Walking With Christ

(Part 2 of 2)

John 21:9  When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread.(ESV)

John remembered the fire.

Three chapters earlier, Peter had stood beside a charcoal fire among the servants and officers who had arrested Jesus.

There Peter denied Him.  Three times.

Now Jesus was alive.

Peter had seen the empty tomb.  The risen Jesus had appeared to His disciples.  Other New Testament accounts indicate that Jesus had even appeared personally to Simon sometime after the resurrection.

Whatever happened between them during that encounter wasn’t recorded.

By John 21, Peter is still among the disciples.

Then Peter announces that he’s going fishing.

Six others go with him.  They fish through the night.  Nothing.

These are experienced fishermen, working familiar waters with familiar tools.  Nothing.

Then, as morning breaks, a man standing on shore calls to them and tells them to cast the net on the other side of the boat.

They obey.

Suddenly the net is so full of fish that they can’t haul it into the boat.

John recognizes what is happening.  “It is the Lord!”

Peter does exactly what we’ve come to expect Peter to do.  John doesn’t merely say that Peter jumped into the water.

He says Peter put on his outer garment and threw himself into the sea.

The boat could come later.  The fish could come later.  Peter wanted Jesus.

The man who once tried to create distance between himself and Jesus now couldn’t get to Him quickly enough.

Then Peter reaches shore.  And John gives us the detail.

There’s a fire.

Not merely a fire.

Anthrakia.

A charcoal fire.

The exact same unusual Greek word John used when Peter denied Jesus.

There are only two of them in the New Testament.

The first was surrounded by Jesus’ enemies.  The second was prepared by the risen Jesus.

At the first fire, Peter stood with servants and officers trying to get warm.  At the second fire, Peter stood with disciples while Jesus prepared breakfast.

At the first fire, Peter denied belonging to Jesus.  At the second, nobody questioned whether Peter was allowed to be there.

That matters because Jesus did something before He asked Peter a single difficult question.

He fed him.

Jesus already had fish cooking.  Bread was already there.  Jesus invited the disciples:  “Come and have breakfast.”

Then He took the bread and gave it to them.  He gave them the fish as well.

Only after they had finished breakfast did the conversation begin.

Jesus didn’t make Peter explain himself before allowing him beside the fire.

He didn’t require Peter to prove his repentance before receiving bread.

He didn’t tell Peter to sit somewhere else while the faithful disciples ate.

Peter was invited to the meal.  Jesus fed him.  Then Jesus addressed what had happened.

And notice the name.

John tells us that Jesus spoke to Simon Peter.  But Jesus did not say:  “Peter.”  He said:  “Simon, son of John.”

Again, Scripture never tells us that Jesus followed an absolute rule with Peter’s names.  We shouldn’t pretend that it does.

But we should notice the choice.  John identifies him as Simon Peter.  Jesus addresses him as Simon.

Three times.  “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”

Peter answers:  “Lord, you know that I love you.”

Jesus responds:  “Feed my lambs.”

Again:  “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”

Again Peter answers.

“Tend my sheep.”

Then the third time:  “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”

Now Peter is grieved.

Three questions.

Three opportunities to say what he’d failed to say beside the other charcoal fire.

But something has changed in Peter.

Before the crucifixion, Peter told Jesus what Peter knew about Peter.

I will follow You.

I will not fall away.

I will go to prison.

I will die with You.

I will lay down my life for You.

Now Peter doesn’t appeal to his own strength.

He appeals to Jesus’ knowledge.  “Lord, you know.”

And finally:  “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”

Peter no longer needs to convince Jesus that Peter understands Peter.

Jesus knows him.

Jesus knew Simon when He called him Peter.

Jesus knew Peter when He warned him that he would fall.

Jesus knew the denial before it happened.

Jesus knew the tears afterward.

And Jesus knew the shepherd sitting beside that second charcoal fire.

That’s why the questions don’t end merely with forgiveness.

Each answer is followed by responsibility.

Feed.

Tend.

Feed.

The man who failed wasn’t discarded.  Neither was his failure ignored.

Jesus restored him and called him forward.

Before the denial, Jesus had already told Simon that after he turned back he was to strengthen his brothers.

Now Jesus gives him sheep to care for.  Then Jesus tells Peter something extraordinary.

Years earlier Peter had proudly declared that he would lay down his life for Jesus.

Jesus had answered by predicting his denial.

Now Jesus tells Peter that a day really will come when others will take him where he doesn’t want to go.  John explains that Jesus was showing by what kind of death Peter would glorify God.

Then Jesus says:  “Follow me.”

Peter had once promised to become a man willing to die for Christ.

He simply wasn’t that man yet.  Jesus knew who he would become.

The first charcoal fire exposed Peter’s weakness.  The second didn’t erase that story.

Jesus gave it another ending.

At one fire Peter warmed himself among people who opposed Christ and said:  “I am not.”

At the other, Jesus fed him among the disciples and asked:  “Do you love me?”

The failure was real.  So was the restoration.

And perhaps that’s one reason Jesus didn’t remove every reminder of Peter’s worst night.

Sometimes Christ doesn’t destroy the place where we failed.

Sometimes He meets us there.

Sometimes He builds another fire.

Sometimes He takes the place associated with our shame and uses it to show us that He already knew the whole story.

Not only who we were.  Not only what we did.  But who He was still calling us to become.

And there’s one more detail waiting beside that second fire.

John tells us exactly what Jesus served.

Bread and fish.

Even the word John chooses for those fish is unusual.  It appears only in two scenes in his Gospel:  here and at another meal where Jesus took bread and fish and provided more than enough.

That deserves its own study.  Because the disciples had fished all night and produced nothing.

Jesus gave a command.  They obeyed.  Then came the harvest.

And when they reached shore, they discovered that Jesus already had everything necessary for the meal.

Yet He still invited them:  Bring some of what you just caught.

Jesus didn’t need their fish.  He invited their participation.

That’s another story hiding beside this fire.

We will come back to it.