To Dream Again

 

After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. 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.

Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” They answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net to 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 there were so many fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off.

When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

I simply love this story. It’s a story of hope for all of us who sometimes feel defeated by the vagaries of life. We dream these dreams, expecting wonderful things to happen, when suddenly something unexpected takes place, and all our dreams lie shattered in a million pieces. I imagine that’s how the apostles felt. Jesus had told them about all these wonderful things they were going to do, and then he went and died. What was there for them to do but to return to their former occupations?

So Peter is back to fishing and in this story he doesn’t catch any fish. The last time we read about him fishing was when he first met Jesus (see Luke 5). He didn’t catch any fish then, either, which makes one wonder how good a fisherman he was. Anyway, as he returns to shore, there’s this guy standing on the beach watching them. “You haven’t caught any fish, have you?”, he asks. I don’t think Peter was very happy with the question.

“Cast your net to the right side,” the man says. I imagine Peter wanting to tell the man to get lost, when he remembers the other time he hadn’t caught any fish. A man had told him then to toss his net into the waters and he had caught so many fish the nets began to break. Could it be that this was him again? He throws the nets into the water, and sure enough, the catch is great again. Peter doesn’t bother pulling the fish in. He jumps into the sea and swims towards his Lord. It was time to dream again.

Jesus wants to bless you, and if you do what he tells you, you will be. But I want you to think of something. I have spoken about this when we reflected on the previous story about Peter’s miraculous catch of fish. After this catch, when Jesus asked Peter to follow him, Peter left the fish immediately. He does the same thing here. Why? One reason is this: Peter understood it was better to be with the blesser than with the blessing because when you are with the blesser you get all the blessings you need. Something to think about, yes?

A brief note about the 153 fish caught. Because John makes a specific mention of the number, there has been a lot of speculation that it means something. But in all likelihood it means nothing. Why count them then? Because in those days fishermen didn’t sell their catch directly in the market. There were a couple of middle-men who took as much as 60% of the catch so they probably just wanted to know how much of their fish they’d have to forfeit.

And before I end, something else for you to think about. Why did Jesus ask the apostles for fish when he already had fish on the fire? Didn’t he want to share? :) [Don’t take the question seriously. I just wanted to have a little fun.]