When we read commentaries on this morning’s Gospel story, we can often find that they concentrate on just one or two aspects of the story. Very often, commentaries tend to focus on the miraculous catch of fish, and on Jesus’ three-fold questioning of Simon Peter. There’s no doubt that these are important and interesting aspects of this Gospel story. The miraculous catch of fish can be seen as an allegory, a story which tells us that when we follow Christ and do as he tells us to do, we’ll make many new disciples whereas, alone and acting without Christ, we can do nothing. Jesus three-fold questioning of Simon Peter has multiple meanings. Jesus’ questions are seen as the correlative to Peter’s three-fold denial of Jesus on the night of Jesus’ arrest. Jesus’ command that Simon Peter should feed his lambs and sheep is seen as Jesus’ commission of Peter as the leader of the Church. And Simon Peter’s response to Jesus’ questions has been the subject of a great deal of debate. In the original Greek, Jesus asks Simon does he agape him, does he love him with true Christian love, the kind of love with which Jesus loves. But Simon Peter responds by saying to Jesus, ‘I phileo you.’ In other words, Simon Peter has brotherly affection for Jesus. Some commentators see the words agape and phileo as interchangeable and so they see no real difference in their meaning, but others see a great deal of difference in their meanings. That there is a difference is shown in the Second Letter of Peter where we find what’s been called a ‘ladder of Christian virtues’ which Peter urges his readers to adopt, and which culminates with brotherly affection and love: phileo and agape.
But as interesting and important as these things may be, I think what’s equally important, especially in terms of our discipleship as we need to live it out in the world, is what happens at the beginning of this Gospel story, the part of the story that’s often simply taken as setting the scene for what’s about to happen So let’s set the scene and see what it has to teach us.
In the Gospels of both Matthew and Mark, Jesus’ disciples are told that they will see Jesus again in Galilee, and this morning’s Gospel begins with the disciples, some of them at least, back in Galilee, by the Sea of Tiberias. No doubt they were waiting for Jesus to appear but, as the story begins there’s no sign of him. And Simon Peter decides to go fishing. We know that Peter was impatient and impetuous, so I don’t think it’s too big a stretch of the imagination to think that he’d become fed up with hanging around waiting for Jesus to show himself and so he decided to go and do something else. Perhaps the others felt the same and it was simply that Simon Peter, as ever, was the first to speak up, or perhaps it was simply that he was their leader, but for whatever reason, the others decided to go fishing with him.
And how typical is that of us? How often do we get fed up with waiting for something or someone and eventually decide that we’re not waiting any longer and we go and do something else instead? It’s something that we’ve probably all done at one time or another and as it’s something we’re prone to do in our daily lives, it’s something we can so easily do in our discipleship too.
Over the years I’ve known many people who’ve left the Church. Those people have given different reasons for doing that, but quite a few have said they’ve left the Church because they ‘weren’t getting anything out of it anymore’. The usual response to that is to ask what it was they were putting into their churchgoing, but there’s another question that’s just as relevant, if not more relevant, to ask in that situation. It’s this; ‘What did you expect to get out of going to Church?’
Going to Church regularly and becoming a Christian is a life changing thing to do, there’s no doubt about that. But I think some people believe that if they go to Church and become a Christian then, ‘Hey Presto’, as if by magic, their lives will suddenly be changed for the better, that everything in life will suddenly become wonderful and that all their problems and worries will disappear. But it’s not like that at all. We’re disciples of Jesus Christ, who was betrayed, arrested and put to death by those he loved and came to save. Jesus’ story is a story of unrequited love that led to terrible hardship and suffering. Jesus never promised his disciples any easier a time than he himself had, quite the contrary in fact. But what he did promise them was that hard work, and even long-suffering if that’s what it takes, in faithful obedience to him is worth it because, in the end, it leads to eternal life.
Going to Church and being a Christian doesn’t take the problems of life away, it simply gives us a different perspective on the problems. For example, Simon Peter was a fisherman and perhaps one of the reasons he went fishing that day in Galilee is because he had to earn his living. So do we; and going to Church and being a Christian doesn’t take away that need. But what it does do, or should do, is stop us from succumbing to the greed, selfishness and materialism that we see so much of in the world. Going to Church and being a Christian changes our lives but it doesn’t make them any easier. Going to Church and being a Christian isn’t a magic spell that suddenly makes our lives trouble free and if that’s what people are waiting for, if that’s what they mean when they say they don’t get anything out of it, then they’ll be waiting a long time indeed. In that case, it’s no surprise if they get fed up with waiting and go and do something else instead.
In this morning’s Gospel Jesus does appear, eventually. But it seems from the Gospel that the disciples don’t recognise him at first, it’s only after the miraculous catch of fish that the beloved disciple tells Peter,
“It is the Lord!”
at which the ever-impetuous Peter throws on some clothes and leaps into the sea because he’s so eager to get to Jesus. And again, this often-overlooked part of the story can tell us so much about what it means to be a disciple of Christ.
This part of the story tells us that Jesus can come into our lives at any time, whatever we’re doing at that time. He can come into our lives when we’ve become so fed up with waiting that we’ve gone to do something else instead. It tells us that we have to be ready for Jesus to enter our lives at any time and in any place. But it also tells us that we have to be able to recognise Jesus when he enters our lives and to be ready to act at a moment’s notice when he enters our lives.
In the Gospel, despite the miraculous catch of fish they’d just made, only one disciple realises who is responsible, who it was who was calling to them from the shore, and it was the beloved disciple. This story tells us that we can recognise Jesus when he enters our lives by what happens. It tells us that when we act as Jesus says we should, good things can happen. Not necessarily good things from a worldly perspective, although that may happen too, but good things from a spiritual perspective or in terms of the growth of God’s kingdom. But this Gospel story tells us too that, if we’re going to recognise Jesus, we have to be close to him.
The beloved disciple was the one who sat closest to Jesus at the Last Supper, and he was the one who recognised Jesus in this Gospel story. So if we want to recognise Jesus when he comes into our lives, we have to be close to Jesus too. We have to know him; we have to know what he taught and know what he wants from us. We have to know what he would have us do in whatever situation we find ourselves in. And when we do recognise Jesus as he enters our lives we have to be ready to act at a moments notice, just as Peter did that day in Galilee.
And yet, how often does Jesus enter our lives and we miss those chances to meet him and to do what he calls us to do because we don’t recognise him? How often do we miss chances to meet Jesus and do what he calls us to do because we’re too busy with other things to recognise him and to hear him calling to us? To use an analogy from this morning’s Gospel, how often are we too busy hauling in the nets to stop what we’re doing for a moment and think how Jesus might be calling to us in a situation, and how often do we fail to recognise Jesus in a situation because of that? How often are we too preoccupied with what we’re doing to stop hauling in the nets and go to him by doing what he calls us to do? Are we ready to be like Simon Peter, to stop what we’re doing and go to Jesus, or are we more likely to finish what we’re doing before we can spare the time for Jesus? And if that’s what we do, how often do we miss Jesus when he enters our lives because an opportunity to act as his disciples has come and gone?
Coming to Church and being a Christian is life-changing, but it isn’t about having an easy life. It’s life that can bring great joy and happiness, but much of that joy and happiness comes from a changed outlook on life, rather than from an easy life free from problems and worries. The reward for being a disciple of Christ is, quite literally, out of this world, but having the reward involves a lifetime of discipline and hard work. It means being prepared to wait on Jesus, how ever long we have to wait. It means staying close to Jesus always so that we can recognise him when he comes into our lives. And it means being ready to drop what we’re doing at a moment’s notice and to do what he calls us to do, whenever and wherever he enters our lives.
There is so much in this Gospel story, let’s make sure we don’t miss out on what it can teach us about living as a disciple of Christ and as a member of his body, the Church.
Amen.
The Propers for the 3rd Sunday of Easter can be viewed here.
Parish Church of St Mark Chadderton 