Christmas 2014 Meditation Twelve

Sea of Galilee
John 21:1-19

This is the last day of Christmas and the last day of our journey in the Holy Land. I decided to end with a post-resurrection story. We are at the Sea of Galilee again, except this time the disciples are on a boat. When all else fails, go fishing. Except they didn't catch anything all night. That is until a stranger showed up on the shore.

Imagine fishing all night and not catching anything. I would be really tired and annoyed. Then as you're heading back to shore to get some rest a stranger appears on the shore. Maybe that's not so odd, but the stranger telling you to throw the net off the right side of the boat is a bit strange. Would you have dropped the net in the water? I wonder what made the disciples follow the strangers command/suggestion. Was it a latch ditch effort? "Why not give it a try, we've got nothing to lose?"

Now imagine having so many fish that seven strong men can't pull the nets into the boat. That's quite a catch! Given the lack of refrigeration, the disciples may have been wondering what they were going to do with all that fish. I wonder if anyone was thinking of throwing a party. You wouldn't want to waste the fish so you may as well celebrate the miracle.

Suddenly, one of the disciples recognizes Jesus and tells Peter. Upon hearing this, Peter is so excited that he jumps in the water (after putting some clothes on). Peter leaves his friends behind to struggle with the fish and boat in his rush to see Jesus. But Jesus sends him to the boat to get some of the fish. The Lord, their leader and teacher, fixes them breakfast. That is highly unusual, especially at the time. 

It must have been quite a blow to Peter to have Jesus question his love. There he was so excited to see his Lord that he swam to shore to get to him faster and Jesus questions his loyalty. Not once, but three times. To add insult to injury, Jesus uses the exact same words each time. "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Simon gets exacerbated and hurt by Jesus' persistent questioning. Peter finally says, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you!"

But Jesus' response to Peter saying, "I love you" is not the same. First he says, "Feed my lambs." Then he says, "Take care of my sheep." And lastly, "Feed my sheep. I tell you the truth, when you were younger, you tied your own belt and went where you wanted. But when you are old, you will put out your hands and someone else will tie you and take you where you don't want to go."

They seem very similar. We usually consider feeding someone as part of taking care of someone. And lambs are just young sheep. Jesus starts with with "feed my lambs". To feed literally means supply nourishment to someone. So Jesus is really saying "supply nourishment to my young sheep." How is Peter to supply nourishment and what is the nourishment? Who are Jesus' young sheep? 

Maybe the nourishment is the Good News, the story of Jesus' life, death and resurrection. The young sheep are all those who haven't heard or accepted the Good News. How is Peter, or us, to supply this nourishment? I think we should follow Peter's lead and share our story of how Jesus changed our lives. Isn't that what Peter and all the disciples did as recorded in the The Acts of the Apostles?

Next, Jesus tells Peter to "take care of my sheep."  The lambs have grown to sheep. Now the sheep know the Good News but they still need to be taken care of by Peter, and us. How do we take care of them? Perhaps we are to "disciple" them. What does that mean? That we means we care for their well-being. We care for their families. We celebrate their joy and share in their grief. Most of all we continue to be their friends.

Jesus returns to feeding the sheep. Again, we are to supply nourishment. We must continue to share the story. We need to offer places and times to study the Bible; to dig deep into the story and find its meaning for us. We must offer opportunities for the sheep to share their own story. They must give them a chance to practice their faith. That is the job of the Church, which was built on Peter. 

So there it is, Jesus' instructions to the Church. How are we doing? 

Christ Church, Nazareth

Emmanuel Church, Ramla