C Cycle – 3^rd Sunday of Easter 25

Jn. 21:1-19

They were struggling to make sense of all that had happened.  Everything they experienced from that first encounter to the joyful entrance into Jerusalem was confirming what they believed.  But all their hopes and dreams were shattered the night Jesus was arrested.  None of it made sense.  He has appeared to them, alive and yet they failed to understand.  Every miracle they had witness confirmed Jesus was the Messiah. His walking on water, multiplying food, raising the dead defied natural laws. He had healed the paralyzed, restored the sight of the blind, cleansed the skin of lepers, opened the ears of the deaf and challenged the hypocrisy of the Pharisees.  

His parables and teachings inspired everyone to believe intimacy with God was possible. But His death and resurrection did not make sense.  It is easy for us to connect this story with that first encounter of Jesus with Peter, James, and John. That is a mistake because it ignores another reality which is ours to experience.  That reality is what Jesus does to move us beyond what we see to what we can experience.  To help us grow into disciples.  How to connect Peter’s journey with ours.  How to learn from all he had seen, all he had witnessed and all he had experienced with one reality – Jesus came to do more than redeem us.  He came to move our belief into an active response of discipleship.  

Jesus when He appeared the second time and invited Thomas to touch Him knew Peter would be seeking to understand.  As disciples they had experienced Jesus embrace them many times.  He had washed their feet, spoken to their hearts, empowered them to go out and heal the sick, cleansed lepers and proclaimed the good news.  Yet they remined students, unable to move forward without His guidance, teachings, and His ability to bail them out.  They knew even if they failed Jesus would be there to make things right.

This story tells us a great deal about our own spiritual journey.  We will not always get it right and we will make mistakes.  We cannot grow spiritually by faithfully relying on what we can see and touch.  Did you ever consider what Jesus was doing during those forty days between His resurrection and the ascension?  We know from the scriptures the very day of His resurrection Jesus appeared to two unnamed disciples on the road to Emmaus.  How He opened their eyes and hearts as He opened the scriptures for them and broke the bread with them.  That passage should make us realize how often we miss an encounter with Jesus because we are unable to move beyond what we hope for as we practice our faith. 

Peter and the six other disciples who go fishing were also hopeful Jesus was the one. They were trying to make sense of His death and now His appearances.  Jesus had breathed the Holy Spirit upon them and offered them peace.  That was not enough for them, they needed to understand how all of that impacted them.  Yes, He was among them, and Thomas touching Him reveals He is not a ghost.  But where is He now, will He appear again and remain with them?  Lots of questions without any answers so they go fishing. 

What about our own spiritual journey?  What will happen if we allow Jesus to speak to our hearts. We should learn the same lessons the disciples are learning.  Pay attention and respond to the signs that are constantly given to us by Christ. Even though the signs are not eye catching.  It is obvious Peter is doing exactly what he was doing that first day Jesus invited him to follow Him. Peter was fishing again, and Jesus tells him to cast his net.  It did not make sense then or now, but Peter obeyed.   

What God is revealing to us in the inspired words of the scriptures is our need to how the scriptures help us understand Jesus is the answer to everything.  Yet, when Jesus calls out to them, they fail to recognize Him.  It was not until their nets were full, they remembered and connect that with the reality of Jesus standing there waiting for a response.  We too should connect the act of breaking the bread every Sunday with our own need to strip ourselves and embrace Jesus.   

 Jesus is relentless in pursuing us. He seeks us out and in His parable of the lost sheep He told us exactly what He will do if only we allow His words to register in our hearts.  Jesus on this day is seeking Peter and Peter was unable to make sense of his life without Jesus guiding him.  Peter also needed Jesus to embrace him, welcome him and forgive him.  Jesus desires to give Peter all he needed but could not until Peter came to Him.  Peter is an example of how we can wander away from Jesus and in doing so we are lost, ineffective and easy prey for the one who seeks to destroy us.   Jesus shows us how our failures do not define us but are signs of our need for Jesus. 

What we miss in this story is the versus immediately following Jesus inviting Peter to follow Him and defines the cost of discipleship.  Peter turns to Jesus and inquiries about the “disciple He loves.” Jesus’s answer is direct, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me” (Jn.21:20-22).  It is a personal journey, and our only concern is you follow Him.  Do we need fellowship? Of course we do, we are a community of faith.  But Jesus is inviting you to a personal journey and your response is to focus on your journey knowing it will often demand you pay attention to Jesus in the Word and the Sacrament.