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S. Easter 3.25 John 21:1-19

“… and he said to him, ‘Follow me’.”

And what kind of guys are they, exactly, whom Jesus calls to follow him? You would think that the Apostles of Jesus Christ would be the elite of the elites—the .0001%ers. I mean, surely the Almighty God, Lord of heaven and earth, would have even higher standards for admission to his inner circle than say, an Ivy League school, the Navy Seals, or Cooperstown, right?

And yet, to paraphrase Heathcliff, on first meeting his son Linton: ‘What a bunch of beauties, these guys are, what an amazing collection of screw-ups and misfits you’ve got there, Jesus!’

The trick to reading holy scriptures—and it’s a good trick!—is to see what’s really there. We’re taught in seminary to accentuate the positive, put the Apostles forward as Heroes of the Faith, but they aren’t impressive by normal standards of worldly excellence at all, are they?

Consider doubting, pouting Thomas, last week—all bluster and bravado out amongst the hostile Jews who’d just killed Jesus, but when Jesus takes his sweet time appearing to him,Thomas throws a little hissy fit and threatens to quit. Not a giver of the most sage advice, either! It was Thomas who insisted Jesus go back to Judea when Hamas was all feisty, trying to kill him (and see how that worked out! 😉 Brilliant!

You’d think you’d want a less impulsive apostle, one with better judgment, right?

Or this Nathanael of Cana who’s in the boat next to Thomas that morning by the sea, out fishing when Jesus appears to them (was fishing for fish what Jesus called these guys to be about, back in Galilee 3 years before? Uhm, weren’t they supposed to be going after the lost sheep of the house of Israel? Hey, it’d been a hectic, holy week, that!

Nathanael’s pal Philip, after being selected an Apostle, finds Nathanael (aka Bartholomew) and brings him to Jesus who goes: “Yeah, I saw you under the fig tree [miles and miles away] before Philip called you.” And Nathanael gushes, “Wow, you are the King of Israel! You are the Son of God!” And Jesus is like “Wow, and you are easily impressed, dude! You’ll see greater things than that…”

You’d think you’d want an apostle with higher standards for proof, someone less gullible?, to be preaching a difficult-to-believe Gospel, right?

Or the sons of Zebedee, James and John, sent to tell a Samaritan village: ‘Jesus is coming!’, on getting the big brush off, want to call down fire from heaven and destroy them all. And Jesus is like, “Uh, we came to save people’s lives, not destroy them.” And he nicknames them “Sons of Thunder” for that. Nice!

You’d think Apostles would be more gentle, less eager to push the nuclear button, right?

But pride of place among the problem children that are the Apostles of Jesus Christ is Simon Peter, aka “Cephas”—which is Stone in English, as in “sinks like a…”: when Jesus came to them, on the sea, during a storm, walking on the water, Peter goes: “Hey, if it’s really you (he isn’t sure, he’s never really sure it’s Jesus 😉 get me out there to try that!” And it goes well—for a minute or so—until, he sinks like… yeah, you got it—like a Stone 😉 Jesus has fun with nicknames. I wonder what mine would be? No, I don’t want to know, actually.

You’d think you’d want an Apostle who is less of a sinker, who can actually learn to do the tricks?—Oh!, and who wouldn’t deny that he even knows you when a servant girl in a courtyard innocently inquires, right?

‘What a bunch of beauties’, eh? And they aren’t even that good at fishing… for fish!

They’ve seen Jesus a couple times since the Resurrection, briefly. You’d think with only 40 days before he jets off to heaven, there’d be an intensive Apostle 101 class—especially with geniuses like this, right? But no, Jesus is just kind of.. off somewhere, lounging, and left to their own devices, Peter says “I’m going fishing,” and the others join in.

When Peter says “I’m going fishing,” I hear some anguish in that. He figures: no way he’s still an Apostle after he hacked that guy’s ear off in the garden, and then denied he even knows Jesus! Jesus pretty much confirmed those suspicions when he tells the Marys: “Tell my disciples… oh, and Peter!” that he’s out of the club…

But Peter was a professional fisherman! He can make a living doing that again, right? Well, maybe he was rusty, but all night they toiled and caught… nothing!

Jesus finds them and asks if they’ve caught anything (he really likes the awkward, embarrassing questions, doesn’t he? Knows just where the sore spot is and goes, “Does it hurt, there?” 😉

Peter has to be told it’s Jesus, which is also weird. Though it’s weird the other Apostles want to ask, aren’t 100% sure, even thought they “know” it’s Jesus? But Jesus’s definitely different, hard to recognize, visually. [The point here, I think, and a lesson for all who’d see Jesus, post-Resurrection, is that visual recognition is not the Way to Faith but hearing his voice and eating his supper—This is the Way!]

Then, Jesus touches the sorest spot of all, asking three times: “Do you love me more than these?” Crushed, Peter replies: “Lord, you know everything; you know I love you.” One of the more poignant scenes in holy scriptures…

And Jesus says: “Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Over all a watch to keep.” And we’re like “Really? This guy is the one you want leading, feeding, and watching out for us? Jesus! Do you want to keep or lose your sheep?”

Well; “YES!” Our sorest spot—that’s where Jesus puts in the hook to catch us! It’s only in the losing that we’re found, in the dying that we live. Jesus doesn’t want to be happy, apparently. He wants to be with us—especially in the bad spots—death, hell, denials, to catch and save us from ourselves.

After all, Jesus says it is by the death Peter will die, upside down on a cross, that’s how he GLORIFIES GOD! That’ll be Peter’s finest moment…(!)

When we’re at our weakest worst, Jesus is at his brilliant best…

My old teacher John Stroup was many years on the admissions committee for Yale College and used to say: “If it’s really such a great school, it ought to be able to make geniuses out of anybody,” so John always went for the weirdoes, the misfits, the snake charmers—literally one of John’s admits most outstanding traits…

Which is how we all got into Christ’s College 😉

It’s for our weak traits that Jesus admits us. By sharing his sufferings, his cross, he makes us strong in the broken places. So, a band of beatniks is perfect to represent him to the world. And the way he catches us when we fall, how he picks us up, by his word and supper, now—that’s how we glorify God, with Peter and Co, and just so, the Peace, surpassing all understanding, will guard our broken hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.