Text: John 21:1-14

“Gone Fishing” John 21:1-14

“Gone Fishing”. It’s a sign you used to be able to see in small towns, put up in a shopkeeper’s dusty window, sighted in the middle of a warm, sunny early spring day like we’ve been having this week. It’s a sign that conveys a lot in a couple of words: maybe it’s saying it’s too nice a day to be inside selling widgets!; or all things considered, life is short and on a day like this, lazing by the river catching a few fish (or not) is more important than making a living!; or real life is down by the river, not cooped up in an office on such a day as this, and if you think the same, you know where to find me!; or I’ve got widgets to sell, and I wouldn’t mind selling you some when the sun isn’t shining so bright and the fish aren’t biting!; or I don’t care what you think, I’m a bum and not afraid to flaunt it!; or I’m independently wealth and on a cloudy, drizzly day, I’m happy to sit in here and chat with you all and pretend I’m working, but really I haven’t worked a day in my life and I don’t intend to start now!; or the widget business hasn’t really been going all that great, so I’m contemplating changing careers and I’m honing my skills on the bass boat and thinking of going on tour…

And while I was writing those words, sitting inside on an absolutely spectacular early spring Friday morning, with the birds singing, the sun beaming, and the links beckoning, it was all I could do not to put up a sign on the church door, find my sticks, and head out myself! It’s amazing how many good reasons for not working you can find on a day like that!

Peter had his reasons that early spring morning, probably one of the first really nice days of the year in Judea. After a long, cold winter, Peter had his reasons when he turned to his buddies and fellow apostles by the sea that morning and said “I’m gone fishing”. You see there is as much and more in Peter’s couple words as in any “Gone Fishing” sign that’s ever been hung in any gin-joint anywhere in the world. Lot of meaning in those couple of words!

For Peter it’s even more complex than our imaginary shopkeeper. Our shopkeeper was an amateur fisherman and professional widget seller. Peter on the other hand was a professional fisherman who’d changed careers three years before at the call of a Stranger from Galilee who (after helping him haul in a record catch of fish quite miraculously) told him, “Enough of this fishing for fish business. Follow Me, and I’ll make you fish for people…” That was an intriguing and bizarre enough prospect, that Peter dropped his nets on the spot, his brother Andrew and business partners James and John and they lit out for the territories right then and there on Jesus’ heels. Fishers of men they were going to be, whatever that means! Apostles of the Son of God, again, whatever that is!

And what a wild ride it was, those three years. At first, it seemed his career change was all to the good. Peter saw amazing things in the early days—Jesus his Master made the lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear, the dead rise. More amazing-er, he forgave all sinners all their sins and declared them holy saints, citizens of heaven, right there on the spot, no works required! These were the coolest tricks Peter had ever seen. It certainly caught him in Jesus’ net. The Kingdom came and what a time it was! They traveled up and down the highways and byways of Palestine, with a knapsack and the Lord and lived like Kings though looking for all the world like hobos. They were lords of creation and the bond they had with the Christ was 200 hundred proof joy. They couldn’t get enough of it or Him. You just can hardly imagine what it was like! His strange little parables and stories He’d tell, the laughs, the Mystery, the wonder—their worries, their fears melted away. It was like being back in the Garden with Adam and Eve before the Fall or something very like it…

But then it all started to go south. The big-shots of Israel didn’t like Jesus’ free and breezy ways. They didn’t like seeing sinners unreformed, unafraid come streaming into the temple like they owned the place. They didn’t like a Kingdom that comes without effort or hard work. They didn’t like seeing the world with a “Gone Fishing” sign hanging in every window and the whole mass of humanity hanging with Jesus down by the River like everyone had gone to some cosmic Carolina in their minds.

So they set traps for Him, stirred up the people against Him. There were threats, violence. Peter began to fear for His life, and realize this run with Jesus could get them all killed. And then it all went down so fast on the Passover… Judas with a crowd of soldiers, a kangaroo court condemning Jesus, and Peter hearing himself deny three times he even knew Him or ever had anything to do with Him…

And then Pilate sentencing Jesus to death, the nailing to the cross, the darkness between noon and three, the last terrible cry, the burial, the hiding behind locked doors, lest the next cross have Peter’s name on it! And then the news that He was Risen (and He did say something about that, didn’t He?) and Peter scoffing but not finding the body, and the Lord appearing to him and then all of them that night. And that was weird. Peter knew it was Jesus, and yet didn’t know. He looked the same, too much the same really, had the nail holes and everything, yet He was different, even more free and breezy, passing through doors, walls, not inhibited even by the laws of physics. The brain rebelled and they all wondered how this could be, could it really be Him and was He maybe a little ticked over their denial and betrayal? He didn’t seem so at all, but Peter worried…

So when he got up that morning by the sea of Galilee, at his old fishing spot, and said “I’m gone fishing” there was a lot in that statement—too nice a day to sit thinking about The Meaning of it All, life is by the River, you know the list… Probably the biggest one though: the apostle gig and this fishing for men stuff really hasn’t gone to well for me. I’m no good at it. We haven’t caught anybody. It’s the same little group we started with, smaller by a few, actually. I stink at being an Apostle, a fisher of men, whatever in the world that is! I’m going back to what I know. I’m re-teeing, re-hitting! I’m not depending on Someone who has holes in His hands and feet and side and won’t obey even the laws of physics anymore! I’m relying on my own hands, wits for my living!

And how’s that working out for you, Peter? Badly. Comically badly. All night long, the professional fisherman can’t catch a thing! He’s going to starve at his old profession faster than he would at the Apostle Gig…

Until Jesus appears. It’s Him, but they’re afraid to speak their doubts on this. He tells them, like the first day, three years before, where to cast the net—in the empty spot, and the fish come streaming in. And on the beach, He’s got breakfast ready: bread and fish (the Greek for fish, icquV, can read as an acronym: Jesus Christ Son of God Savior). And eating this calms the fears. Maybe this Apostle gig will work out for Peter anyway?

If ever you’re “gone fishing” with Jesus, solid gone, faith gone, you will see for yourself—real life is by the River, the Son shining, bread and icquV to eat. Right here, the Peace that surpasses understanding is guarding your heart and life in Christ Jesus. Amen.

 Kevin W. Martin