April 18 - Peter & Paul Transformed
On Easter morn, Christ rose from the dead
and the women discovered the tomb was empty.
Later in the evening, the risen Lord appeared to his disciples in the
upper room - and was with them again on the following Sunday. All that happened in Jerusalem. Sometime
after that, Peter had returned to Galilee with some of the disciples.
That’s where our gospel, John chapter 21, picks up the story.
Simon Peter and his friends have been
waiting there in
They fish all night, but no
luck. But then as dawn breaks, they see someone standing on
shore. It’s the Risen Jesus, but they don’t recognize him in the morning
fog. He tells them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat. They
do, and they bring in a huge catch of fish: 153 large fish. John turns and
says to Peter, “It is the Lord.” Impulsive Simon Peter dives in and
swims to shore. The others come in on the boat. As they come ashore
they see Jesus cooking breakfast for them over a charcoal fire. After he
serves them breakfast, he takes Simon Peter off for a walk, and three times he
asks him the same question: “Simon, do you love me?” “Oh yes, Lord,” Simon
answers. “You know that I love you.” “Then, feed my sheep,” the Risen
Lord says to him. “Tend my sheep.”
An 8th grade teacher at a Middle School
and a group of teachers were waiting to play the students in a basketball game.
He remarked to the principal, "You know what I have discovered about
teaching? 50% of teaching is repeating directions." My principal shot right back, "What did you say?" He repeated,
"50% of teaching is repeating directions." When the others laughed,
he got the joke
Jesus had already told them that he is
sending them to continue his ministry.
And it appears that Peter will be their leader. But in what are his final instructions to
Peter, Jesus gives a remedial course in being a follower. "50% of teaching is repeating
directions." Peter do you love me?
Feed my lambs - Feed, tend, nurture, care for…Three
times Jesus puts a servant’s task before Peter.
Disciples are called to be servant leaders.
That Jesus engages Peter in earnest
conversation indicates that this disciple is receiving a second chance. The
story ends exactly the way it started months before with Christ saying to
Peter, “Follow me!”
Jesus doesn’t tell Peter “forget it”, but
“follow me”. And although the
conversation is pointed, Jesus is clearly giving Peter a shot at a new start
with him. He’s willing to assign him the
task of shepherding – of leading and nurturing his followers in his absence.
The good news for Peter – and for us – is
that Jesus summons disciples and works with them, even in their
imperfection. He offers us a second
chance – third chance – fourth chance to make a new beginning in following Him.
This week's lessons feature the epilogue
from John's gospel where Peter encounters the risen Christ on the lake shore,
and the story of Paul's conversion on the road to
The degree of their transformation is
symbolized by the change in their names.
Simon son of Jonah will be known as Peter; Saul the Pharisee will become
Paul the Christian leader. With discernment they were able to discover a new
call to service and the new path they were to travel.
Paul when he was Saul was seeking out
Christians, people of the way. He was
surprised by the appearance of the one who is the way – Jesus. Saul’s encounter
with Jesus transforms his mission: from searching out Jews whom he considers to
be unfaithful, to seeking out Gentiles so they might become faithful.
Saul who was to bind the
followers of the way and lead them to Jerusalem, instead finds himself led by
the hand to Damascus.
Paul when he was Saul was the man from
whom you expected the worse – and experienced it. Apparently the early church was deficient in
its hope and expectation of what God could do in a person’s life. Paul’s conversion is the surprising invasion
of God’s activity into the opposition – the person who was the enemy – the one
the church had given up on.
The man from whom Christians expected the
worst – and for good reason – was the one of whom the Lord said He is the
instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and the people
of
What could we learn from that? “It is a
revelation of what God does to the man I think is beyond his reach. It raises my expectations about the person
from whom I expect nothing but the worst.”
One of the most amazing things about
God’s grace is that it works through sinful human beings like Paul and Peter,
like you and I. As Martin Luther said,
we are both saints and sinners at the very same time – simultaneously righteous
and sinful. God’s grace can do great
things while we are still struggling with sin.
Even that struggle can be used by the Lord. He doesn’t want to waste your experiences,
even the painful ones.
Rick Warren’s Saddleback church in
Southern California is one of the largest congregations in
With so many members to choose from, you
might think that these ministers – these group leaders – are chosen based on a
long commitment to Christ, and an extemporary Christian life.
That may be true for some, but certainly
not all. Among the group leaders, the
ministers, you’ll meet some recovering alcoholics. Even though it’s a Southern Baptist
congregation, some leaders have been through a divorce. You’ll even meet some women leaders who have
had an abortion, although the congregation is strongly pro-life. Haven’t all these leaders broken God’s
law? Aren’t they bad examples for other
Christians?
Think about Jesus’ disciples – they
weren’t religious scholars – some of them weren’t even religious before they
met Him. And what about those folks He
liked to hang out with. Weren’t they
sinners? But there is more to it then
that.
At Saddleback, the rule is to lead a
group of alcoholics, you must be a recovering
alcoholic. To help women who are healing
from the trauma of abortion, you must have had an abortion. To help someone recover from a divorce, you
have to have been through that. In
general, you can’t lead a small group that is focused on healing unless you’ve
struggled with that particular kind of brokenness. In other words, they recruit
sinners, who by God’s grace, are on the road to sainthood, to help other
sinners.
The group leaders are wounded
healers. They’ve been wounded – broken –
and are recovering, so they can empathize with someone with the same
problem. It makes sense, doesn’t it?
Wouldn’t it be easier to talk to someone who can say I’ve been through that too
– I know what you feel.
But more than that it illustrates what
Paul spoke of when he said We have this
treasure in earthen jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary
power belongs to God and does not come from us.
2 Corinthians 4:7
The Buddhist approached a hot
dog vendor and said, "Make me one with everything." The Buddhist gave
the vendor a $20 bill and waited. Finally he said, "Where's my
change?"
The vendor replied, "All change must come from within."
That is the Buddhist philosophy -- that change comes
from within. But as Christians, we have discovered that we need God’s help to
change. And He promises His Holy Spirit
to both motivate us and strengthen us – to make possible what we could not do on
our own.
We are like clay jars
containing this great treasure – This makes clear that this great power is from
God, not from us.
The point is we don’t have to achieve
perfection before God will choose to use us in ministry. Yes, it’s important to repent of our sins and
strive to live a Christ-like life, but God will work his purposes out –
regardless of how righteous we are. Even
our weaknesses may be used by God in some way.
If we are overcoming them, then we can be of help to others – and God’s
power will be manifest in us.
Like Peter, we are called to minister to
one another. And the Lord would use our
talents and our experiences in service to others. As we serve, He empowers us with His Spirit,
for His power is made perfect in our weakness.
Trivia from today’s gospel
"Simon Peter climbed aboard and dragged the net ashore.
It was full of fish, 153, but even
with so many the net was not torn." John 21:11
Why was there 153 fish? Have you ever
wondered about that?
No? Well others have. Here are some
speculations.
Cyril of Alexandria in the 5th century
said that the 100 represented the fullness of the gentiles, the 50 symbolized
the remnant of
Augustine’s theory (5th century) was a
little more complicated. He said, there are 10 commandments and 7 is the
perfect number of grace and that’s 17, right? Now if you add all the numbers
from 1 to 17 together, you know 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 all the way up to 17 you’ll
get 153.
And not only that but if you were to
arrange them with 17 fish in the first row, and 16 in the next row, and 15 in
the next row, all the way down to a row of 1 you get a perfect triangle which
of course symbolizes the Trinity.
Jerome, who also lived in the 5th
century, suggested that there were 153 different types of fish in the sea and
it was symbolic of the church reaching all the people in the world.
In the 20th century, Raymond
Brown noted the catching of fish almost certainly symbolizes the catching of
people. According to Brown, the 153 fish signify the all-embracing character of
the mission of the followers of Jesus. The unbroken net means that in spite of
the inclusion of such a vast diversity of people, the community represented by
these disciples is not torn by schism.
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Conclusion: There just
happened to be 153 fish in the net.