Eastertide #11:

I’m going fishing!

(John 21:3)

Peter decides it’s time to get back into the fishing business. “I’m going fishing,” Peter says to his fellow disciples. They had seen their Crucified Lord risen. But, what now? Fellow fisherman like James and John join him; along with Thomas and Nathanael and two unnamed disciples—they need work too.

The high drama of following Jesus has ended. It’s time to get back to work, put some food on the table and take care of their families. It is not easy to earn a living. Things don’t go well: “They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.” As the sun begins to rise, someone calls out to them from shore: "Have you any fish?" Not a single one. "Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some." They give it a try, and they get such a catch that they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. John says to Peter, “It is the Lord!”

Peter puts his clothes on, jumps into the water and swims to shore. Seems to me you should take your clothes off to swim; but, Peter doesn’t want to greet Jesus without his clothes on. While Peter swims about a football field length towards shore; the others are left with the difficult task of hauling in the uncanny, heavy load of fish.

When they all arrive on shore with their “one-hundred and fifty three large fish;” Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” As they linger, Jesus calls them to a new vocation: “Tend my sheep and feed my lambs.” It was then that the disciples became Apostles. There’s no going back, only forward. That’s how we get in on it.