Easter 3

You’ve gone through three of the worst days of your lives, watching your teacher, friend and Lord be tortured to death and grieving that loss. Then on the third day, you experience the biggest shock of your lives (albeit, a joyous one): that teacher, friend and Lord rises from the grave and appears among you - not once, but twice. Furthermore, He breathes the Spirit on you, commissions you in ministry and give you authority to forgive or refuse forgiveness from God for anyone’s sins. So, then what?

After such a traumatic and exciting experience what do you do? Well, it seems that if you are Peter and six other disciples, you go fishing. Now, whether or not this story which is part of an epilog to the Gospel of John actually happened exactly as told and at this point in salvation history, the writer of John obviously wanted to make a point: Jesus rose from the dead...then what?

The answer seems to be you go fishing, have a meal together and then face the tough questions. The writer invites us to go deeper though.

We don’t know why Peter and the others decided to go fishing. Obviously, this wasn’t just the guys out in the boat trying to catch a few steel heads for sport or recreation. Casting nets from a boat and dragging 153 fish in is hard work. Thus, it would seem they had gone back to engaging in their old profession.

But, there are some interesting inferences in this brief fishing tale. First, that number: 153. Some scholars believe that was the number of nations in the world at the time of the writing of the Gospel, thus symbolized God’s desire to bring all peoples of all nations to Himself through his disciples.

A second inference may be that most ministry does not happen in a place of worship, but out in the world where disciples work at regular jobs and can reach the people God wants brought in.

And a third inference surely is that while God will surely bless those who do ministry, He doesn’t do it without human effort. Just as it took all the disciples working together to draw in the fish, so it takes all modern day disciples, members of the church, to draw the people God would have be part of His catch.

Again, there is more than just a bunch of guys having breakfast around the campfire. This meal can be related to the feeding of the 5000 and understood as a sign that God will care for the physical needs of his disciples of every age.

There may even be sacramental overtones. Though no wine is involved and no one would claim that fish should be part of Holy Communion, we do have the actions of the Last Supper in the taking and giving of the bread. Most important though is that disciples gather around Jesus, and there they experience fellowship, nourishment and spiritual growth through hearing His word.

And this leads us to the final and most important "then what?". Then you face the tough questions. Jesus wasn’t being egotistical, nor was He trying to humiliate Peter. He was teaching a very important lesson to disciples of every age: Do you love me more than these?

It’s so easy to toss off those three words, "I love you". I wonder if people in Jesus day threw that word, "love" around as freely as we do? I love my children. I love my fellow Christians (well, most of them at least). I love my work. I love reading and writing. I love music. I love my friends. I love my car. I love chocolate. You see what I mean.

We can’t tell from the Greek what or who "these" refers to. It could refer to things that belong to Peter - does he love his boat, nets, occupation more than Jesus. It could refer to other relationships Peter has - does he love his family and friends, his fishing buddies, more than Jesus? It could refer to relativity - does he love Jesus more than these other disciples do. One or all of these could be what Jesus is trying to get Peter (and later disciples) to think more deeply about.

Do we love Jesus more than these? Do we love Him more than our homes, our jobs, our luxuries that we tend to call necessities, our recreational activities, our church even? We dare not be as glib as Peter and as quick with our, "Yes, Lord."

Do we love Jesus more than any other relationship we enjoy - our co-workers, fishing or golf buddies, our friends, our parents, our spouses, our children, ourselves? We need to consider what we would sacrifice in these relationships for Jesus’ sake.

Do we love Jesus more than other people do - our fellow members, people attending other Lutheran churches, members of other denominations, people involved with growing non-denominational churches, new believers in third world countries who face persecution for their faith.

Some of us watched our teacher, friend and Lord tortured and executed through forty days of Lent and Passion Week services. We celebrated Easter in high fashion with alleluias and spirited greeting even as the snow fell. And we just a week ago enjoyed God’s joke on satan with our Holy Hilarity Sunday festivities. We’ve returned from our holiday travels, gone back to school, resume our work at whatever jobs we hold. Now it is time to answer the tough questions: