…and the excitement has continued! Jesus has been popping up here and there, meeting and encouraging. The disciples must have had a sense of renewed hope, though still uncertainty. Where were they going to go next? Where would he send them and how could they do it?
Jesus kept implying that they should wait – it would become clear. The disciples could recall Jesus teaching them in his farewell briefing (John chapters 13-16) and saying at one point (John 14: 25-27):
“All this I have spoken while still what you, but the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives, do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
That’s all very well, but there are things to plan. The disciples waited. Several of them went back to their old pastime of fishing.
Peter who would become ‘the rock’ of the church, however, had something else on his mind. Yes, there was great joy; yes, he believed that Jesus was the Messiah; yes, there was hope. But one thing nagged him. His great friend Jesus had been right when he had predicted that Peter would deny him three times. Luke records the moment, after the third denial, when “the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter” (Luke 22: 61). Peter could not erase the memory of that moment. It’s as if there were some unfinished business with Jesus; he was so desperately sorry.
John chapter 21 captures the moment really well, and is a crucial part of Peter’s story for us. We read that seven of them had gone off fishing, but had caught nothing overnight. A shout from the shore encouraged them to throw the nets over the other side of the boat. There was such a miraculous catch of fish that John exclaimed, “It’s the Lord!”, and Peter jumped overboard and waded ashore. The others followed with the catch.
They found a fire lit, fish cooking and breakfast ready. I have often imagined this meal, with food being handed around by Jesus. Each time Jesus offered Peter a piece of cooked fish, Peter would look away avoiding his gaze, as if he knew that there was ‘a conversation’ coming. At the end of this breakfast, I imagine Jesus taking Peter off along the shore, just within earshot but still in essence a one-to-one, eyeball-to-eyeball conversation. Jesus would now engage Peter’s gaze (I imagine Peter had no choice here) and would ask him three times: “Peter, son of John, do you love me?”. Peter’s third reply would become emotional:
“Lord you know all things, you know that I love you.”.
At Tabgha, Galilee on the shores of the lake, there is a beautiful sculpture depicting this moment -when Peter is forgiven. For us, the importance of this story and Jesus’s forgiveness and grace is that when things have gone wrong, and we turn back, we can say: “Dear Lord forgive me. You know that I love you.”. And we know he always hears – amazing grace.
Nigel
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