Picnic on the Beach with Jesus. Would you like to go to a picnic on the beach with Jesus? I’m not sure I would. It seemed to me when I first read this scripture a long time ago, that I would not want to have picnic where Jesus treated me the way he did Peter. I would not want to be scolded for denying Jesus. And, I thought Peter was being scolded. I also thought Jesus was being unnecessarily repetitive with Peter by basically telling him the same thing three times when all he really wants is for Peter to follow him again.
I’ve come to realize though, that the questions Jesus asks Peter are something quite different from a repetitive scolding for denying him. There are three things going on here. The first is Jesus grants Peter forgiveness for denying him three times. The second is Jesus invites Peter back into relationship with him. The third is Jesus teaches Peter how to follow him in the future.
When you look at this story though, the story itself seems like such little things. The story shows the disciples finally catching fish. They eat breakfast on the beach with Jesus. Peter is forgiven three times in the act of Jesus asking him if he loves him. Peter says yes three times, feeling hurt that Jesus keeps asking. Peter does not understand Jesus is inviting him into a different future. He is inviting Peter to change his perspective. And then Jesus teaches Peter how to follow him and that is what bring about Peter’s change of perspective.
The way I generally learn something is by having my perspective changed too. I may have struggled with something for ages, only to have someone say, “Have you thought about it this way?” Suddenly I have a new perspective.
Like most of us, the disciples needed a change of perspective. In our Gospel today, Simon Peter says to the disciples, “I am going fishing.” And predictably enough, “They said to him, ‘We will go with you.’” They were returning to the familiar. Peter decides to do what he’s trained to do. He decides to do what he’s done most of his life. He goes fishing. Not quite knowing what else to do, the other disciples go along. Better to do something than nothing.
Now Simon Peter was a competent fisherman. But you and I know that competence doesn’t always count. Fishing, like farming, is a sometime thing. Some times you get the rain; some times you don’t. Some times you catch the fish; some times you don’t. And this time, Peter and his buddies don’t catch anything. They were out all night for nothing. And then, as they’re putting in to shore, probably hungry for breakfast and a little sleepy, someone on the shore decides to do a good deed. He hollers, “Cast the net to the right side of the boat.”
The kind of fishing Peter and the disciples did was in fairly shallow water. They used a large net, with small weights all round it. The idea was to cast the net into the sea so that it flung itself as wide as possible, at the same time keeping itself outspread with all those little weights. It takes real skill to do that. If one side of the net is cast sooner than the other; that side of the net sinks. It’s more difficult to pull to gather in the fish. If one side sinks faster, sometimes fish escape, too. So the idea is to hear one satisfying little “plunk” when all the weights hit the water at the same time. Rather than a bunch of little plunk, plunk, plunk plunks as each part of the net hits at a different time.
Still, no matter how skillful you are at throwing the net, the reality is, if the net doesn’t land where the fish are, you don’t catch anything. And the reality also is, when you’re in the boat, right on top of the net, you often can’t see into the water. Glare, shadows from the boat, the angle you’re standing, all these make up a perspective that may not allow you to see the fish. This is why you’ll often see – even today on the Sea of Galilee – where net fishing is done, a “spotter” walking the shore. The job of the spotter is to tell the person in the boat where to fling the net. The person on the shore has a different perspective. They can see things differently from where they stand.
This is the purpose of Jesus’ repeated questions and teachings: to change Peter’s perspective. Each time Jesus spoke, Peter’s perspective changed a little bit. By the time Jesus repeated himself for the third time, Peter had a new perspective. Finally, Peter understood how to do the kind of fishing Jesus was calling him to do.
How does Jesus change our perspective? How do we deepen our commitment to him? How do we finally find ourselves unable to go back to our fishing and begin to fish for Jesus?
It’s possible the disciples went out in the boat together because they were clinging to one another still. They hadn’t quite absorbed the good news of the resurrection and didn’t know what to do. Or perhaps they had, and they clung to one another out of sheer terror. They knew what was in store for them if they followed Jesus.
Are you like me? Sometimes I haven’t quite absorbed the good news of the resurrection. And sometimes I cling to the familiar in sheer terror because I know what’s in store for me if I follow Jesus. Either way, I need a new perspective.
Which are you? Have you not quite absorbed the news of the resurrection? Are you clinging to the familiar not knowing quite what to do? Listen to Jesus on the shore. May the resurrected Christ give you a new perspective.
Or are you clinging to the familiar in sheer terror because God is calling you to do something new? Listen to Jesus on the shore. May the resurrected Christ give you a new perspective. AMEN.
The Rev Nicolette Papanek
©2016
No comments:
Post a Comment