Breakfast Discipleship
By Alan Smigielski
One of my favorite passages from the Gospel of John is the mystical and transcendent concluding chapter, Chapter 21. This chapter has an interesting and somewhat elusive history. Scripture scholars tell us that another writer probably added it to the gospel after the original author had finished. The concluding lines of Chapter 20 certainly suggest that the author known through tradition as “John” had indeed finished his account of the life and ministry of Jesus: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of (his) disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may (come to) believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.” (John 20:30-31)
That’s what makes Chapter 21 of John’s Gospel so intriguing and mysterious; as if there was something more the early Christian community wanted us to know about Jesus and the meaning of discipleship. Every known manuscript version of the Gospel of John contains Chapter 21, so it’s clear that it was accepted from the start as inspired and canonical.
In this chapter we encounter an ordinary scene turned extraordinary, placed seemingly some time after Jesus’ death and resurrection. A number of the disciples, including Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel, James and John have apparently returned to their previous jobs as fishermen and are having no luck at all after having been out in their boat all night. It has likely been some time since the disciples have seen the risen Jesus, because at first they don’t recognize him standing on the shore, or his voice as he directs them to cast their net over the right side of their boat. Imagine a bunch of rough and burly fishermen in a boat taking advice from a “know it all” stranger on the shore who addresses them as “children”! They must have been tired and desperate because they follow Jesus’ advice and are soon struggling with more fish in their net than they can pull aboard.
Finally it dawns on the “disciple that Jesus loved” (possibly James) that he does know this stranger, that somewhere before he had encountered such kindness, compassion and mercy. “It is the Lord,” he tells Peter. Without so much as a glance ashore, Peter tucks in his garment and jumps into the sea to swim towards Jesus. The rest of the disciples follow in the boat, dragging the net engorged with flailing fish along behind them.
Although on the surface this might seem like a scene from an absurdist comedy, like every Gospel passage, this part of the story has many deeper meanings. We are just like the disciples. We don’t recognize Jesus in the stranger or his voice speaking to us and directing our hearts. Often times we need someone to tell us “it is the Lord.” Our response may be to leap into the waters of faith as Peter did, or slowly approach like the rest of the disciples, dragging our own nets behind us.
What happens next in the story is truly extraordinary. After Peter has pulled the net ashore, Jesus invites the disciples to “Come, have breakfast” around the charcoal fire that he has lit and serves them fish and bread. What an astounding vision of the boundless love, grace and mercy of God! The Resurrected One invites us to his table and serves us the very bread of life!
But the story does not end there. After breakfast Jesus asks Peter a most pointed question three times: “Do you love me?” Peter is distressed by the third time the question is put to him. Each time he answers in the affirmative, Jesus replies with a new directive to “feed my lambs,” “tend my sheep” and “feed my sheep.” Like Peter we are distressed when Jesus asks this question of us, and perhaps even more disturbed at the directives Jesus gives to us. But that is the essence of discipleship as revealed in this passage. True discipleship does not end with telling Jesus that we love him, but in serving others, just as Jesus directed Peter.
Peter, being as human as the rest of us, almost completely misses the point of discipleship. He is concerned not with his own calling, but with the status of another (the disciple Jesus loved). “Lord, what about him?”, Peter asks. Jesus’ response is a direct challenge to our own obsession with enforcing our narrow judgments and perspectives on others: “What concern is it of yours? You follow me.”
