Friends, have you no Fish?

John 21:1-14

Happy Easter Everyone!

This is the last sermon in the "Jesus, Friend of Sinners" series that I have used through Lent, and thus this is the last "friend" passage in the Gospels. In this case, the account occurs along the shore of the Sea of Galilee one morning after the Resurrection. It's an amazing story that is full of meaning, and is rather tightly connected to the passages that follow it which close the Gospel of John.

In the sermon I mention briefly the discovery of a first century fishing boat near Kibbutz Ginosar in 1986. Not only was this an amazing discovery that confirmed pieces of information from the Gospels, but the recovery and preservation of the boat is an equally amazing story. Here is the official site for the "Jesus Boat" as it is called (understand, though, that no one is claiming that this is actually a boat Jesus used, just that it is typical of one he would have used). This site contains tons of information, photos and videos, that will give you the whole story. (Here is  another site of a more commercial nature that has some good information, along with a lot of junk to sell you.) If you are interested in the "boat mosaic" I also mention in the sermon, found at Migdal (same place as Magdal, the home of Mary Magdalene). More info on the mosaic is here and the interpretation by Ronny Reich can be read here. I know, too much information.

I first saw this boat in 1989 while it was soaking in a vat of chemicals where it lay for nearly a decade. Now it is on display in a really nice museum at the Kibbutz. It is a must see while visiting the Holy Land and I try to stop here every tour I lead.

I also mention in the sermon the link of this account at the end of the ministry of Jesus to the one in Luke 5:1-11 in which Jesus first called these disciples to follow him. These are, of course, two different accounts happening at polar ends of the time the disciples spent with Jesus. But they are related. How quickly Peter and the others reverted to their "normal" way of life after the Resurrection is scary. They were called to something greater and seemed not to have a clue as to what it was.

In this manner, it seems that the account in John 21 also has some metaphoric value in suggesting just what the disciples were called to do--they were to fish for men. Here is where some wild, though interesting, interpretations of the number of fish caught comes into the picture. Why mention 153 fish--specifically and exactly? Some have said that 153 was the exact number of different kinds of fish that were to be found in the Sea of Galilee. Another interpretation says that this was the number of nations existing in the world at the time. Either way, the number represented that no one should should be excluded from the Gospel and that Jesus had (or was about to) commissioned his disciples to go into all the world. Nice interpretations and the point is true enough, though there is no historical support for these interpretations of the exact number.

More likely the exact number is there because having never caught a net full like this before, the disciples simply counted how many there were (as I would have done) and the number found its way into the account, which is another marker of its authenticity.

Either way, as my sermon suggests, Jesus calls all of us to cast our nets on the right side. He calls all of us to another way of living, which is marked by his life and teaching.

Blessed Easter to you all,
and thanks for digging deeper.