More to Do

John 21:15-17

(Take a look around…)

In these weeks between Easter and Pentecost, this season of Eastertide, we’re seeking to better understand what the resurrection appearances in our bible – the resurrection experiences that the closest followers of Jesus had of him after his death – mean. We can decide for ourselves whether or not we believe any … any … of these narratives actually, literally happened. But we must ask why these stories are here, what these narratives meant for those first communities, and what they mean for the community that still gathers in Christ’s name.

What does it mean that the first followers of Jesus felt his presence after he died on the cross?

What does it mean that they heard him tell them to “Go” to the world with what he taught them?

What does it mean that they experienced him breaking through the doors they had locked all around them, and entered into their hearts and minds?

What does it mean that they knew he would “be with them always"?

What does it mean that they felt they received what he promised them – and Advocate, the Holy Spirit that would guide them and lead them?

The response of the first followers to that last question is what will begin the community … that will become known as the Church … that will change even our lives two thousand years later. You see how crucial it is to understand these narratives better?

We’ve been in Mark, John, and Matthew thus far this Eastertide. Next week we’ll move to Luke, spending two Sundays there before formally receiving the Holy Spirit again through the verses of Acts, chapter 2. But, this morning, we will return to the Gospel of John. We’ve been here, two weeks ago. The disciples have unlocked the doors that they were hiding behind, and even Thomas has recognized and given his heart to Resurrection. As we join them this morning, they’re not locked in a room, but they’re not exactly doing what Jesus had planned for them when he “sent them” from that room. About half of them are gathered on a beach trying to decide whether or not to go fishing – to return to their old vocations, to go back to what they knew before their lives were upended. We’ll join them. But first …

Let’s pray … Good and gracious God, we are gathered too, already forgetting the excitement we experienced on Easter morning, perhaps even wondering how long we are supposed to keep this up. We pray for your blessing on the reading and hearing of the Word that is ours today. And we pray that we, too, may answer the questions that are before us this morning, and every morning we choose to follow Jesus. Amen.

So, turn to chapter twenty-one in the Gospel of John in your pew bibles. Our reading of the conversation between Peter and Jesus will begin with verse fifteen; but as I noted just a moment ago, this story really begins with the whole group of disciples on the beach. There’s no way to know exactly what brought them together, or what they had been talking about. But, Peter breaks in with the first spoken words, saying, “I’m going fishing,” and the others follow.

Now, I’m going to suggest (again) that this is a metaphor in John’s gospel. The followers of Jesus have decided, at least for now, that they don’t want to be sent out to forgive sins or retain them, to teach and preach the “realized eschatology of their crucified Lord”. They don’t want to go and spread the Good News of God’s Kin-dom on earth. They don’t want to. They just want things to be the way they used to be. So … Jesus has to show up … again.

He’s patient. He doesn’t scream at them or tip the boat over. He actually helps them out, instructing them how to “fish” properly. And their nets get so full they can’t haul the catch into the boat and so they take it shore. They recognize Jesus we’re told, not from the sharing of a meal in this passage, but from this instruction, from this way of calmly and patiently engaging them and prospering the work of their hands. It’s funny that in verse twelve we’re told “none of the disciples dared to ask him “Who are you?” … Because they knew. They knew. They’ve just been avoiding him since he last showed up in that locked room.

But Jesus – the Way of Christ – doesn’t let us escape, at least not for long. It’s exhausting, if we’re honest. Wouldn’t it be easier not to care that bombs are exploding instead of bread breaking? Wouldn’t it be easier not to worry that blood is being shed instead of wine being poured? Not to get worked up that dignity and worth are being taken from people who are already among the most vulnerable, instead of support being given? Wouldn’t our lives be easier if we could just avoid all this … compassion and justice? I think all of those first disciples are asking those questions of themselves. And after they eat breakfast, they move to get busy pretty quickly, so they don’t have to face Jesus again, so they don’t have to face themselves.

But Jesus doesn’t let one of them get away. Not so fast, my friend.”  Because …

Read John 21:15-19. The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Here’s an interesting fact as we prepare to explore this passage: Most scholars believe that chapter twenty-one is an appendix, or an epilogue, added on to the Gospel. (Where have we encountered that before?! Mark, chapter sixteen, in fact.)

In chapter twenty, Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene and later the disciples – including doubting Thomas – and there’s a pretty perfect ending written with two verses in a section titled “The Purpose of this Book”. It’s as if someone in the same Christian community, using the same traditions as the writer of the first twenty chapters, was seeing the same things we are this morning. Nobody’s doing anything yet. They have experienced the Risen Christ, received the Holy Spirit and been sent, but everyone is still fixing things up around the campfire, around the house, doing what they have always done. So, “they” – God bless “them” – added another chapter to let us know that because of what we experience in the Risen Christ, we have more to do: Stop avoiding it! Do what you have been called by God to do. Take care of the sheep in the fold and the lambs who have not yet heard the Good News of the presence of the Kin-dom of God!

But I get ahead of myself …excited as I am. Let’s pick this scene apart before we come to that conclusion.

What do you imagine? Jesus and the disciples sitting on the beach after breakfast, a charcoal fire burning down, the bones of many fish stacked together, some of the disciples digging in the sand to bury them, maybe; others cleaning the nets, maybe mending them from the big haul that they just made. As I suggested, I think they get busy with the quotidian tasks of cleaning and mending because they know Jesus is getting ready to pounce. I picture Simon Peter being the last one to look up, noticing that the others are gone and that he’s sitting all alone with Jesus by the dying fire, and thinking, “Uh, oh …” And just as he begins to get up himself, to try to get away himself, Jesus speaks: Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? Ahhh … dang it … We’ve all been there. So close … almost away.

But Peter is now “on the hook”. So, he stops wriggling and sits back down with a sigh. I think he starts doodling in the sand as he answers, “Yes Lord … you know that I love you.”

But that’s not what Jesus asked, is it? He didn’t ask, “Peter, do you love me?” He asked Peter if he loved him more than these.

I think Jesus swept his hand across the boat and its nets and equipment and the catch of fish and asked his question of Peter. In other words, do you really love your old life more them me? Or, are you ready to give all this up, abandon the only career you know, give up your steady job and dependable comfort?  But I also imagine that Jesus is looking at the rest of the little group of disciples, busy about their tasks that keep them from having this conversation themselves, let alone engaging in their ministry.  “Simon, do you love me more than these others?” 

Peter surely remembers his last night with Jesus when he lifted himself up over these others.  “Though they all fall away … I will not.”  And then he did, of course.  He must know this is a test. He’s been asked three times. He is not going to make comparisons anymore.  And it’s here, then, that we see a community shaping up on the shores of the Sea of Tiberias. In Pastor Ashia’s teaching from Matthew last week, she noted that the most powerful way we share the Good News is through the way we show up in relationship with others – each other and all others.

The “these” that Jesus is referring to are the gathering of friends.  And they (we) are “Him”, now.  Peter and his friends on the beach, cleaning up and otherwise busying themselves, are Christ on earth, now.  Those that gather in Jesus’ name are, or are becoming, the Body of Christ. That first Resurrection Community, beginning with Peter and these disciples, is recognizing the worth of all its members and not considering one more important than another. This is part of the mutual love that marks them all, that marks us all.  This is who we are now … because of Easter and barreling toward Pentecost:  We have a new life, empowered by the Spirit of God.  And with that recognition of self and other as “one in the same,” comes a task, a call, actually. Threefold.  Anyone …?  Feed and tend and feed the lambs and the sheep.

This passage has always, and rightly so, been read and heard to remind us of our role in the world beyond the community that has formed, and is forming, around the Way of Jesus and the Risen Christ – beyond “the church”.  And we will continue to engage the wider world.  But, it is also a call from each one of us to the others of us right here. Care for one another. And I don’t think there’s been a time in my life where we need to care for one another more intentionally than our time in our world right now. Compassion and justice … and hope and joy and promise, life and love are hard to keep doing these days. The powers and principalities working against all these things are tireless, and so must we be. We don’t, we can’t, do this on our own. What we learn in this morning’s lesson is that God draws near to us and draws us near to each other “because connection and community are the antidote to fear” and exhaustion and giving up (thank you, again, Pastor Ashia!).

Take another look around you. These are your fellow disciples, we are community for each other, on this leg of our faith journey. We are here for one another in this never-ending mission of compassion and justice through love that leads to new life. And there’s more to do …

It’s good to be together. Let’s prepare ourselves for deeper Communion. Amen.

Reverend Joel Weible, Pastor

Pewee Valley Presbyterian Church / May 3, 2026