May 5, 2019 Text: John 21:1-14
Dear Friends in Christ,
The Day Jesus Fixed Breakfast. I like a good breakfast, how about you? Ever since I could sit down with a bowl of cereal, a pop-tart and the sports page at age 4 I have enjoyed the first meal of the day. Breakfast provides nutrition for the day, helps you to wake up or for you early-risers it might provide some stimulating conversation before your day begins.
Jesus too knows the importance of this meal. It happens on a shore of the Sea of Tiberias better known as the Sea of Galilee. It involves a group of men who are still grappling with a resurrected Savior and their place in His Kingdom. This Savior is ready for a third revealing on…
“THE DAY JESUS FIXED BREAKFAST”
Peter wants to go fishing. It is time to get back to the routine of life. Six disciples join him for a night of fishing “but that night they caught nothing.” They had plans, but nothing happened.
You know, we put a lot into this world. We expect a lot back. We might get some moments of excitement and elation and an honor or two but the sacrifices are astounding. We could say this: without Christ there is nothing. How many honors or trinkets can be loaded in a casket? People have been hauling garbage out of Egyptian pyramids and tombs for centuries. Nothing from them made it to “the other side.” Nothing.
Malcolm Muggeridge made this interesting observation: “I may, I suppose, regard myself or pass for being a relatively successful man. People occasionally stare at me in the streets – that’s fame. I can fairly easily earn enough to qualify for a higher tax bracket of the IRS – that’s success…It might happen once in a while that something I said or wrote was sufficiently heeded for me to persuade myself that it represented a serious impact on our time – that’s fulfillment. Yet I say to you – and I beg you to believe me – multiply these tiny triumphs by a million, add them all together, and they are nothing – less than nothing…measured against one (drink) of the living water Christ offers to the spiritually thirsty, irrespective of who they are.”
On The Day Jesus Fixed Breakfast the first glimpse of the resurrected One came with no identification. The boat was 100 yards out and the light of the day was still dim. He addresses them as “children” an endearing term for these rugged anglers. They have no fish but after a quick encouragement from Jesus the haul is so large it can’t be brought in the boat.
Here’s what we must remember: Jesus doesn’t take away the troubled moments of life…He doesn’t stop the tragedy. He sees the sin – something we blabbed that a friend told us in confidence, undercut a co-worker, lied to our spouse, failed a child, not followed through on a promise, failed to live up to our profession of Christ. What He does in these moments is this – He enters them! He turns our nothing moments into something moments. The Lord is everywhere entering people’s lives, even on a shore in the Middle East fixing breakfast.
Jesus provides a miraculous catch of fish. The thing is. . . did you catch this?. . the breakfast was already on the fire. “Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish.” (v. 13) He served them – just as He served and serves us in the Word – in Baptism – in His Supper.
Why did He do this? Why feed these men who argued about “the greatest” in his presence? Why provide breakfast for these disciples who often failed to understand what he was saying? Why be IHOP to these weak human beings who couldn’t stay awake for one hour? Why quench the appetite of ones who abandoned him and denied him and locked themselves in fear because of him? Why fix the breakfast?
Why? We know why. He fed and comforted those disciples for the same reasons He feeds and comforts us. Because they were and we are sinful, helpless and in need. Because He loved them, as He loves us. Because we have need for His love and forgiveness and assurance, and that’s exactly what He feeds us in the Word and Sacraments.
The Day Jesus Fixed Breakfast is the day He once again underscored His love, mercy, and forgiveness for fearful, lowly disciples. That is why He stepped out of the tomb and put a lock on the death and hell we deserve. That is why He called the world-weary disciples to leave their nets and continue following Him.
He does the same for us. Something smells pretty good. . . what is that a fire on the shore? . . . food for my world-weary soul . . . I have to get out of the boat, there is work to do . . . first, I need to by fed by my Savior.
And that is what happened to the first disciples and to you and I . . . THE DAY JESUS FIXED BREAKFAST.
AMEN.