Sunday, May 4, Third Sunday of Easter

Psalm 104:1-15; Acts 3:1-16; Revelation 5:1-10; John 21:1-19

Hymns: #901 “Open Now Thy Gates of Beauty”; #485 “Long Before the World Is Waking”; #923 “Almighty Father, Bless the Word”

It’s All About the Fruit, Part II: 

Who Do You Know Who Needs to Be Fed?

This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. (John 15:8)

Dear Friends in Christ,

     Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father and from our risen Lord and Savior Jesus. Amen.

     As the blessed season of Easter continues today in God’s Church, today’s Gospel reading has Jesus telling Simon Peter, “If you love Me, feed my lambs.” Feeding those who are hungry – not just in their bellies, but hungry for God – is part of who we’re called to be as a Church; our works of love and mercy bear much fruit for God! So who do you know who needs to be fed?

     So much of our lives center around food and around eating together; and it’s not just about the food. Ask anyone who has to eat their meals alone how boring and unexciting that can be. Sharing food together is about family and friendship and fellowship. Think about all those Thanksgiving and Christmas and Easter dinners over the years, and the joy of sitting around a table and being together with people you love. Think about all those beautiful church potlucks you’ve been to (and all the pounds you’ve gained!)

     One of my favorites potluck memories was back in Stanton, Michigan years ago, at little Hope Lutheran Church. They had the food set out on the tables, and they had all the beverages set up on an old folding table; three igloos of Kool-Aid, ice tea, and lemonade, plus two coffees urns and water pitchers. And the legs of that old table collapsed in the middle of the proceedings - and there was this small tidal wave about two inches high that sort of rolled in slow motions across the floor of the fellowship hall. The women were mortified, and the menfolk were trying not to laugh as we helped mop up the mess; good times!

     I think it’s sad that so many families don’t eat together at the kitchen table anymore; and even if they do, everyone is staring at their phone. When I was growing up, dinner, at least, was always at the kitchen table, where sometimes we’d talk, and sometimes we’d argue, and sometimes we’d grumble and complain about what was for dinner.

(Leftover casserole again?) But it was all about being together. 

      Sharing food together is as old as the world. In every culture, food brings people together. The sharing of food has always been a symbol of acceptance and peace and fellowship. Sitting down to share a meal with someone says that you care about them. And cooking a meal for someone is one of the best ways there is to say, “I love you”

     It’s not surprising, then, that so much of what we read about in God’s Word is centered on sharing food. God provides us with the fruits of the earth, for us to use and enjoy and share. God gives us harvests to rejoice in, and celebrations to enjoy around our tables. And in sharing those blessed fruits, we express our thanks to God and our love for one another. It’s all about the fruit, isn’t it? Not just the food, the fruits of the earth that feed our bodies, but the food we need to feed our souls. 

     Jesus told His disciples: “This is to My Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples.” If you know someone who’s hungry, how can you not feed them? If you know someone who needs hope or encouragement, or who needs the love of God, what better thing can you do than to feed their soul by telling them what you know? That’s “the fruit of lips that confess His name.” 

     Our story in the Gospel of John takes place sometime after the Resurrection of Jesus, somewhere in those forty days between the Resurrection and His Ascension into heaven. He’d appeared to the disciples twice by this time - once on Easter evening, and once more a week later when Thomas was with them. And now they’d gone back to Galilee, wondering when He’d come to them again, or if He ever would.

     Simon Peter and some of the other disciples were there by the Sea of Tiberias (better known as the Sea of Galilee). That was their old stomping grounds, their familiar old fishing spot. So Peter announced, “I’m going out to fish.” I don’t think he was intending to go back to fishing for a living, necessarily, or contemplating being a fulltime fisherman again. I think maybe this was just for comfort, for the sake of having something dear and familiar to do. And the other disciples said, “We’ll go with you.”    

     And alas, they were out on the lake all night and didn’t catch a thing, not even a fish or two to share for breakfast in the morning - a very “unfruitful” night of fishing. (Don’t you hate it when that happens?) Now remember, this is a story about how God blesses us and feeds us, and about us bearing good fruit for God by feeding the world around us; so watch what happens next:

     Early in the morning, Jesus came to stand on the shore, but the disciples didn’t know that it was Him. It was early morning, the light was still dim, with maybe a mist or morning fog hanging in the air. Jesus called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” That’s not the best of translations; what He literally says is, “Children, have you no food?” Have you nothing for breakfast, have you wasted your night? Can the fishermen not even come up with a fish for their breakfast? He’s teasing them a little bit, as any fisherman who’s ever been skunked knows all about. They answer, no doubt getting a little testy about it, “No!” 

     The Jesus said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you’ll find some.”

That was an echo back to the beginning of His time with them, when He first called them to be His disciples. In Luke 5, He’d used Simon Peter’s boat as a pulpit, then asked Peter to “put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch;” and they’d caught so many fish their nets began to break. And here again, “they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.” The difference is that in the first catch, they caught fish in deep water, and their nets began to tear; and here, they were catching fish in the shallows, just a hundred yards from shore, and the nets didn’t tear at all. The same miracle, but better and greater and magnified.

     They didn’t know who He was as first, but they recognized Him now. The “disciple Jesus loved” (that’s John, who wrote this Gospel), said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” Simon Peter, who’d been fishing without his clothes on (as was the custom and habit of fishermen in those days) put his outer garment back on before jumping in the water. 

(Wouldn’t do to greet the Lord on the beach looking like that!) Then the other disciples brought the boat to shore, dragging that awesome net full of fish along.

     Now, what happened next on shore was all about the fish and the food, and the “bearing fruit for God” that we’re talking about today. The disciples, who’d been looking sadly at a morning with nothing for their breakfast, saw that Jesus already had a fire going, and there were already fish on the fire, and He’d even baked them some bread. No better way to tell someone you love them than to make them a meal. And Jesus told them, “Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught.” He invited them to make a contribution to the meal; now it was a potluck! 

     Simon Peter dragged the net ashore, and it was full of 153 of the nicest, biggest fish you ever saw. That’s interesting, because normally when you fish with a net, you get “all kinds of fish, good and bad,” and you have to sort the bad ones out. Not here, though; there were no bad fish, or “too small” fish, or fish that had to be thrown back; just 153 perfect fish! Jesus said to them, “Come and eat,” and none of them asked them who He was, because by now it was obvious. And then Jesus did what He loves to do; He served them! He served up the bread and the fish with His own hands - nice fish sandwiches for everyone for breakfast.

     And now we get to the point of the exercise, for the disciples and for us. When they’d finished eating, and they were all sort of laying back and enjoying the morning and enjoying each other’s company, Jesus said to Simon Peter (using his old name, his before-he-met-Jesus fisherman name), “Simon son of John (Simon Johnson!), do you love Me more than these?” 

     There’s a difference of opinion as to who or what He was pointing to, when He said “these.” Some say “these” was the other disciples: “Do you love Me more than these guys do?” Peter had said to Jesus once, “Even if all these should leave You, I never will;” maybe Jesus was reminding him of what he’d said. Others say Jesus was pointing to the boat, the nets, the lake, the pleasant shoreline, the fishing gear, and all that goes with it - the life that Simon Johnson the fisherman loved. I think the answer just may be both. Do you love me more than your brothers? Do you love Me more than your wife and your children, your job and your home and all your familiar things? Do you love Me enough to “pick up your cross and leave all that you have and follow Me?” Jesus was calling the man to make the final break from his old life, and to be the “fisher of men” that Jesus first called him to be.

     Peter, Jesus is saying, it’s all about the fruit. It’s all about a world that needs to be fed, and about people who are dying to know God. Do you truly love Me more than these? And how much? Peter answered, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.” And Jesus said, “If you love Me, feed My lambs.” (“If” is such a big word!) 

     Then the Lord saw fit to ask the question again: “Simon, son of John, do you truly love Me?” Peter answers again, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.” Then Jesus says to him, literally, “Then shepherd My sheep.” That’s Peter’s call to be a pastor, a shepherd of God’s flock, which is another level of responsibility up from being an ordinary Christian. The shepherd has to make sure the flock gets fed, and that the sheep don’t starve or get scattered or eaten by wolves. The shepherd has to put aside worrying about his own life or safety, and even be willing to die for His flock, if it should ever come to that.

      It’s getting intense for old Simon, isn’t it? Jesus asks him a third time, “Simon Johnson, do you dearly love me?” Peter is hurt that Jesus has questioned him so - maybe because he’s been confronted with the truth that his love for Jesus has never been what it truly ought to be. He says, “Lord, You know everything; You know how much I love You.” And Jesus says again, “Then feed my sheep.”

     It’s all about the fruit. It’s all about making sure God’s lambs, His sheep, His precious ones, have what they need not just to survive, but to live in contentment and peace. It’s about drawing those precious sheep into the flock, into the fellowship, and gathering them around God’s table, and serving and feeding them and letting them know God loves them. We have no other purpose.

     Jesus told Peter, clearly enough, what his life would be like, and what it would cost him, if he turned his life to being a “fisher of men” and feeding God’s children. It wouldn’t be an easy life, by any means. Read through the Book of Acts, and you’ll see how much Peter and the other apostles had to suffer for the sake of following Jesus. Peter was beaten in the synagogues and brought before governors and kings for the sake of Christ. We’re told that at the end he was arrested in Rome and sentenced to be crucified by the Roman Emperor Nero, and that he asked to be crucified upside down, not feeling himself worthy to die the same death as his Savior – truly a death that would glorify God.

     I don’t know what God has in store for us. I hope and pray that my own life and my death will somehow glorify God, like Peter’s did, and I’ll do my best to make it so. But who knows what God may have in mind? But what I do know is that whatever happens, people still need to be fed. They’re all around us. They’re our neighbors and co-workers and friends, and people we meet at random every day in the course of our lives. Many of them are hungry for a simple thing like food, and we can help with that; I hope there’s always room for an extra chair around your supper table. And people are hungry for hope, and hungry for mercy, and hungry for God, and we can help with that, too. It’s all about the fruit, folks, “the fruit of lips that confess His name.” 

     “This is to my Father’s glory,” Jesus says, “that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” So who do you who know who needs to be fed? Help us, heavenly Father, to bear good fruit for You. In Jesus’ name; Amen.