John 21:1-14 English Standard Version Jesus Appears to Seven Disciples 21 After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. 3 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. 4 Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” 6 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. 7 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. 8 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. 9 When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. 10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” 11 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. 12 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. 13 Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. 14 This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. We might have expected John 20:30-31 to be the end of the Gospel of John, because it sounds very much like a "summation" or "conclusion" statement (you state your argument at the end of a persuasive paper to reinforce what you want people to take away). However, chapter 21 provided a few other stories that John wanted to make sure were included, even though all the evidence needed to persuade people had been presented. Not a lot is said in any of the gospels about the days between the Resurrection and the Ascension of Jesus, and John is going to focus in on this final days as Jesus prepared His disciples (and probably Himself) for the fact that He is going away--returning to the right hand of the Father.
Many of the disciples seem to have returned to their old lives of being fishermen on the Sea of Galilee, that is the Sea of Tiberius. Jesus had told the women at the tomb to tell His disciples to go to Galilee and wait for Him there on the mountain where He often met with them--I would assume the Mount of Transfiguration would be the mountain that would stand out in the memories of at least Peter, James and John. Even the others who remained at the base of the mountain and did not go up with Him would remember that location. Other gospels tell us that they received instructions to remain in Jerusalem until they received the Holy Spirit which most people assume meant they needed to stay there until Pentecost, but John just told us in chapter 20 that Jesus breathed on them and gave them the Holy Spirit when He appeared to them after His resurrection. So, everything is consistent so far with the disciples waiting there in Jerusalem until they received the Holy Spirit and then going ahead of Jesus to Galilee to wait for Him as they were commanded, though they will again make the pilgrimage back to Jerusalem for Pentecost (as every Jew would since it is a pilgrimage holiday) and that will be why we see them there again. The gospels are in harmony. So, again, the disciples are waiting in Galilee doing what they know how to do--fishing. The majority of them were fishermen before Jesus called them, and those who were not fishermen by trade probably learned a lot about it by being around those who were. Specifically, this passage tells us that a group of seven disciples were out fishing, though only five are named--Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the Sons of Zebedee (that is James the Greater and John), and two others. Since there are no other cross-references for this story, we have no idea who the two unnamed disciples are, and they are unnamed because they will not have important roles in this particular part of the story. It seems that going fishing was Simon Peter's idea and that the others either had no better ideas and wanted to join Peter or perhaps they were concerned about him wishing to isolate himself from the group and they just wanted to be with him--fishing is a good opportunity for that. There's a lot of just sitting and waiting and quiet. There's not an expectation even to talk to each other, but you're out where no one else is and there is ample opportunity to talk of you want to, but mostly it's about someone just investing the time to sit there with you for hours and hours on end and be there for you in case you want to say anything. Either way, they were being good friends to Simon Peter at a time that he needed them. Like many other situations like this one, we see these seasoned fishermen out all night, the time that would have been prefect for catching fish in the Sea of Galilee, coming back with empty nets and empty boats. They might have even been dejected wondering what they were going to do now if they weren't even any good at fishing anymore. They had spent nearly three years taking direction from Jesus. They know He's risen from the dead, but He hasn't been around a whole since His resurrection and He's been telling them that He's going away for good now. As they are returning to shore early in the morning, there is a man on the beach who calls to them to ask them if they have caught anything (it is Jesus, but they do not recognize Him). They say "No" and the man tells them to try casting their nets on the other side and they would find some--a ridiculous statement to anyone who was a seasoned fishermen and knew the Sea and the fish that lived in it for they had patters that were predictable, and there's no guarantee that the fish will bite (but who needs to worry about the fish biting when Jesus can make them jump into the net). Either something about this exchange sounded familiar to them or they were so hopeless at this point that they were willing to try anything--even that which didn't make any logical sense. They listened and obeyed and they caught a miraculous catch--so large they could not haul it in! (We'll see just how many fish there were shortly). John immediately recognizes that it is Jesus and responds by saying to Simon Peter, "It is the Lord." In true "Simon Peter" fashion he puts on his outer garment (because he had stripped down to his undergarments to fish) and jumps out of the boat into the water and swims about 100-yards to shore, abandoning the other fishermen and the miraculous catch so that he can be the first to reach Jesus. The others follow shortly thereafter with the boat and the catch of fish. They had to drag the net onto shore because they could not even get the net into the boat, it was so full--again, not very far for them because they were only about 100-yards off of the land. They find something surprising when they get to shore--Jesus already had fish and was cooking them for them so that they could have breakfast. I'm sure everyone wondered where He got His fish from, but no one bothered to ask Him. He's also cooking bread for them (this is probably just regular bread as the Feast of Unleavened Bread is over). He tells them to bring some of the fish that they caught and put them on the fire as well. Simon Peter goes aboard and hauls the net ashore and they begin to count the fish--153 in total! What's so amazing about this is that this normally would have torn and broken their nets they were catching with, but the nets were not broken. Jesus invites them come and sit down and have breakfast with Him--a sign of fellowship in just about any culture, but especially for the Jews. At this point, everyone recognized Him and no one needed to ask, "Who are you,?" They all knew. Jesus took the bread and the fish and gave it to them to eat and John makes sure to point out that this was the third time that He had revealed Himself to the disciples (meaning the Eleven) either with all or just some of the present--the first time was when Thomas was not present when He breathed on them to give them the Holy Spirit, then again eight days later after the Feast of Unleavened Bread had ended and Thomas was present, then again now at the Sea of Galilee with these seven for the miraculous catch. I'd be in error if I did not point out why I think John included this story for us. Yes, part of it is because it is additional eyewitness testimony with a group of people. Yes, it is because Jesus ate something and we can tell He has a physical resurrected body (we'll see that part of the conversation coming up in the next passages we talk about), but this should draw our minds back to the original calling of these disciples when Jesus gave them a mission and a purpose telling them that they would be "fishers of men." Everything was looking bleak and coming up dry and empty for them right now and Jesus gives them instructions on how to catch fish that don't make any sense at all--no one fishes in the daytime close to shore on that side of the boat, but for some reason they listened to Jesus and the fish swam into the nets and the disciples caught the biggest catch of their lives. Application? This probably teaches the disciples something about how they are going to catch men, as Jesus is about ready to give them The Great Commission. They will be given instructions that don't make much sense to anyone else, and the "catch" that they make will not be because of their own knowledge or skill, but because God caused those they were trying to catch to swim and jump into the net--all they had to do was let their nets down where they were told when they were told and God took care of the rest. They will catch men in a way that would normally break the "nets" of anyone that was trying to do this on their own, yet their nets will be unbroken and ready to catch even more men, and all of this will be done by the power and the will and at the direction of Jesus so that He gets all the glory. This story is not so much about fish, but about the disciples needing to remember the calling and seeing that God was still going to do the miraculous in making them fishers of men. Now they are ready to receive some of their final instructions from Jesus--but there are a couple other pieces of unfinished business, especailly between Jesus and Simon Peter. We'll get to those next time. Comments are closed.
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Daniel WestfallI will mostly use this space for recording my "journal" from my daily devotions as I hope to encourage others to read the Bible along with me and to leave a legacy for others. Archives
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