Two meals. One in the upper room. One on the beach. One in
Jerusalem, the other in Galilee. One of bread and wine, the other of bread and
fish. Both hosted by the Savior. Both providing just what he means to give.
Much had happened between these two meals… Jesus took them
to the garden to pray. Then Judas came with the armed men. Jesus was arrested,
tried, mocked and beaten. Peter denied him that night in the courtyard, even
calling down curses, “I DO NOT KNOW THE MAN!” Then the rooster crowed.
Early on Friday the trial went to Pilate, then to Herod,
then to Pilate again. Finally to Golgotha, and to the cross, where Jesus was
hung and where he suffered and died. They took him down, laid him in the tomb,
and rested on the Sabbath. Sunday morning, angelic greeters told the good news,
“He is not here. He has risen!”
Then he appeared. He appeared to Mary and the women. He
appeared to the disciples on the way to Emmaus. He appeared to the 10 disciples
in the locked upper room. And a week later to Thomas as well. Jesus had not
fled the scene. He was alive, and he showed it.
Now they had gone from Jerusalem, gone back to Galilee. The
angel said Jesus would meet them there. So now another promise is fulfilled. As
Jesus appears and once again eats with his disciples. He hosts the meal. He
provides and prepares the food. He bestows the blessings, just as he did in the
upper room, so he does now on the beach. It’s like before, only different.
Something else is like before. The disciples had returned to
their previous way of life – fishing. And like one day about three years earlier,
when they spent the whole night laboring - the fish weren’t biting. And like that day, a
strange man gave strange instructions that they should cast the net just one
more time. And like that day, a miraculous catch filled their nets. This was
all too familiar.
Only this time, it was a little different, too. The last
time, the nets started to rip and tear – but not now. The last time, Peter fell
on his face in fear in the presence of the Holy One – “Depart from me,” he said
then, “I am a sinful man”. This time, he leapt into the water to approach his
risen Lord.
It’s sort of comical how excited Peter is to see his Lord. You usually take off your outer garment so as
not to get it all wet when you’re fishing.
But you wouldn’t want to meet Jesus in your underwear! So Peter gets himself dressed, then he casts
himself into the water – so eater to meet Jesus again. And there’s a note for
us, too. Are we so eager to meet our
risen Lord, as he comes to us in Word and Sacrament? Are we eager for his return on the last
day? And when our last hour comes, may
we meet him with the same zeal as dear Peter does here.
Now another difference we see between the two catches is the
number of fish. The first miraculous
catch – well there were just many, so many the nets broke. This time, there is a count. 153 we are told. Perhaps just one of those numbers that sticks
in your head – even years later when John wrote all this down. But more likely, Jesus did this on purpose,
just like the leftover 12 baskets after the feeding of the 5000. A symbolic number with a point. You see the ancients widely believed, for
whatever reason, there were exactly 153 different kinds of fish in the
sea. While before, the Gospel was
preached to the Jews – but now, after the resurrection – the good news of Jesus
is to go to the ends of the earth. James
would be martyred in Jerusalem. John
would go to Ephesus and Patmos. Peter
made it to Rome. And Thomas and
Nathanael, it is believed, made it as far east as India, preaching the Gospel
there. Thomas is still widely hailed in
India as their founding father among the apostles. And so, we see perhaps in the 153 fish, but
certainly in the lives of the disciples, that this Easter message is for all
nations, indeed. That means it’s also
for you.
Every Christian, in some sense, is both caught – and catching
fish, or men – in that gospel net. Through
the preaching of the word, and the teaching of all things Jesus has commanded
us – and through our daily vocations, and our lives of witness, the Spirit
works to make us both fish – and fishers of men.
And one day we will be reunited on God’s golden shore, where
we too will meet Jesus.
Jesus is different here too. He’s still the same Jesus. He
even has the marks of his wounds to prove it. But he is also different. Now he
is taking back his majesty and glory. He will soon be fully exalted to his
rightful heavenly throne. Yet in his mercy he appears, makes himself known and
recognizable to his beloved, bewildered disciples.
They had gone through a lot between that last supper and
this first breakfast after Easter. They had seen the lows of Calvary and the
highs of the abandoned grave. They had seen Jesus, heard him, touched him. Now
again, they would eat with him, and he would give them blessings.
In a sense, we’ve gone with them. As we have followed these
events in the course of our church observances, we too have experienced Maundy
Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. We too have seen the lows and the
highs. And now, for us, things are back to normal again, too. It’s the same as
it’s always been. It’s as nothing has changed.
But Easter does change things. It changes things for every
Christian.
It may not look like it on the outside. You see the
statistics… Christians are just as likely as anyone else to get divorced, to
struggle with alcoholism and other social problems. We see our churches divided
and squabbling, in the congregations and even on the national level. You look
at your own life, and you know full well your sins – that you are no angel.
So much of who we are and what we do is tied up in our
sinful human nature – which really is the root of all our problems and
struggles. Imperfect people in an imperfect world. So what’s different about
Christians? What difference does Easter make? A lot.
It may not always look that way on the outside, but we Christians
are people of Resurrection. That is, we have been raised to life in Jesus
Christ. Just as he died and rose, so our sinful selves were buried with him in
baptism, and the new creation, the child of God is raised from those same
waters. We are, like Jesus, back from the dead. And though we don’t always see
ourselves this way, what’s important is that God does.
And this isn’t to say that Easter makes no visible
difference in our lives. It should. It does. Never perfectly, but we do show
Christian love and serve our neighbor for Jesus’ sake. The Spirit does move us
to good works which exercise our faith. And God accepts this imperfect works of
love which are also purified through Jesus Christ.
There’s one more difference that Easter makes. There’s one
more resurrection to come. We who have been reborn in the waters will still
die. Yet even though we die, yet shall we live. And we who live and believe in
him will never die. Oh, our bodies will fail and be buried. But our spirits
will rest with the Lord. And then the final resurrection will come, when Christ
returns, with sound of trumpet and the dead rise again. When Christ, the
firstborn of the dead, welcomes us – resurrected body and soul together – into
our eternal home with him.
Easter gives us this hope. And it’s a hope that makes us
different. It’s a hope that shapes our lives and gives us direction and
purpose. It’s a hope that brings great comfort and peace. It’s a promise that
makes all the difference in the world.
And that promise is renewed here today, for us. Where just
like usual, we receive the blessings of Christ in a meal. Just like his
earliest disciples did, we too gather for a meal, hosted by the risen Christ.
We’re not in an upper room, or on a beach, but at a rail around an altar. But
we still join in blessed communion with God and with others who share our
faith. We still receive all the blessings and promises of God in Jesus Christ.
Our sins are forgiven. And that means we live – now, and forever.
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