Peter’s Story
Ann Beaty
Fellowship Hall
Tarrytown United Methodist Church
April 18, 2010
Text: John 21:1-19
For most of us, our daily life often includes feeling a sense of overload. As wonderful as all of our technology is, we live our days in asensory overload with our many forms of instant connection – i-phones and blackberry’s, email and voice mail and twitter and facebook.
And then, there are the day-to-day schedules we attempt to keep. We tend to assume that a day is “normal” if we experience overload in our scheduling with more to do than there are minutes or hours in the day.
It is not unusual for me to end a day feeling like I simply “ran” from one appointment or task to the next – with no space in-between to catch my breath. Sound familiar? Have I stressed you out just talking about it? Well, let me just add one more…
Sometimes, on top of all that, there are those times of extreme emotional overload caused by the stress of some unexpected life situation. And, it seems to me, this is where the disciples are when we find them in our story today.
For the disciples, the last week of Jesus’ life had been overwhelming and surely they were living in major overload. The tension-filled, emotional high of their entry into Jerusalem was followed by extraordinary events in the temple, a Passover meal unlike any other, an intense experience in the Garden of Gethsemane, an unexpected betrayal, an armed arrest, a series of denials, a mock trial, a jeering mob, and a blood execution.
Surely in the hours following Jesus’ death, the disciples were crushed and numb. The human spirit can only take so much.
Then came the events that brought an emotional overload of another sort altogether – news of the empty tomb and resurrection appearances that had to be seen to be believed. These events would not only overwhelm and change the disciples forever; these events would change the entire world forever.
In the immediate aftermath of these events, surely the disciples needed some time and space to assimilate what they had experienced. Following Peter’s lead, the disciples returned to their familiar trade. “I am going fishing,” Peter announced, and the others said they would go with him.
This may seem like a small, insignificant detail, but isn’t that how we humans often respond to emotional overload? We return to what is familiar and known and what we feel we can have some control over.
When I am in emotional overload, I get a little obsessive about my house. I clean and put things in order. I trash or recycle anything that I can get out of sight. I go through and organize the papers that have gathered on the kitchen counter from the mail from recent weeks. I get out the 409 and scrub the counters so that it all looks pristine clean. I clean, and straighten, and organize – gaining control over the environment I CAN control.
I’m not at all surprised that Peter would be the one to suggest that they return to fishing. Peter, of all the disciples, had to be in immense grief and emotional overload. Not only did he experience what the disciples experienced in the past weeks, but he is the one who denied 3 times that he even knew Jesus when the going got tough.
I would imagine that Peter would give anything to go back and “do over” the events that transpired and play out his part of the story differently. But, what’s done is done and he must work through it and move forward. So, he tries. He does what he knows. He goes fishing.
As daybreak comes, John is the first to recognize Jesus. He says to Peter, “It is the Lord.” Peter does something that seems a little strange. First of all, he is, apparently naked…so he puts on some clothes and jumps into the water. All of this is going on while the other disciples come in to the shore to meet Jesus.
Eventually Peter joins them and they have breakfast with Jesus. This is the third time they have seen Jesus since he was raised from the dead.
So, what is going on with Peter? His “nakedness” reminds me of the “nakedness” Adam and Eve experienced in the garden. They heard God coming and recognized their “sin” – their separation from God by their actions, and they felt ashamed at their nakedness and hid from God.
Peter too recognizes his “sin” – the way his actions separated him from Jesus. He sees that Jesus is present, recognizes his nakedness and puts on clothes and jumps in the water to hide from Jesus.
But, he doesn’t stay there. Peter in his grief and guilt and shame is drawn to the shore, drawn to the love of Jesus waiting for him there. Jesus doesn’t go into the water and drag Peter out. Jesus is on the shore, with a fire and breakfast where he waits; waits for recognition; waits with the gift of his loving presence and sustenance; waits for Peter to come towards him.
And then, there is agape love – unconditional love and acceptance for Peter from Jesus. The Greeks had more than one word to use for love and the first time it is used here it is “agape” love – unconditional love – meaning that Jesus is conveying something like: “I love you without boundaries and nothing you have done in the past or will do in the future can change that love”. And then, just as Peter denied Jesus three times, Jesus assures Peter 3 times of unconditional and brotherly love.
But, it isn’t just an assurance of love. It is offered with a question – Do you love me? There is an expectation of response – the only response that is appropriate when one is loved unconditionally by Jesus: Feed my lambs, Tend my sheep, Feed my sheep.
In other words, do exactly what I have modeled for you here – offer brotherly love (the other Greek word that is used here) and then wait – wait with presence and with sustenance – the very things I have provided for you this morning on the beach and respond by sharing it with others.
Peter is being called to move forward. He’s being given a great gift. Nothing is holding him back now. He has assurance from Jesus himself that the past is done. It’s gone. It’s forgiven, redeemed, healed. Peter is loved and despite the ways he as failed in the past, Jesus believes in him and challenges him to move forward and offer the love he has received to others.
Thomas Troeger, a preacher and theologian, writes that we must read the end of John’s gospel connected to the beginning of it – the place where Jesus’ earthly ministry began.
They are some of my favorite verses in the New Testament: “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of the people. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it”.
There is such hope, such promise, such peace for me – that in the midst of so much in life that is overwhelming – that no darkness we endure can ever snuff out the light that has come in Jesus. That no action of mine – as many mistakes as I might make or missed opportunities that breeze by me – there is nothing I do or don’t do that can snuff out the light that has come in Jesus.
This epilogue story - the end of John’s gospel reminds us that darkness is a part of living – there is the darkness of our overload, the darkness of our failure to recognize Christ, the darkness of our denial – but at the same time, it reminds us that none of this darkness has overcome the light. For the risen Christ still calls us, still feeds us, still empowers even doubters and deniers for the ministry.
Just thinking about it, I can breathe easier and find peace in knowing that I am okay. I am loved. I am accepted.
We’re challenged today to not reduce Christ and the wonders of his ministry to a story in the past, not to leave the gospel in a time and place long ago and far away. In my experience, the more we allow ourselves to experience the love of Christ, the more we’ll find ourselves “nudged” to offer the love of Christ to others.
So today, in this Easter season, may we come out of hiding from whatever is holding us back to know that we are loved and that we are given a life that starts new every day loved by the risen Christ and therefore, we too, like Peter, can hear the call to love, tend, and feed others.
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