by Douglas James Wilson

Gospel: John 18:18, John 21:8–9

Introduction:

The presence of the Lord Jesus, alive just as He promised He would be, transforms everything. We can see this very clearly in the fall and restoration of the apostle Peter after the resurrection.

The Text:

"And the servants and officers stood there, who had made a fire of coals; for it was cold: and they warmed themselves: and Peter stood with them, and warmed himself" (John 18:18).

"And the other disciples came in a little ship; (for they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits,) dragging the net with fishes. As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread" (John 21:8-9).

Overview:

These two verses are just a few pages apart, and the Greek for the charcoal fire is identical (anthrakian). The apostle John is a very careful writer, and I believe we are being invited to compare and contrast the two settings.

The first fire was built by the enemies of Christ (18:18), and the second was built by Jesus Himself (21:9). Peter was present in both settings, and he was present because of something that had been said by the apostle John (18:16; 21:7). Jesus was present in both settings. In the first He was on trial for His life (John 18:27; cf. Luke 22:61), and in the second He has conquered death (21:1). In the first, Peter denied the Lord three times, just as Jesus had predicted (18:17,25,26), and fell into sin. In the second, he affirmed his love for the Lord three times, and was reinstated (21: 15,16,17). In the first, Peter received something from wicked men (warmth), and in the second he received something from the Lord (food, and forgiveness). In the first, Peter does not compare favorably with the disciple that Jesus loved-John was more influential "at court," John didn't deny the Lord, and John didn't run away. In the second, Peter has all comparisons put to rest (John 21:21-22). "What is that to you?"

153 Fish, and Big Ones Too:

This is not a mystical or supernaturalist reading of the text - it is a literary reading of the text. The issues are placement, foreshadowing, parallelism, conventions, and so on. To illustrate the difference, consider another detail from this text-when Jesus called out to His disciples fishing about 100 yards offshore, He told them to put their nets down over the right side of the boat, which they did. When they had done so, the result was a huge haul. This was a way of Jesus identifying Himself. When He had first called them to ministry, He had called them away from their nets (Matt. 4:18-22) so that they could become fishers of men. And when Jesus had done a similar miracle like this one before, the response that Peter had had was that of being overwhelmed with his own sinfulness (Luke 5:8). This scene in John has a return to both elements-Jesus deals wonderfully with Peter's sin and fall, and Jesus recommissions him to ministry as a fisher of men. He tells him three times to "feed the sheep" (21:15, 16, 17). We should have no trouble seeing the fish as emblematic of the coming haul at Pentecost. The nations were to be brought into the boat, and Jesus indeed made His disciples fishers of men. In this case, Peter had jumped out of the boat, and the others had brought the fish in. But Peter is soon to rejoin them in the work. But what is it with the specific number of fish? This is a good place to illustrate the difference between a careful literary reading and mystical reading. This number has been the occasion of a goodly amount of ingenuity to be spent on it. Some of it has been fanciful, some of it sober, and some of it pretty pedestrian.

Bear With Me:

The pedestrian reading is that 153 is mentioned because that's how many fish there were, darn it, and John was simply interested in adding an irrelevant little detail. A fanciful reading is that when you add the ten of the commandments to the seven of the seven-fold Spirit, as Augustine urged, you get seventeen, and 153 is the triangular of 17. This means that if you add the numbers 17 to 16 to 15 to 14 and so on down to one, the sum is 153). The problem here is that you can also get 153 from Seventeen magazine, and that doesn't mean that John is talking about the challenges of adolescence. This is the kind of thing that John Calvin called "childish trifling."

But 666 is the triangular of 36 (and 36 is 6 times 6). The biblical writers did make some of their points with numbers, and John particularly did. The fact that it is unusual to us doesn't make it unusual or odd to them. We already have solid grounds for understanding the fish as representing the Gentile nations. We have the "fishers of men" call that Jesus gives Peter and Andrew, James and John. We have the fact that throughout Scripture, the sea represents the Gentiles and the land the Jews. No one in the Old Testament is shown eating fish, but in the New Testament fishing (and the eating of fish) comes to the front and center.

On the day of Pentecost, how many nations are listed? Well, 17 actually (Acts 2:7-11). And we have to remember the practice of encoding numbers in names (called gematria) was common in the ancient world. They could do this in a way that we cannot because they used the same symbols for letters and for numbers. We have Roman letters and Arabic numbers. But in Hebrew, the first nine letters corresponded to 1-9, the next nine were 10-90, and the last five were100-400. So? Well, the prophet Ezekiel promised that the time of the New Covenant would be a time of glorious fishing. "And it shall come to pass, that the fishers shall stand upon it from Engedi even unto Eneglaim; they shall be a place to spread forth nets; their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many" (Ez. 47:10). The prefix En simply means spring, and so if we look at the numerical value of Gedi in Hebrew, we find that it is 17, and the value of Eglaim is 153. Ezekiel is talking about the salvation of the Gentiles under the figure of fish, and he uses these numbers. John refers to this, and it has the same meaning as the explicit meaning given to it by Jesus in Luke. This means that 153 is a symbolic number for the Gentile nations who will be brought into the kingdom of God.

Back to the Charcoal Fire:

Remember that Peter is being restored. The antithesis is very clear here. The charcoal fire built by the enemies of Christ is not really a good place to warm yourself-and it ends with snarling, cursing, devouring, bitterness, and tears. The charcoal fire built by Christ is built in order to feed the disciples, and then, as Peter is being restored, he is commanded (in his turn) to feed the Christians who will follow him.

The resurrected Christ forgives and feeds. Our responsibility is to be forgiven, to be fed, and then to forgive . . . and feed.

by Lysa TerKeurst

"Jesus said to Simon Peter, 'Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?'"
- John 21:15b (NIV)

Have you ever felt God stirring you to do something that's terrifyingly outside of your comfort zone? Something completely opposite of what you think you want to do?

I confess that left to my own choosing, I want to take the safe, certain and comfortable route. And then Scriptures march right up to my limited perspective and challenge me to walk a path I'd never choose on my own.

A question forms in my heart. One that forces me to stop and reconsider the path that terrifies: Do you love Jesus and want Him more than anything else?

It's this question the resurrected Jesus asked one of His disciples, Peter, at a crucial crossroads in Peter's life. And gracious, do I ever relate to Peter.

He'd been following Jesus for years.

But then things got hard. Jesus was crucified, and Peter took his eyes off that hard path of continuing in ministry that he'd been called to. He went back to what felt safe, certain and comfortable … his original occupation of fishing.

When the resurrected Jesus appeared in the flesh, He ruined Peter's justifications to stay safe. Peter's destiny wasn't to be a fisherman for the rest of his life. He was to be a shepherd of God's people.

"… Jesus said to Simon Peter, 'Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?'" (John 21:15).

For Peter, the "these" Jesus referenced might have been the large number of fish he had just caught. Or "these" could have been anything else pulling Peter away from his calling. We all have our own "these" areas in life — things we sometimes choose over Jesus.

Thankfully, Jesus continues to invite us to a life of more. A life where we refuse to settle for less than all He's called and designed us to do and to be.

That's why I love the directives Jesus gives Peter in John 21:15-17. I find it fascinating that Jesus asks Peter to do three things which mirror how shepherds actually care for their sheep in Israel today.

Jesus commands Peter:

"FEED MY LAMBS" (John 21:15)

In the morning, the shepherd gets up early in the sheepfold and feeds the little lambs first. He would pick up the little lambs. He would hold them and check them to make sure they were OK. He would call them by name because he knew the lambs that intimately.

"TAKE CARE OF MY SHEEP" (John 21:16)

After feeding the lambs, the shepherd then carefully leads the sheep down to a place where they can be fed. He leads them and cares for them.

"FEED MY SHEEP" (John 21:17)

The last step once he's fed the lambs, cared for the sheep and led them to a good pasture was to feed the sheep.

So why is it so important to note that Jesus is giving these directives to Peter?

I believe Jesus is trying to turn Peter from a quick-judging fisherman into a caring shepherd. Fishermen quickly judged and counted the fish they caught. They threw out the small fish because they'd have to pay more in taxes than the fish was actually worth. They would look at the fish and say, "This one's in, this one's out, this one's in, this one's out." Unlike a shepherd, a fisherman would never pick up the fish, love the fish, make sure the fish is OK or name the fish.

Yes, Peter has finished his season of being a fisherman of fish. Jesus is asking Peter to love Him more than the life Peter has known. Now He is calling Peter to be a shepherd for the people.

Jesus is also asking us to love Him more than the life we've known. And just like He equipped Peter by sending His Holy Spirit to fill and empower Peter for his calling (Acts 2), He willingly equips us. We have the gift of His Holy Spirit inside us and His written Word to continually guide us.

Sweet friends, let's not rush past how amazing it is that the Lord wants to work through us - even with all our fears and failings. Let's not allow fear or comfort to convince us to stay stuck in our same old ways. Let's simply say to Jesus, "Yes, Lord. I love You more than these," and follow His lead.
Lord, my soul declares "yes" to You today. Even if my hands are trembling … even if my feet feel shaky on this new path … I say "yes." I love You and I will live for You. Change me. Lead me. I'm Yours. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

TRUTH FOR TODAY:

Matthew 16:24, "Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.'" (NIV)

RELATED RESOURCES:

Jesus is the Good Shepherd who wants to tenderly lead you on the best path for your life! Join Lysa TerKeurst on the streets of Israel as she explores the 7 "I AM" statements of Jesus from the book of John in her new study, Finding I AM. Get your copy here.

REFLECT AND RESPOND:

Prayerfully ask God to show you one step of obedience you can take outside of your comfort zone today.

by Alan Brehm

Gospel: John 21:15-19

I've never raised livestock myself. But you can't grow up in a small town in Texas without being around livestock. And yet I wouldn't claim to know the first thing about raising sheep. The only time I've been around sheep was when I was a much younger man, serving as the pastor of a little country church in central Texas. Most of the folks in that area raised cattle. But one of the leaders of that little church raised sheep. It seemed to me that raising sheep was a pretty simple task. You made sure they had enough land to graze, you had sheep dogs to keep them from getting themselves in trouble, and every once in a while you had to get rid of predators that were lurking on your land. I'm sure my take on it is probably too simple, but it seemed that tending sheep wasn't a complicated job.

As I've mentioned before, the lessons during these weeks of the Easter season repeatedly express the idea that the purpose of our experience of new life through Jesus Christ is so that we might spread the news far and wide. I think some of us may think that task is reserved for someone with more knowledge and training, like a pastor.[2] I think we tend to see ourselves as either unqualified or unable to talk to other people about our faith. And so when we hear that we're supposed to bear witness to the new life we have found through our faith, we effectively "count ourselves out," thinking that there are others who are much more suited to the task.

Our Gospel lesson for today may speak to that reluctance. I can't think of any of the apostles who would have better reason to be reluctant to speak about Jesus than Simon Peter. After boasting that though all the others might desert Jesus, he would die before doing so (cf. Matt. 26:33/Mk. 14:29), Peter publicly denied even knowing Jesus. Not once, but three times. I think Peter had all kinds of reasons for going back to fishing. I wouldn't be surprised if he thought his career as a disciple of Jesus was over. I think it would have been easy for him to think he had forfeited any right to serve as a witness to the new life through faith in Jesus.

But I think Jesus had different plans for Peter. As Peter and the others were fishing, Jesus revealed himself to them again. After they shared a meal together, Jesus had an unusual conversation with Peter. He began by asking, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?" (Jn. 21:15). Although it's unclear, it would seem that Jesus' question alluded to Peter's boast, which implied that he loved Jesus more than the others.[3] Peter, now a much humbler man after his bitter failure, simply answered, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." And in response, Jesus simply told Peter, "Feed my lambs." Nothing spectacular. Nothing that would bring him any special distinction. Just a simple task, yet one that would take all the love he had to give. And to leave no room for doubt about what Jesus had in mind, he asked Peter the same question three times, and each time he told Peter that if he loved him, Peter should show it by tending the flock.[4]

I think there's an important lesson for us all in this unusual conversation between Jesus and Peter. I think we are likely to view those who do things like serving on the mission field as the ones who really love God. In so doing, we discount our ability to do anything significant for God. But Jesus told Peter that his love for God and for Jesus were to be channeled through the simple act of tending the flock. And I think the same thing applies to us. We're all called to "tend sheep." Nothing spectacular. Nothing that will bring us any special distinction. Just a simple task, yet one that will take all the love we have to give.[5]

You might think that tending the flock is the job of the pastor. And you're right, that is one of my most important roles as your pastor. But tending the flock is not just the pastor's calling. It's a calling that belongs to all of us.[6] And in a very real sense, the "flock" that we're called to tend is not limited to the members and friends of this congregation. The "flock" we're called to tend consists of the world of people around us. Everyone we come into contact with, whatever the extent of that contact.[7] The people we meet in our daily lives are the "sheep" we're called to tend. And we tend them just like any shepherd tends sheep--we care for them, we value them, and we try to help meet their basic needs. It's a simple task, yet it's one that will take all the love we have to give.

I think this is one of the most important ways in which we can share our experience of new life through faith in Jesus Christ. But in order to do that, we may have to change our outlook toward the people we come in contact with every day. Rather than being suspicious or defensive, we may have to try to see them as "sheep without a shepherd" so that we can have compassion for them as Jesus did (Mt. 9:36/Mk. 6:34). It is only when we care for the people we encounter that we can really share the love we have for God and for Jesus Christ. If we want to share our experience of new life, we first have to demonstrate it by doing the simple, but demanding task of tending the sheep around us.

References:

[2] There is significant discussion about whether Jesus' commission to Peter in Jn. 21:15-17 constitutes designating him as the leader of the Apostles. On this, see G. R. Beasley-Murray, John, 406-7. The circumstances of the conversation don't seem to support that in my view.

[3] Cf. Beasley-Murray, John, 405; cf. also Ernst Haenchen, John: A commentary on the Gospel of John, 226, 232; and R. E. Brown, "The Resurrection in John 21 --Missionary and Pastoral Directives for the Church," Worship 64 (no. 5, S 1990): 441.

[4] Cf. Gail R. O'Day, "The Gospel of John," New Interpreters Bible IX:864: "Peter's love of Jesus will be evidenced when he cares for Jesus' sheep, not apart from that care." Cf. also Paul S. Minear, "The Original Functions Of John 21," Journal of Biblical Literature 102 (Mar 1983): 94: "Love for Jesus must be seen to be inseparable from care for his flock." Cf. also Beasley-Murray, John, 405.

[5] Cf. Henri Nouwen, Here and Now: Living in the Spirit, 103: "the compassionate life is mostly hidden in the ordinariness of everyday living."

[6] Cf. O'Day, "Gospel of John," NIB IX:861: "the charge to ‘feed my sheep' does not distinguish Peter as the true successor of Jesus, but rather describes what it means to ‘live out one's love for Jesus.'"

[7] Cf. A Declaration of Faith, 1977, 7.6: "We are called to live now as God's servants in the service of people everywhere." Cf. Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith, 94-95, where she says, "At its most basic level, the everyday practice of being with other people is the practice of loving the neighbor as the self. More intricately, it is the practice of coming face-to-face with another human being," which can be as simple as meeting his or her eyes.