I’m
sure we’ve all done things that we’ve gotten in trouble for. Some of them may have been mistakes. Some may have been deliberate. Maybe we were being sneaky, or maybe it was
obvious. Whatever the case, we know what
it is to get in trouble for something.
Our parents, or spouse, or boss, or friends or whomever we’ve impacted
gets mad at us. They may yell at us. They may take away privileges or make us do
extra work. Perhaps they use the silent
treatment and punish us through that.
But sometimes the hardest punishment
of all is when you hear, “I’m disappointed in you.” Disappointing a parent or an authority figure
can be a crippling blow. You feel like
you not only messed up, you are a mess up. At times like that you wish you were getting
yelled at and reprimanded. You want some
sort of harsh punishment to make up for what you’ve done. But, “I’m disappointed in you,” makes you
feel like a shameful part of you has been revealed and there’s no way for you
to restore it. The relationship feels
like it is forever broken.
I wonder what the disciples were
feeling that day we read about in our gospel reading. It was after the resurrection. Jesus has already met them Easter evening and
breathed the Holy Spirit on them and sent them out into the world to proclaim
the gospel. But they didn’t do that, did
they? No, we discover that one week
later they’re still hiding out in a locked room. That is when the disciple Thomas gets to see
the resurrected Jesus and have his doubts taken away.
I think the disciples deserve a
reprimand at this point for sure.
They’re deliberately disobeying their Lord’s command. But if there was a reprimand the Bible
doesn’t record it. And remember the
already dark track record of these disciples.
They generally didn’t get Jesus’ teachings. One of them, Judas, betrays Jesus; although
he’s no longer in the picture. All of
them promise to stay faithful to Jesus through anything, but none of them
are. Even Peter, who some may describe as
Jesus’ best friend, denies he even knows him three times over on the night of
his arrest.
Yet after the resurrection Jesus
never reprimands this disappointing bunch.
And it seems like their failures are getting even worse. We see that they’ve decided to go
fishing. Now if they were tired from all
their evangelism work and wanted a little break it would be easily
forgivable. No one can work all the
time. Or if these guys had decided to
skip church on Father’s Day so they could do a little recreational fishing in
Canandaigua Lake we might shake our heads in disapproval, all the while giving
them a wink of consent. But some of
these guys at least were professional fishermen. They’ve returned to their old livelihoods as
if their time with Jesus and his death and resurrection were nothing at
all! They deserve a serious dressing
down for their disobedience!
Now before we go too far, I do want
to point out one humorous part of all of this that I’ve mentioned before when
I’ve preached on this text. Peter is so
excited that he can’t wait to see Jesus.
Instead of helping to row the boat ashore he jumps out and swims – with
the bizarre note that he puts his clothes on before jumping in for a swim!
Indeed appearing before your teacher
naked is an embarrassing thing to be sure – sort of like a nightmare. But Peter’s little better; dripping wet,
covered in mud and slime, and smelling of fish!
Then after going ashore he returns to the boat to haul the net ashore
and bring some fish. I’m imagining Peter
like a little puppy who’s so excited to see a visitor that he can’t stop
wiggling and wagging and jumping up, and maybe peeing on the floor!
We know the disciples are
embarrassed. Verse 12 reads, “Now none
of the disciples dared to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ because they knew it was the
Lord.” What’s in store for them? A reprimand?
Rejection? Will they get kicked
out and Jesus will choose better followers – ones who can follow at least the
simplest of direction? Will Jesus use
his miraculous powers to punish them… a sort of cruciatus curse like we find in
the Harry Potter books?
Or maybe worse; maybe Jesus will use
the silent treatment on them. Maybe
he’ll say, “You know guys, I am forgiving, very forgiving. But I’m disappointed in you. I’m really disappointed in you. I died for you, you saw the proof of God’s
powers in my resurrection, I forgave you for abandoning me in my time of need,
but you’re still doing your own thing.”
But instead Jesus has cooked breakfast for them. These professional fishermen who couldn’t
catch a fish that night without Jesus’ help now sit down to a cooked meal.
There are overtones of communion in
this meal, even though it is bread and fish and not bread and wine. Put that somewhere in your mind for a moment
because we’re going to come back to it.
For now we’ll follow the story line
when the scene shifts to just Jesus and Peter.
It’s no coincidence that Peter denied Jesus three times so now Jesus
asks Peter if he loves him three times.
Some interpreters make a big deal about the fact that two forms of the
Greek word for love are used here, but I’m among the many who think that is
just a stylistic choice of language. The
words are virtually interchangeable.
Instead of a reprimand Peter gets
asked three times if he loves Jesus.
Peter replies yes three times over.
It seems like something is finally clicking in Peter, and we know that
this time he will not fail. This takes
us to one of the main themes of John’s gospel – love.
Love is something we hear about a
lot but don’t understand much. I think
it is important to see love as the 11th century Cistercian monk
Bernard of Clairvaux did. You know him
better as St. Bernard, although it’s quite a feat to say his name and not think
of a giant shaggy dog with a keg around his neck! St. Bernard saw four degrees of love.
First
was a love of self for self’s sake. You
think you’re good and worthwhile and so you love yourself.
Second
is loving God for your self’s sake. You
discover that you have to love God in order to go to heaven, so you make a very
quick calculation that it’s in your own best interest to love God.
Third
is loving God for God’s sake. Here
you’ve moved on and discovered that God is gracious and merciful. God forgives you and provides for you. Therefore you’ve come to genuinely love God
because of God’s goodness.
And
fourth is loving yourself for God’s sake.
You discover that you are God’s good creation and that while you aren’t perfect
you do have God’s good qualities within yourself. You are worthwhile because God made you. You are whole because God made you. You are capable because God made you. Therefore you’ve come to love yourself, not
for your own sake, but because you honor God’s good work.
While it’s not right to impose St.
Bernard’s understanding of love onto the conversation between Peter and Jesus I
think we can get a sense of what is going on.
Peter is now seeing the fullness of Jesus’ love for him and what that love
means for Peter’s own life. Peter will
go on from the shore that day a changed man.
Yes, he will make mistakes and he will fail. He will still have his doubts and some fears
too. But he will be driven by the love
of God and he will be effective.
Blessed are we when we experience
God’s love for ourselves in that way, for we are energized and capable with an
energy and capability no one can take from us.
And that brings us back to this fish
and bread breakfast that Jesus cooks for the disciples. It does have overtones of communion because
it is a meal that Jesus has prepared for his followers. He asks no questions. He does not reprimand. He does not use the silent treatment. He does not say, “I’m disappointed in
you.” He excludes no one. He simply says, “Come and have
breakfast.” Come and eat. It is an act of pure love.
Whenever we have communion may we
remember it is the same meal. Jesus
provides nourishment without questions and without judgment. It is a simple act of pure love.
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