Breakfast with a Familiar Stranger
David C. Myers
April 26, 2009
John 21:1 - 14
Text: "None of the disciples dared ask, 'Who are you?' They knew it was the Lord." . . . John 21:12
Zorba the Greek was a man passionately alive! He knew how to dance. In Nikos Kazantzakis book of the same name, Zorba's last words were these: "I've done heaps and heaps of things in my life, but I still did not do enough. People like me ought to live a thousand years. . . . Good night!" Then Zorba got up from his bed, pushed his way through the people gathered there, and gripped the frame of the window. It was there, as he looked at the faraway Greek mountains that death came to him.
So Zorba dramatizes the human dilemma. We get caught between the urge to live a thousand years, and that ache of the final "Good Night."
That's what the Eastertide season is all about. If we follow the church calendar, our Easter celebration didn't end on Sunday, April 8. It's important for us to remember that we celebrate the Easter Spirit for seven Sundays--right up to Pentecost. And it's during this season that we gather out of the hope that we may get some grace to live with the "Good Nights" of life!
Yes, with the finality of death to be sure. But perhaps resurrection happens even more with all the other experiences of life when the curtain comes down just as we were beginning our lines; Or, where the door is closed in our face mid-sentence; Or, when just as life is feeling full and sustaining, death in all its form enters with its abrupt ending.
We come with the instinctive knowledge that all the "tombs" of the world are in not in cemeteries. For each of us carries tombs within ourselves: the tomb of crushed hopes; the tomb of too-often disappointed expectations; the tomb of faded dreams; the tomb of "it's been too short an experience."
But at the heart of the Easter Season is that resurrection not only happened to Jesus, but it happens to us as well!
This morning's Scripture from John's Gospel is one of the resurrection appearances that we don't study too often because it's less dramatic than the appearances at the tomb. But it is about how Easter became real to the disciples. The disciples have gone back in defeat and despair to life as it was before their version of Camelot. For them, in many ways life with Jesus had been ended with the crucifixion.
So, like any grieving people they try to go back and pick up the pieces, doing what they used to do. Peter and his partners are in their creaking old boat at the end of a not-so-good night of fishing in which they hadn't caught a thing.
That experience may not be as remote for us as you first might think. For even if you are not an avid fisher-person, we still "fish" for whatever it is - compliments, acknowledge of our efforts, or promotion, or money - to prove whatever it is we feel we have to prove - or worth; our importance; our loveableness. And the bottom line is pretty clear to us: no fish - no worth. And in that, somewhere is the first intimation of death.
Back to the disciples. A stranger on the shore tells them to fish on the other side of the boat and then they will catch fish. This is not as unusual as you think. I love to fish, but I've had the experience of not catching anything more often than I'd care to admit. I dread coming off a deep-sea party boat and walking off with no catch; because I know that I will find many strangers willing to offer me advice on how to do better. But the disciples do as they were told by the stranger on the shore.
And do they ever catch fish! When the net is pulled in, it's filled to overflowing! The stranger on the shore had to be Christ, not because Christ had great fishing skills - but because only Christ could fill their lives like that! They didn't just catch fish; they caught a resurrection! So they laugh and yell and make their way to shore dragging their fish behind them!
Two intriguing things to note:
1.) The resurrected Christ came to the disciples as a stranger. The person on the shore telling them to cast their nets on the other side of the boat was a stranger - a person not recognized. Now, we know that stranger is Jesus, but it's absolutely important to us that we realize that the disciples did not recognize him. To them it was a stranger.
It wasn't until they had a huge catch that John recognized the stranger as Christ. And how often it is that in our lives it is the stranger who comes to us and turns our failures into successes, our deaths into resurrections?
I don't know if you ever noticed that many of the Resurrection stories are all about Jesus' closest associates - namely the disciples and His close friends - not recognizing Him. In Luke's Gospel there is the wonderful story of two of the disciples going to Emmaus. The resurrected Jesus joins them - and they don't recognize Him; they even called Him the "only stranger in Jerusalem who didn't know what happened". They walk with Him, telling Him the whole story of Holy Week, and the risen Christ even tells them all about Himself, "beginning with Moses and all the prophets," and they still don't recognize Him. When they come to the house and He seems to want to continue on, they invite Him in to eat with them; and they still don't recognize Him! It wasn't until they sat down at table together and He broke the bread and blessed it "that their eyes were opened."
If this is the experience of the disciples, how can we expect it to be easier for us to recognize the risen Christ?!?!? We always underestimate the resurrected Christ. We think we know Him, we think we know where to look for Him, but how mistaken we are. How often do we look for the resurrected Christ in the strangers that appear before us?
The Epistle to the Hebrews reminds us to give hospitality to the strangers we encounter for they may be "angels we have entertained without knowing it" (13:2). So often the resurrected Christ comes to us as a stranger. Supposing Him to be the Jesus our minds have framed Him to be, we are forever amazed when we discover through a stranger; the unshackled Christ, the unhindered Christ, and the glorious Christ of the resurrection. But, the truth is, because the resurrected Christ comes to us as a stranger, it is going to be difficult for us to know and meet the resurrected Christ.
But perhaps that is because the important resurrection - the one that really makes a difference to us - is not the one that happened to Jesus - as primary and important as that is - the most important resurrection is the one that happens in your hearts and minds as you experience and live out new life!
2.) Back to the story. The second, and perhaps most intriguing, part of the Scripture is that John tells us the number of fish caught - 153! Some scholars speculate that that represents all the varieties of fish in the world known at that time - which, I suppose could be metaphorically drawn out to mean that all the varieties of people in the world are caught and held in the net of God's grace.
Possibly, but I think the real reason is that the author of John's Gospel threw it out knowing that it would drive future generations of preachers wacky trying to figure out what it means!
But it's intriguing to think about what this Catch 153 involves. Joseph Heller's novel, Catch 22, has in our day become jargon for the "no-win" situation in our day. You may recall the reason that book got its name was when a World War II bomber pilot is convinced that he has become insane because so many people have tried to shoot him out of the sky; so he goes to the doctor trying to get grounded so people will stop shooting at him. The doctor says, "Yes," he has to ground him if he is as crazy as he claims. But the catch is that he has to ask to be grounded.
"I have to ask."
"Yes, that's the rule."
"Then you'll ground me?"
"No, that's the catch. Catch 22! Anyone who asks to get out of combat duty isn't really crazy!"
So "catch 22" symbolizes everything which says you can't win; not really; not finally! We live a lot of life under Catch 22; can't live with our job, can't live without it; we can't live with change, but then again, we can't live without it.
Then comes Easter and another catch; God's catch; catch 153 which says you can't lose - not really, not finally. Suddenly all those impossible things aren't impossible after all: camels do go through the eyes of needles; mustard seeds do grow into condominiums for birds, life does go on even when it had seemed impossible, and the church we feared would die has experiences a great resurrection.
It has been because of the steadfast faith, perseverance, and the vision of those who have gone before us that this church is alive and has a vision that will take it into a new future. You have lived through the ebbs and flows, the ups and downs and know that Christ has guided you through. And such resurrections will continue in your lives!
On his 80th birthday, the great American poet Robert Frost was asked this question: "In all your years and in all of your travels, what do you think is the most important thing you have learned about life?" There was a pause for a moment, then with a twinkle sparkling underneath those bushy eyebrows, Frost said, "In three words, I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on."
Sometimes it isn't easy for us to know that! When a child is oh, oh, so ill; when a relationship has died; when the limitations of aging begin to take hold of our bodies, weighing down our spirits; . . . Or, when the tomb has been sealed and life seems impossible.
Is there a place in your life when you need to know "it goes on?" Is there a place in your life where you need to hear anew, "Christ is risen?" Do you dare believe that the stone on the tomb with you in it has been rolled away, and incredibly - life goes on!!!
Well, life does go on. As the disciples reached the shore the stranger had prepared a charcoal fire with some bread and fish. Wasn't it loaves and fishes that Jesus fed to the 5,000 when they were hungry? And the disciples were fed the bread and the fishes, and "this is the third time Jesus revealed to the disciples after His resurrection from the dead?"
Meals are important to our faith. Whether it be bread and fishes or bread and wine, they are symbolic of the One Who was wounded and sacrificed His life on our behalf. But more than just a sacrifice, these meals serve to be a reminder that the resurrection is possible for us - now our tombs can be opened, our chains can be unlocked, and our faded dreams can give way to new life.
And so it is today. As you go about your life you will encounter many strangers. Be careful one might make a suggestion to you that you do something different, . . . say, like fish on the other side of the boat. And when that happens, may you be ready to meet the resurrected Christ! Who knows, it may allow your life - to turn around.