May 4, 2025

John 21:1-19

Third Easter C; 05.04.25;

G. Miles Smith+

I would like to begin with a few thoughts humorous…and then a few thoughts sober. So first, I hope that the Altar Guild is aware of just how lucky they are. In response to the gospel reading, it dawns on me that had God’s intentions, and the flow of history, been slightly different…that instead of preparing bread and wine for Holy Communion each Sunday…it could also have been some…bread…and fish! :)

It is of course understandable that bread and wine became such a central identity marker, and practice, for Christians from the very beginning, given Jesus’ dominical directive at the Last Supper to… “do this in remembrance of me.”

It is however a bit curious that some kind of early morning meal of bread and fish was not sacramentalized in Christian practice, at least as an annual event during the season of Easter. But to my knowledge, it has never happened. After all, this is a gospel story that does deserve remembering…not just because we might be fond of fish…or seashores in the mornings…or cooking outdoors. But this is a gospel story that deserves remembering…for what it says about the mystery of reality…and the mystery of God’s judgment.

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First then…notice just how mysterious the stories of Jesus’ resurrection appearances really are:

They were not just visionary experiences of Jesus—some purely inner, spiritual experience that never actually landed in reality. Such an inward experience of Jesus would be much more imaginable. But that is not what any of the testimonies of Jesus’ resurrection describe.

The resurrection appearances of Jesus also were not ghostly experiences of Jesus—some paranormal experience of a Jesus who was still dead. Such a ghostly experience of Jesus would also be more imaginable. But that is not what any of the testimonies of Jesus’ resurrection describe.

Instead, these resurrection experiences of Jesus…were intensely spiritual…and yet as tangible…as their locations…and the fishing…and the charcoal fire…and the bread and fish. These appearances of Jesus were…well…appearances…both spiritual and material…all woven together in a way never seen like that before.

They should then create in us an unexpected expectation…that the spiritual and material…the otherworldly and the worldly…are in fact much more intertwined…and not so completely separate …as we may be more inclined to imagine.

To believe in the resurrection of Jesus is to believe not only in the sacrament of bread and wine…but also that this whole world…of joys and sorrows…good and evil…can also be sacramental of God.

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This then brings me to the other big reason that this gospel story deserves to be remembered…for here is found a most unexpected, intensely personal, demonstration of…God’s judgment.

As astonishing as the bread-and-fish resurrection story is…and as challenging as it should be to our assumptions about reality…it would seem that what is really driving the appearance of Jesus to the apostles in this specific instance…is some very personal…unfinished business… of an unresolved past.

What is easy for us to overlook in these stories…is that when Jesus first wondrously appeared to the apostles…it was at the same time an experience for them that was very weighted…with a devastating remembrance of the recent past. It affected all the apostles…but especially Peter...and apparently none of them knew how to bring it up. How do you bring up…the pain of their having earlier abandoned Jesus in his suffering…and especially Peter denying Jesus three times? And then--against everything they thought was possible…there Jesus was…he whom they had abandoned and betrayed…sitting across the charcoal fire from them? Where do you even begin? Well, they did not.

But Jesus did. And perhaps that is the most basic way to think about the judgment of God: It is… God…bringing up the past. For Peter, it began by Jesus asking him a series of questions. Peter apparently did not even know he was entering into divine judgment…until the third time that Jesus asked Peter the same question: “Peter, do you love me?” Then…in that third repetition…Peter’s earlier triple denial was laid bare. Jesus was bringing up…what Peter could not. An unresolved past …a terrible wrong…was being addressed by Jesus. And what is so remarkable in this instance is that Jesus was bringing it up…on the slant. Jesus did not approach Peter straight on…Jesus did not get “all up in his face” asking “Why did you betray me?!” Instead, Jesus approached that horror…indirectly: “Peter, do you love me?” Who could have ever imagined…that the way Jesus approached Peter’s sin…was by creating a completely unexpected opportunity for…what Jesus wanted most of all…the healing of Peter…and the restoration of Peter to himself…and to God.

“For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved”—remember the often forgotten John 3:17? Well, we kind of know that…but then we kind of don’t.

This gospel story displays a different way of thinking about divine judgment than we are ordinarily accustomed to…not purely as destruction…but repair. And that view of God’s judgment is there in the Bible…but no where do we see it acted out so specifically…and so personally…as in this resurrection encounter between Jesus and Peter.

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I cannot presume upon God…that we will all have such similar opportunities…for divine judgment on the slant. But I’m inspired to hope for it…for me…and you…and every soul…and even for the sins of the whole world. I cannot help but hope…that the resurrection of Jesus…is in fact inviting a previously unimaginable opportunity…for the ultimate rescue and repair…of so much we have all “done”…and “left undone”…that is beyond our own capacity to ever bring up…much less…ever make right.

There was Jesus…with Peter…making a way …for a whole new beginning…leaving him…and all of us ever since…with both a question…and a command: “Do you love me?” Well, alright then: “Feed my sheep.”