out into the waters where the fish ought to be, but they find that their nets remained empty. Not even one small fish accidentally got caught in their nets. The author of the story is trying to tell us something: Something very important for us to understand. Without God in your life you can’t do much of anything, even those things you thought you were so good at doing. If God is absent from your life, then your life is empty and without purpose and without real affect.
It’s early morning when these former disciples decide to head back to shore, depressed at their failure to find fish, wondering what went wrong, what they did wrong, when a man on the shore calls out to them. “Throw your nets on the other side of the boat.” Who is this guy and what does he think he is doing? We’re professional fishermen. We know how to fish these waters. If we can’t catch any fish it’s because the fish went somewhere else. They’ll be back tomorrow night. But the man persists, “Throw out your nets on the other side of the boat.”
Finally, the disciples follow this man’s directives. We don’t know why. They’ve been at this task all night long. What would one more throw of the nets cost them? Not much. So they toss the nets out one more time and this time the nets are suddenly filled to overflowing, more than all of them together could pull into the boat.
Uh, Oh. Suddenly it dawns on them. The guy on the shore, the one who told them to try the other side of the boat, he’s not just anybody, he is somebody. He is Jesus. Peter realizes this and streamlines his clothing for swimming by tucking his shirt into his britches and he dives into the lake and swims for shore. The other disciples bring in the boat trailing the nets full of fish.
They find Jesus cooking them breakfast on the beach. He’s done quite a bit of preparation. He’s even baking them bread. He’s got some fish, too, baking on the coals of the fire. A charcoal fire, just like the one that Peter warmed himself beside on the night Jesus was arrested, the same night when Peter betrayed that he even knew Jesus three times.
Peter is suddenly full of strength and pulls the huge catch of fish in the nets onto the shore all by himself. Quite a feat when before all of the disciples together with Peter couldn’t pull the net into their boat. The net if full of whoppers, 153 fish in all, a number that is the same as all the known nations and governments of the world at that time. John is making a statement about God’s love for all the diversity of the world, not just for one small tribe, one small nation. God’s love is for all people everywhere. God’s intention is to bring all people to God through the efforts of those who are true followers of Christ.
They know this guy must be Jesus, but they are too afraid to ask him. And they don’t need to ask. He is doing for them what Jesus has always done for them. He is caring for their human needs by cooking and serving them breakfast, just like he had washed their feet, and served them a meal at the last supper before he was arrested. He breaks the bread the same way that he had done then. He asks God to bless the meal the same way he asked God to bless all the meals they had eaten together over the last three years. This is Jesus. Jesus is feeding them the same way Jesus has fed them many times before.
Jesus knows our hearts. And Jesus knows that Peter is hurting. Big time hurt. Peter can probably think of nothing right now except how he betrayed Jesus on the night he was arrested. How he denied he knew Jesus beside a charcoal fire just like this one with which Jesus has prepared their breakfast.
Jesus speaks to Peter: Simon, son of John, do you love me above anyone else?” And Peter answers, “Yes, Great One. You know that I love you.” And Jesus responds, “Then feed my lambs just like I’ve fed you.”
Then Jesus asks again, “Are you sure, Simon, son of John, do you really love me?” How it must have hurt to have Jesus ask him a second time if he loved him. I can imagine the tears welling in Peter’s eyes and the dryness that must have come to his throat, “Yes, Great One, you know that I love you.” And Jesus responds, “Well then, take care of my sheep just like I have taken care of you.”
Then Jesus asks him a third time, “Simon, son of John, do you truly love?”
The author of John’s gospel then tells us that Peter is hurt that Jesus keeps asking him the same question. Have you ever been in such a situation? Someone repeatedly keeps asking you the same question to really find out if you meant what you said. It’s easy to respond and tell someone what you think they want to hear, it’s something else when you really tell them what you think and feel yourself. Jesus wants to know what Peter is really thinking and feeling. Jesus wants an honest answer from Peter, not just the answer that Peter thinks he should give, but the answer that speaks from Peter’s heart and soul of Peter’s true feelings for Jesus and all that Jesus is asking Peter to do. That’s the kind of answer God wants from us when God puts a question mark in our hearts.
If I had been Peter, I would be weeping profusely by now, weeping tears of shame and grief at what I had done. But Jesus does not want Peter to be shamed nor grieved. Jesus wants Peter to experience resurrection within himself. Jesus wants Peter to begin living as a real Easter person on the right side of the Resurrection. Jesus wants Peter to come out of the grave just like Lazarus did and truly begin to live his life in the power and presence of God.
Peter answers for the third time, “Great One, you know all things and you know just how very much that I love you.”
Then Jesus tells him once more, “Feed my sheep just like I have fed you.”
That would be a great ending to this story. But Jesus goes on to tell Peter than Peter will face death. Peter has been afraid of what the future might hold for him if he follows Jesus, if he does what Jesus is asking him to do, “Feed my Sheep. Care for my followers just like I’ve cared for you.”
Jesus then says to Peter, the same thing he said to Peter three years earlier when they met on the beach beside the shores of Lake Galilee, “Follow me.”
One cannot follow Jesus until one understands that following Jesus might cost you your very life. Oh, we may not have to face martyrdom like Peter eventually did, we may not have to literally die for Christ, but then, there are many kinds of death: emotional and spiritual to name just two. Difficulties and stress go with being a follower of Christ. It’s not always going to be easy to do the right thing, sometimes it will take tears and loving confrontation before we do the right thing for God.
It is only when we have made a full and complete commitment of our own lives, our own hearts and souls to God through Jesus Christ, that we will be able to truly care for others in the name of Jesus. It is only when we have tuned our lives so completely to the power and presence of Jesus living within us that we will be able to feed his sheep, to touch others in the same way that Jesus touched them.
A blind man came to church a former church of mine one day and was greeted by the ushers and pastors who introduced themselves and shook his hands. He had been invited by a friend who was a member of our congregation. I introduced myself to him and shook his hand. Just then his friend came up to him and without saying a word to him took the blind man’s hand and gripped it firmly and then put his other hand on top of their two hands and patted gently. The blind man immediately smiled and said, “Hi, Marshall.” Later I asked the blind man how he had known that Marshall was the one shaking his hand when Marshall had said nothing to him. The man smiled at me and said, “It was the way he touched me. No one else touches me like Marshall does.”
Touch others in the name of Jesus because no one else can touch them exactly the way that you do
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