Sometimes there are so many interesting details in one Bible story that I don’t know where to look. This third encounter between the resurrected Jesus and the disciples* is one such story: Peter naked in the boat, hurriedly putting his clothes back on before diving into the water; the very specific count of fish. When I chose this passage, back in the peak of Omicron, I was taken with the detail of Jesus making breakfast – the idea of having a meal together, this simple act of preparing food for people you love, and how healing it can be.
But on this reading, what jumps out to me is that, as with many of the resurrection scenes, is that Jesus isn’t immediately recognized by his disciples. Something about what he has gone through has changed Jesus in fundamental ways, and the disciples don’t recognize him from afar. It’s only after Jesus directs them to an enormous catch of fish that the lightbulb goes on. The moment of recognition comes not from Jesus’s appearance or voice, but from within John’s own body: the muscle memory of sitting in this boat, with these same companions on this same body of water, straining to pull in a net ludicrously full of fish.
Wasn’t that a lifetime ago, the day that strange man had appeared, commandeered their boat, and nearly destroyed their nets with an enormous haul?† When he had promised to make them “fishers of men,” – whatever that meant. The day their lives had changed forever – or so they thought. Before everything came crashing down, before their dreams of a new earth turned into just one more bloody nightmare, their messiah put in the tomb. And here they were, back in their fishing boats like nothing had happened, as if it had all been a dream.
It can be discouraging to recognize ourselves back in a familiar situation, particularly after we thought we had changed – life had changed. But what if we saw these moments NOT as evidence of our lack of progress, not proof that the world itself is stuck in some old rut, but rather as a setting that is rich with the possibility of recognizing the risen Jesus? Can the familiarity of our same old struggles remind us that, just as God was with us then, God is with us even now? What if we trusted that being back here – whatever literal or figurative place it may be – is a place where we are sure to meet him?
–Erica Lloyd, Seekers Church
