Day 51 - Thursday, April 13
Title: COME AND DINE
Scripture: John 21:1–14
Later on, Jesus showed himself again to his disciples on the shore of Lake Tiberias, and he did it in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee and two other disciples were together, when Simon Peter said, “I’m going fishing.” “All right,” they replied, “we’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat and during the night caught nothing at all. But just as dawn began to break, Jesus stood there on the beach, although the disciples had no idea that it was Jesus.

“Have you caught anything, lads?” Jesus called out to them. “No,” they replied.

“Throw the net on the right side of the boat,” said Jesus, “and you’ll have a catch.” So they threw out the net and found that they were now not strong enough to pull it in because it was so full of fish! At this, the disciple that Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!”

Hearing this, Peter slipped on his clothes, for he had been naked, and plunged into the sea. The other disciples followed in the boat, for they were only about a hundred yards from the shore, dragging in the net full of fish. When they had landed, they saw that a charcoal fire was burning, with a fish placed on it, and some bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring me some of the fish you’ve just caught.” So Simon Peter got into the boat and hauled the net ashore full of large fish, one hundred and fifty-three altogether. But in spite of the large number the net was not torn.

Then Jesus said to them, “Come and have your breakfast.” None of the disciples dared to ask him who he was; they knew it was the Lord.

Jesus went and took the bread and gave it to them and gave them all fish as well. This is already the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples after his resurrection from the dead.

Poetry & Poet:
“The Fish”
by Anda Zeng

This is my body.
My only body,
my little life,
my little days,
my little, gasping breaths.
You can hold all of me,
scaled and finite, in your hand.

Help my unbelief—
it’s just that my entire little life
fits in your hand.
And the hunger 
of the world is too big,
bigger than this whipping, fleeting
tiny body.

The Bread was broken 
over and over and
I want to be brave.
I want to believe in your hand
that holds the little life.
A hand like God swimming
against a net.

I want to believe the miracle
does not have to be 
sudden, but can unfold
in little pieces,
carried through the crowd,
fed into praying mouths,
into a fullness as deep as time.

COME AND DINE

The word “morning” brings images of bright light to my mind. But Rado Javor’s picture of Jesus by his early morning fire is full of that dim, before-sunrise, almost-radiant gloom.

It reminds me of the light on a very early morning fishing trip I took with my dad long ago. We headed out in the wee hours in search of Arctic grayling, fish that could be found in the ice-rimmed rivers near our town once the thickest ice had broken up and floated away in the spring warmth.

It was dark when we left, and probably dark when we got there.

But when we reached the river, the light was rising, and so were the fish.

I didn’t plan that trip, and I didn’t get myself there and back. I was so little; I would have been helpless to do either.

But my dad asked me to go, and so I went, and I didn’t worry about a thing.

And I didn’t need to, because I knew my dad, and he was trustworthy.

In our Scripture today, Jesus tells his disciples to do something: He tells them to bring him some fish.

And Peter doesn’t hesitate: he does exactly what Jesus tells him to.

Actually, Peter didn’t hesitate earlier in the passage either: As soon as John nudged him and pointed out that it was Jesus on the shore, Peter dove right into the water and swam to his Lord.

Peter knew Jesus—just as Jesus promised that he would (see John 10, where we are told that Jesus knows his sheep, and they know him). Michael Card’s song is wonderful, partly because it makes it clear that the “stranger on the shore” isn’t a stranger at all.

Peter didn’t hesitate to go to Jesus, and he didn’t need to, because Jesus was—and is—trustworthy.

So, Jesus asks for some fish. Now, all disciples present there together were not strong enough to pull the net into the boat.

But when Jesus commanded, Peter pulled the whole net to shore all by himself.

Apparently, when Jesus tells us to do something, we’re able to do it.

He loves us. We can do what he says, because we can trust that he loves us.

We can do what he says, because he will give us the strength to do it.

(And perhaps, like it seems it was with Peter, we won’t even notice that we’re doing what was impossible for us only a short time ago. Peter didn’t seem to notice that he was doing anything extraordinary in the moment. I think he didn’t notice because his eyes were fixed on his Lord.)

We can do what Jesus says, because he is ahead of us, waiting for us, and will see us and welcome us and feed us.

The paradise that waits for Christians is not neutral. It’s not just the absence of pain.

It’s also not incomprehensible—it’s not abstract, or so strange to us that we won’t be able to understand its goodness.

It’s not “pie in the sky by and by.”

It’s concrete and good and familiar.

It is Jesus on that far shore, waiting to greet us.

Jesus, and no other.

That reality is as real as a meal of smoke-tinged fish and bread by the water’s edge at dawn.

At the end of the long night, the day will dawn, and the One who awaits us on the shore will be our brother, and our friend, and our Lord.

“Come and have your breakfast!”

Prayer
Almighty God and Father, help us to obey the words of your well-beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in sure and certain faith that he is trustworthy and true, that he is our great Shepherd, and that he loves us. We ask this for the sake of the Lord Jesus, who reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
Amen.

Jessica Snell
Biola Class of 200
Writer and Editor

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