Introduction
On this Sunday after Easter, we continue in the season referred to as “Eastertide”—the days and weeks following Easter Sunday. Which means Easter isn’t just a day to remember and celebrate our Lord’s resurrection, Easter is a season that empowers us for a life of ministry.
Eastertide is a 40 day period after the resurrection when Jesus appears to his followers. This includes appearing to the Disciples on the road to Emmaus, appearing to the Disciples one night when Thomas wasn’t around, and another when he was. Eastertide is almost six weeks of resurrection appearances—a continuation of Easter, and all it brings to us, and especially what it asks of us.
So in a day and age when often holidays are seen as one day, or at best a period of weeks leading up to the holiday, and then moved on from with half price sales the day after, it becomes appropriate to ask, “What do we do after Easter?”
Move 1
If Jesus lived in the 21st century, there would be a social media trail that we could follow Jesus on, complete with daily Facebook posts, or even hourly tweets on where Jesus was and what he was doing. But we don’t have that luxury, and we are left with the question, “What did Jesus do after Easter?”
Well the answer is simple, albeit not very helpful. We don’t know. I mean, we know a few things like I mentioned, but there isn’t a Book of Resurrection in the Bible, detailing the actions and teachings of the resurrected Jesus.
But based upon our text for today, coupled with what Jesus said and did before his crucifixion, we can still glean a good sense of what Jesus was doing.
He was preparing his Disciples. He was giving them his final instructions for life after Easter. Which was… now’s the time you get to work.
And we can begin to gain this sense from our text not be asking “What did Jesus do after Easter?” but by asking what did Peter and the Disciples do after Easter? They went fishing of course.
That’s how this story of Jesus’ appearances begins.
“Simon Peter said to them, ‘I am going fishing.’ ‘They said to him, ‘We will go with you.’”
John says they went fishing on the Sea of Tiberias which is an alternative name for the Sea of Galilee, meaning the Disciples aren’t in Jerusalem any longer. They’ve gone back to Galilee; they’ve gone home. And going back to Galilee, going back home, going fishing—all means they’ve gone back to work.
When Peter says, “I’m going fishing,” he isn’t saying, “Hey, let’s go have a leisurely day on the water and see what we can catch.” By trade, Peter was a fisherman, and fishing for fishermen isn’t a hobby. They aren’t going out on some male bonding fishing trip complete with jokes, cigars, and the latest gear from Bass Pro Shop. This isn’t recreational fishing. These Disciples are working.
This alone says something about life after Easter. But as we will see, Jesus is going to remind them, and us, of something else that is to be part of life after Easter.
Move 2
Life after Easter for the Disciples meant going back to their jobs. Turns out though, it was just as hard a life now as it was before. “They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing” which had to have been discouraging, right? They go back to the waters that once provided their livelihood, put in the time, energy, and sweat it required, but have nothing to show for it.
We can all relate, right? We can relate because we’ve had days—or jobs—where no matter how hard we worked…nothing seemed to go right.
After a night of fishing things weren’t working for Peter and the Disciples. But just at day break, Jesus stands on the beach and shouts out to the seven disciples, “You didn’t catch anything did you?”
The Disciples call back, “No.”
And this is where Jesus gets all “Jesus-y”. He doesn’t say “tomorrow is a new day” or some pithy little quote of inspiration that fits on a coffee cup. No. He says, “Cast your net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some. He says to them, “You’ve got to fish differently.”
So they cast the net on the other side, they cast differently, and as a result, they were not able to haul the net in because there were so many fish.
Life after Easter means that life is lived; work is done—but differently, because after Easter everything is different.
Move 3
Do you believe in déjà vu? You know, that eerie feeling you’ve been where you are before, done the thing you’re doing, heard the same things? (Some of you are probably thinking, “Yeah, it happens every Sunday morning right about this time.”)
The Bible doesn’t say it but I think these Disciples may have had a déjà vu experience because this fishing story is the very same experience Peter and Andrew had with Jesus on the very same lake three years earlier.
Three years earlier they had fished all night and had nothing to show for their efforts.
And just like this time, Jesus told them to cast their nets on the other side; told them to do things differently. And when they did, the catch was so great they had to call James and John to help pull in all the fish.
As the famed baseball great Yogi Berra said, “It’s déjà vu all over again.”
This déjà vu isn’t lost on the Disciples, and John says to Peter, “It’s the Lord.” But Peter already knows it because he jumps into the water and swims to Jesus.
*******
In total, there were a hundred and fifty three fish in that catch, which begs the question to be asked—Who counted?
There are a lot of theories about this number of fish, some of which are ridiculously entertaining.
One is if you add all the numbers together and divide by 3 you get 3, the Trinity. But if you ask me that sounds more like a Dan Brown novel than a theological standpoint.
The most popular theory about 153 was made in the late 4th century where the number was symbolic because at that time, there were 153 known varieties of fish in the world. And, because the net was not broken by all those fish we can see it as a symbolic picture of Jesus and his Disciples drawing the entire world into the net of God’s great purpose.
Now, whether or not that is accurate it’s getting to the point of this story which is—This story is a continuation of the commissioning Jesus gave at the beginning of his ministry when he said, “From now on you will be catching people’ and they dropped their nets and followed Jesus.”
Jesus is saying again, you will still fish, but you don’t go back to your old ways, casting the same old nets in the same old way, pulling in emptiness.
You change. You do your work in a different way. You go about life differently because Easter changed you.
In this story, Jesus is reminding the Disciples they are no longer who they used to be; reminding them of what they already knew, but now thought was over.
In this story, when Jesus says, “Cast your nets on the other side.” it means something beyond the literal. It means everything has changed, including you and your work.
Matthew says it more plainly in his Gospel when he says Jesus said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you…”
Conclusion
So what has life been like for you after Easter? Was it back to business as usual? Did you stock up on Cadbury eggs and baskets at bargain prices?
I’m wondering if anyone went fishing. That’s what Jesus would have us do—just not the recreational type of fishing. Jesus is saying to us “Cast your nets in a different way. Catch people. Draw the world into the net of God’s great purpose.”
Are we doing that? Are we casting nets for people?
If Easter is a powerful truth for us, if we truly believe in an empty tomb, a resurrected savior, if we truly claim Jesus as our Lord and our God, we can’t go back to our old way of living.
We have a responsibility to tell people about Easter. We have a responsibility to fish for men and women. We are commissioned to pull in the nets. Our jobs are to go fishing—but it’s not some leisure, recreational activity.
*******
In I John, a letter written later and often attributed to the Gospel writer John, the challenge to live this kind of life after Easter is put forth, saying,
“We know love by this that he laid down his life for us…. Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action…have boldness before God…love one another, just as he has commanded.”
In a world where love in truth and action is displayed less and less; and love for one another is so rarely a priority, let us, as Easter people, show those around us, that life after Easter isn’t about returning to life as it once was, rather life after Easter is lived differently—it is lived with new hope, new vision for the future, and new life.
Easter isn’t here one day and gone the next. Easter changes everything. Most especially, us. So let us show it. Let us live it—daily. Let us be different, because of Easter. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer April 11, 2021
God of new life, we need your presence in our lives. We need it daily so that we might stay focused on you, on your Son, and on the bright, hope filled future you call us to.
But you know how life in this world can get. Disappointment and discouragement can set in quickly. Frustration can lead to anger, and anger can lead us to giving in, or giving up. Soon the distance between fear and hope has grown vast, and our attempts to traverse the gap causes us to become easily lost.
Holy God, after the resurrection the Disciples were unsure in their minds what to do next—but yet their spirits knew they were to get back to work—everyday work—but to work as those who had been changed by Jesus and his life, ministry, death, and resurrection.
Even though much of the world around them looked and functioned just as it did before; for the Disciples, everything had changed—and a whole new world of possibilities and hope and new life was before them.
And this is true for us today as well.
You have once again changed everything, even though much of the world around us looks and functions just as it did before. And you call us, again, to share the change in us, to share with others this new world of possibilities and hope and new life—doing so through our normal work, through typical interactions with others, through the ordinary that with you can turn into the extraordinary.
Like the Disciples in the days after the resurrection, we too need the appearances of Jesus O God. We need just a little more time with him, just a little more presence and assurance that though we cannot see him, he is always with us—even to the end of the age.
So we pray you help us continue to see the resurrected Jesus in our midst, to see that Easter is not over, but the power of it; the hope of it; the possibilities Easter makes possible, have only just begun.
May you hear now the prayers of our hearts, as we share them in this time of holy silence…
All this we pray in the name of our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ, who taught us to pray saying, “Our…”