Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel according to John, the twenty-first chapter:
After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off. When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! That’s the been the Easter greeting that Christians have shared for thousands of years during the Easter season. And that’s because we recognize that this is our only hope. If Christ is not risen, all is lost. If He has not come up from the dead, then we are most to be pitied. If Christ is still in His tomb, then Christ is a liar, a charlatan, a false God. But, He’s not. He is the One True God and we know this because He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
You know, Peter is my favorite apostles and that’s really because acts pretty dumb sometimes. He loves to stick his foot in his mouth, not literally, but the idea is that he speaks before he thinks and its gets him into all kinds of trouble. Peter, you have to remember, is thinking that Jesus hates him. After all, on the night when Jesus was betrayed by Judas and handed over for crucifixion, Jesus predicted that Peter would deny Him three times. And wouldn’t you know it, Jesus was right.
Peter denied even knowing Jesus because he was so afraid of receiving the same fate that Jesus was going to get. And then Jesus died. And Peter cried, he wept, he sobbed. He was a bad friend. He was a bad Christian. He was a bad everything and he knew it. But then Jesus rose from the grave. And more than that, Jesus appeared to the twelve disciples. They were in a locked room and Jesus just came there. And He really didn’t seem to say anything specific to Peter. Then a week passed and He did it again, and Jesus talked to Thomas.
But Peter is sitting there, and you get the idea that he’s thinking that maybe Jesus is mad at him, that He hates him. So, upset, mad, sad, angry, Peter picks up his stuff, looks at the apostles and says, poutingly, “I am going fishing.”
I mean, you can’t blame him, right? When my friends would make me upset, I just wanted to grab my stuff and leave. I wanted to go home. I wanted to go back to what I knew and loved and what was safe. And that’s what Peter did. He was a fisherman by trade, so he went back home to the Sea of Galilee and started fishing again. Thankfully, his friends went with him. They hadn’t betrayed Jesus like Peter had, so they weren’t as upset. But they went to take care of their friend.
So, Peter and the other apostles go out into the lake and they start fishing. They fish all night, when fish are more active. They work so hard. But they don’t catch anything. What a bummer. Then some dude appears on the shore and asks if they caught anything. They say no, so He tells them to cast their net off the other side of the boat. Right, sure, because you know, they haven’t tried that one before. But, they do it and they catch so many fish that they can’t haul the net in. All of the sudden, Peter’s eyes are opened. John tells Peter that it’s the Lord. And Peter remembers that Jesus did a miracle like this at the beginning, when Jesus first called Peter as an apostle. And he gets excited.
Peter gets so excited, in fact, that he puts on all of his clothes and jumps in the lake. This is like dressing up in your winter coat and snow pants when is a hundred degrees outside. This is like unbuckling your seat belt while you’re in the Indy 500. This is like going into a bad part of town with a target on your back that says, “Shoot here.”
Putting on your clothes and jumping in the water means that you could drown. They’re heavy. You’ve seen TV shows where someone falls into the lake or the pool. What’s the first thing the rescuer does? He takes off his shoes because they could drag him down. It’s the same thing for Peter, except that he’s wearing at least three heavy robes. It’s silly, it’s dangerous, it’s wildly dumb, and it’s just like Peter.
But, Peter can’t help himself. Even though he betrayed Jesus, even though he turned away from Jesus in His hour of need, Peter still loved this man, this man that had risen from the dead. And Peter can’t help himself. He has to see Him, he has to be near Him. It’s almost like Peter is covering himself with all of these clothes as a symbol of the covering he needs from his sin. He dresses all up and then jumps in the water, like maybe it’ll wash away everything Peter has done against Jesus.
But, that won’t work. It won’t. We can’t cover over our own sin. We can’t hide it. God, Jesus, sees it all. But that’s the reason that Jesus died for you. He died so that He could take your sin, so that it wouldn’t belong to you. He died so that He can wear all of your winter coats, all together, and that He can go swimming in Lake Michigan in the middle of winter. He died so that you don’t have to deal with your own sin, but so that He can deal with it for you. And more than that, He gives you the promise that these sins are gone from you forever, and you know you have that promise because He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
Peter is my favorite apostle. He’s just like me. He gets himself into trouble by speaking and acting without thinking first. But the good news is that Jesus never hated Peter, even though Peter denied and betrayed Jesus. Jesus loves Peter. And Jesus loves you. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, you can always come back to the Lord. It doesn’t matter what you’ve been through, whether you’re pouty, whether you’re angry, whether you’re feeling abandoned and betrayed yourself. When we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We can be like Peter. Jesus, in the next passage of John, forgives Peter three times and brings him back to Himself. You can be like Peter, too. You can be forgiven, you are forgiven. And you can be with Jesus forever. And you know this, you know it’s true, you have this promise, because He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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