Carrying on Christ's mission, until He returns (21:1-25)

“Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men!”

The women who went to the tomb first, were specifically told to tell the disciples that Jesus was going before them into Galilee, where they would meet him (Mt 28:7 Mk 16:7). Some time that same day, He appeared to the disciples on the Emmaus Road (24:13-33).   Later, He appeared to Peter (Lk 24:34): and then in the evening, He appeared to ten of the apostles (20:19).   A week later, He appeared to all eleven of them, including Thomas (20:26).

John says this was now the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples (21:14), so it would seem that he is counting only the times that Jesus appeared to the whole group.  Allowing a few days for the disciples to get from Jerusalem to Galilee, it's about a fortnight after the crucifixion.

As usual, Simon Peter was the leader in the decision to go fishing. Six others of the Eleven had opted to join him.  Some commentators see this as disobedience in that they were going back to the previous occupation; but on the other hand, they needed to support themselves.

If we guess that the two unnamed disciples in the group of seven, were Philip and Andrew, it means that all except for Thomas were the group Jesus had first called - after his baptism in the Jordan (1:37-46).  After that.  it seems they had returned to their usual occupations in Galilee: for in Luke 5 we hear of them being called again, this time as Jesus is walking by Lake Galilee.  They had spent a fruitless night fishing, and were busying themselves repairing their nets on the shore. Jesus asked Simon to launch out again, and despite his misgivings he did so.  They caught such a huge haul of fish that the net broke.  Both their boat and their colleagues’ boat were so full of fish that they had virtually no leeboard.  Peter knelt before Jesus and said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”.  But Jesus had replied "Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.”

Once again on this occasion, they had had a fruitless nights work: the sun had come up, and they were still trying, about a hundred yards out from the shore. It was so hot that Peter had stripped right down, and was working virtually naked. A stranger called out to them from the beach, asking whether they had caught anything. Strangely, he addressed these muscular fishermen as ‘children’.   He told them to drop the net from the other side of the boat - just a few feet from where they had been trying - and they would make a catch.  When they did so, a whole shoal of fish filled the net so full that it was too heavy to pull up over the gunwale: despite there being seven brawny men to do so.

Their boat was large enough to require a decent depth of water, but the landing stage was some distance away. Where they were, the shore shelved gently into the lake; so they decided to use the boat’s dinghy to drag the catch to land.  It would require some heavy rowing, and would take a while, but was less likely to tear the net and lose the catch than if they used the big boat over a much larger distance.

Though they hadn’t recognised either Jesus’s face or His voice, echoes of their first encounter with Jesus by the lake came flooding back into John’s memory.  He whispered to Peter, “It’s the Lord!”  Unwilling to wait to find out, Peter grabbed his outer garment, pulled it around him and jumped overboard.  Whether he expected Jesus to enable him to walk on water, or whether he swam or waded, we don’t know. But by the time the others arrived, a small barbecue was alight with a single small fish and a single bread bun.

At this point it's important to explain that there are two different words for fish, in Greek. The usual word, ‘icthus’, can mean fish of any kind, but usually of a decent size.  The other word, ‘opsarion’, means a small fish.

There are three main types of edible fish in Lake Galilee: each type has its own preferred habitat within the lake, and requires different techniques to catch:-

• Kinneret sardines, tens of tons of which are caught daily, pickled and treated as a delicacy

• Tilapia (a.k.a. ‘St Peter’s fish’) weighing 4-5 lbs, suitable for pan frying for 1-2 persons

• Carp, which can weigh 13-15 lbs and are used for feasts: they are line-caught, not netted.

Tilapia feed on underwater weeds in the shallows near the shoreline, hence why it is thought these were the ‘big fish’ which the disciples had caught. 153 of these might weigh six or seven hundredweight, explaining why it was impossible to haul in the net!

Jesus invites the disciples to bring some of the big fish they’ve just caught. Peter drags the net the last few feet to land, and they count the astonishing catch. Probably they add some of the big fish to the barbecue: but when Jesus invites them to have breakfast, it's the single small fish and the single bread bun which He serves them with! This must have resonated with the feeding of the five thousand, and the miraculous multiplication they had seen there.

They still didn’t apparently recognise Him physically, because they were wanting to ask Him, ‘Who are You?’. But the miraculous catch, the re-playing of their first calling, and the echoes of the feeding of the five thousand meant that they knew  He was Jesus.

Overall, the message of this encounter with the risen Christ seems to be an exact replay of their first calling by Lake Galilee: “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men!”   Trying to do so in their own strength, with human means and methods, would lead only to exhaustion.  However counter-intuitive His instructions might seem at the time, it is by obeying Him that huge catches are landed, such as happened at Pentecost.  Going fishing off our own bat, without waiting for the anointing of the Holy Spirit, is pointless.

Peter is brought to a place of resting in Christ’s knowledge of him

After breakfast, Jesus took Peter aside, further along the shore (v20).  Usually this is seen as the time Jesus restored Peter’s relationship with Him, but in fact He had already met Peter one-on-one on Resurrection Day (Lk 24:34).  The meaning of their conversation on this occasion, goes deeper than that: it takes Peter beyond simply regretting his own weakness whilst still trusting his self-knowledge, to a place where he relies utterly on Jesus’s grace. Where he trusts Jesus’s knowledge of his heart, more than he trusts his own self-assessment.

Peter had been known to everyone as ‘Simon son of Jonah’, until he first met Jesus (Jn 1:42).  Jesus renamed him Cephas, the Greek word for a stone - or in Latin, Peter.  And He explained the meaning of Peter’s new name when Peter acknowledged Him as the Christ, the Son of the Living God (Mt 16:16-19): it signified that Peter ,through this God-given insight, would be the foundation stone of the Church. And that the forces of Hell would not prevail over  it.

Minutes after that, Peter had been used by the Devil to try and tempt Jesus from following the Calvary road.  In Gethsemane he had tried to use force of arms to prevent Jesus’s arrest.  And then in Annas’s palace courtyard, he had denied three times ever having known Jesus!  Not a very solid rock to build on, you might think.

Three times during the evening before the crucifixion, Peter had said he was willing to die for Christ: before the Last Supper (Mk 14:29-31, Lk 22:31-34), as Jesus began His farewell discourse (Jn 13:37), and then as they approached Gethsemane (Mt 26:33-35).  On the last of these occasions, he said the others might all abandon Jesus but he never would - in effect saying, “I love you more than any of these others do”.  But the rock-hard loyalty that he had professed, crumbled into dust under Satan’s onslaught.  It was only the fact that Jesus had prayed for him that his faith would not be utterly destroyed, that enabled him to strengthen his fellow disciples afterwards.

Jesus now reverts to Peter’s original name, emphasising his human origins and identity. “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?”  What a deep, probing question!

Most or us know that the English word ‘love’ is used to translate four different Greek words: ‘eros’ meaning erotic love; ‘storge’ meaning love of country; ‘philio’ meaning friendship love; and ‘agape’ meaning selfless love, the love of God.  

Jesus is here asking Peter, ‘Do you agape Me?’  Peter has learnt to distrust his own heart, and dare not claim that level of love.  So he responds, “Yes, Lord, you know that I philio You”.

Jesus asks the same question again, and Peter gives the same guarded answer.

Why is Jesus repeating it? Is He wanting to rub in Peter’s weakness? That wouldn’t fit with what we know of His grace. And God never needs us to answer a question before He knows the answer!  So for instance, when He asks Adam, “Where are you?”, it is not that He can’t see through the tree trunks to where Adam is hiding.  When He asks men questions, it is always to help them realise where they are, spiritually.

Furthermore, this is the only place anywhere in scripture, that God asks man the same question repeatedly.  What is He seeking to gain by doing so?  What is the insight He wants Peter to gain?

The third time Jesus asks the question differently: “Peter, do you (even) philio Me?”

Peter was grieved by Jesus’s questioning of even this lower level of love.  He had been sure that Jesus knew he at least loved Him at the friendship level.  He reiterates a third time, “You know that I philio You”.  But this time he bases his claim not on the true state of his heart, but on Jesus’s divine omniscience: “You know all things”.

• Now the work in Peter’s heart is complete!

• Now he trusts Jesus’s knowledge of him, more than his own judgement!

• Now he can be trusted to be told, that he will eventually be crucified for Christ!

       “Yet not I, but Christ in me!”

Brother, sister in Christ, have you learnt that activity in your own strength brings only exhaustion?

But beyond that, have you learnt to rest in His knowledge of your heart?  In His grace?

Peter’s new commission

Each time Peter affirms his love for Christ, Jesus responds by extending Peter’s calling.  We mustn’t miss the implication: the primary qualification for anyone to shepherd the flock of God, is deep love for Jesus.  If pastoral work or a teaching ministry are so consuming that we have no time to spend ‘in the secret place of the Most High’, we dry up and are no longer qualified for ministry.

It is love for Christ, that creates love for the brethren.  But it is love for the brethren, that demonstrates the heart of Christ.  “By this shall all men know, that ye are My disciples: if you have love one for another.”

Now that the dust of Peter’s crushed self-confidence has been blown away, what is left is an unshakeable confidence in Christ’s knowledge of him.  Remember that unlike the Greek concept of knowledge (which is factual), the Hebrew concept is one of relationship - such as a man ‘knowing’ his wife.

Now, Christ can start to build His church on a solid foundation stone.  Peter  will be a fisher of men, an evangelist: but he will also be chief under-shepherd of the sheep.

Feed My lambs

Usually, if a shepherd looks after the ewes well, at lambing time the ewes will look after their young. But there will be the odd one or two whose mothers have died, or are ill; and these lambs require intensive feeding with milk from a bottle. At Pentecost the church suddenly grew from 120 to 3120 souls, none of whom had any spiritual parents. No wonder the disciples had to give themselves to teaching and fellowshipping with these spiritual lambs! (Acts 2:42). Feeding them spiritually took clear priority over serving them meals (Acts 6:4). And the teaching was at the milk level - focussed on repentance, faith, baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection and eternal judgement (Heb 5:12-6:2).

Tend My little sheep

Jesus now uses a different word meaning a little sheep - what we might call a yearling. And He speaks of tending them - tenderly caring for them. Feeding relates to teaching, whereas tending is more about pastoral care: individual attention and care which ensures the lamb goes on thriving into adulthood.

Feed My little sheep

As they grow, babies need to be weaned onto solids, or else they will become nutritionally deficient.  Mother’s milk, which was the ideal food for a newborn baby, doesn’t contain the right blend of vitamins and minerals for a toddler or child.  And lambs must move on from the ewes’ milk too,  to graze for themselves. The shepherd moves them to fresh pastures.

As his life nears its close, Paul can say confidently “I am innocent of the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:26-28)

Why did John add this epilogue?

John’s Gospel seems to end naturally at the end of chapter 20. Many have surmised that chapter 21 was written by a different author, perhaps on behalf of the Christian community that had built up around John’s ministry (20:24). It seems to be an epilogue of some sort.

The whole chapter seems to revolve around Peter: his character, his role as first under-shepherd of Christ’s flock, and how he was to follow Jesus even in the manner of his death. Perhaps it was written by John as a posthumous tribute to Peter, who would have died by the time this Gospel was circulating.  (John wrote it near the end of his life.)

Looking at the chapter as a whole, its themes of

• Massive effectiveness in the ‘fishing of men’, under the guidance of the Risen Christ

• Pastoring the flock of God, out of love for Christ and relying on Christ’s knowledge of us and others

• Keeping our eyes on Christ, rather than comparing our ministry with others

are all a natural extension of the great commission Jesus was giving the church, of being sent by the Father in the power of the Spirit, to continue His mission to bring salvation to the world.

Having just been told the sobering truth that he would have the huge privilege of following Christ by being crucified, Peter notices John has followed them.  The same John who was always closest to Jesus’s heart, and who Peter had had to go through to ask Jesus about the betrayer.  The John who followed Jesus into the High Priest’s courtyard without denying Him.

Was there a tiny residual element of rivalry, in Peter’s question, “Lord, what about this man?” ? Or was it just that Peter and John had always been close, having worked together?  We will never know. The rivalry amongst the apostles had been manifest repeatedly through their three years together, to the extent of John’s mother trying to reserve for him the seat of honour at Jesus’s right hand in the Kingdom.  Even at the Last Supper, as Jesus was preparing to wash their feet, they were still arguing who was the greatest!  But Jesus had taught them, “I am among you as One who serves”…. “Love one another as I have loved you”.

This whole chapter shows John honouring Peter.  We know Peter and John later went on to jointly lead the nascent church, healing the man at the Temple Gate (Acts 3:1-6), being arrested together (Acts 4:1-14), etc. Peter the impulsive and vocal one, John beautifully balancing his temperament with love and reflectiveness.

Jesus’s response to Peter is a classic! “What business is it of yours, Peter, whether John will outlive you or not? You’re going to die on a cross, but even if I choose for him to live until My Second Coming, what’s that got to do with you?  Mind your own business! And that means, keep your eyes on Me, not on other people. "  If you are going to follow Me to the cross, you must start and continue to follow Me in everyday life.  Don’t compare yourself with others. Judge yourself not by others but by the measure of the stature of the My fullness.  “Follow Me!”

John seems to indicate that this chapter was written to dispel the myth that had grown up around him, that Jesus had said He would return before John died (21:22-23).  If as we believe, John was very old when he wrote this, he may have been concerned that some were anticipating Christ’s return much more imminently than the facts justified, becoming ‘Christian survivalists’ rather than engaging with the work of mission.  

The charge to us all, is ‘Occupy till I come!’ (Lk 19:13)