breakfast on the beach with the One who made the fish

 We started our journey together around the Passover Table. The Last Supper that Jesus spent serving, teaching and preparing the disciples for all that was coming for him and for them. And today we will finish our time together at another meal with Jesus…breakfast on the beach. This story picks up in John 21, where Peter and some of his other fishing buddies/fellow disciples were together, seemingly confused and disappointed about all that has happened with their friend and Master Jesus. Without fully understanding what had happened, and dealing with all the emotion that went along with it, they went back to what they knew before they had met this life changing friend three years prior.Fishing.Isn’t that what we do when things don’t make sense and there’s nothing we can do to change our situation? We often go back and do the thing that feels most normal. The thing we understand and can wrap our heads around. The thing that doesn’t require one bit of thought and we could do it in our sleep if we had to. For these men, it was fishing and it’s not only been what they do, but who they are.They’re fishermen.What they didn’t know was that in just a short while, their friend Jesus would take what they were doing and infuse it with a bigger, more meaningful purpose. He would take their craft and hone it for the Kingdom.  They would begin to throw the net of the Gospel out and their nets would be full to overflowing with others who were awaiting their Savior, just as their nets had been filled that morning on the lake.And this is exactly what Jesus does with all of us! He takes who we are and the things we do and makes them holy! Gives us a new identity and a new purpose.But wait, I’m getting ahead of myself, back to the story…These men had been fishing all night and I don’t know about you but I would have loved to have been on that boat, listening to their conversation. Were they quiet, just trying to make sense of all that had taken place in their own minds? Or were they reminiscing about all they had been through over the last three years? Recounting the healing of the leper, or that strange day in Samaria when Jesus talked for so long at the well with that woman. Oh, and then there was the day that he had fed the 5,000 with just a few loaves of bread and fish. Or maybe they went all the way back to that one neighbor’s wedding when there was enough wine for the party to go on for weeks! I don’t know what that night on the boat was like for them, but what I do know is the moment they recognized their Jesus, who was calling from the shore, Peter couldn’t wait for the boat to take him to his Lord. He put his outer garments on as fast as he could and dove into the water, swimming to shore!This Peter who was the ringleader in taking them back out on the boat, goes overboard at the first sight of Jesus. The boat can no longer satisfy the man who’s known by the One who made the fish.He can’t wait to get to shore and get back to his new normal.By the time his fishing buddy’s make it to shore with their haul of fish, Jesus has the table set for breakfast on the beach. Ready to commune with them once again around a meal. Isn’t it true that something dynamic often happens around a meal? When Jesus sits at the table where we participate in the daily rhythm of satisfying the hunger of our bodies, our souls find the nourishment we’re longing for.As they finish up their breakfast, Jesus turns to Peter and asks him three times about the priorities of his heart.“Peter, do you love me more than these?”I’ve heard this passage taught many times, making a parallel of these 3 questions, to the 3 times that Peter denied Jesus, just a few short chapters back. And I love that approach because I feel like it’s  such a beautiful picture of how Jesus wants to bring our failures out of the dark so that he can speak life over them. But I think we would be amiss to stop there. There’s more. In this conversation Jesus didn’t stop with Peter’s declaration of his love for him. Each answer came with a directive of what to do with the love that took up residence in his heart.Peter’s love for Jesus was not a solo adventure and neither is ours!Our love for Christ, although it does transform our own hearts and lives, was meant to be shared and the Good Shepherd was saying to Peter, “you take your love for me and give it away”. Be extravagant in what you do with it! Share it in a way that brings nourishment to the souls of others. You see, the kind of supernatural love that Jesus infuses our hearts with cannot be contained. And Jesus was saying to Peter, as he is saying to each of us…“Your failures do not define you. Your love for me, and my love for you is what your identity is rooted in.” By the time we get to this part of the story, Peter has already seen Jesus in his resurrected state. Remember, back in John 20, Jesus has shown up a couple of times (that we know of) to the disciples. The first time declaring peace over them and telling them that, ‘as Father sent him, so he is sending them’. And the second time to meet Thomas exactly where he was in the deep, specific doubts of his heart. And now, he’s meeting Peter specifically with the failures that plagued his heart and mind.I don’t know about you, but I can’t always remember the times of my life that feel like accomplishments, and even if I do, they often sit in the shadow of the failures that haunt me. This part of God’s story feels  unbelievably personal to me. All the places that live in the shadows are being called out by Christ, not to condemn, but to take a back seat to the love that He has so transformed my life with.“Do you love me, Kari (insert your own name here)? Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep. Follow me. Take the life altering love that you’ve experienced with me and be lavish with it towards others. Keep your eyes on me. Go where I go and give your life away. This is the life you were made for!”You see, that meal on the beach and the invitation to become fishers of men (and women:), is for each of us. I don’t know about you but everything else seems to pale in comparison as I look at God’s story and see that, like Peter, I have been given a part to play. An essential role in the Kingdom of God.How about you? What have you been given to do?Are you a stay at home mom? Then follow Jesus and raise up those babies with life giving words and actions. Make beds, wash dishes, read bedtime stories, play hard and laugh with those kiddos for the glory of God!Are you a barista? Listen to people. Look them in the eye. Smile often and make coffee for the glory of God!Are you a sales person, an office worker, a seamstress or a dentist? Live out your identity as a child loved by the King of Kings and let it bleed out of how you interact with those around you. Do what you do with integrity and honesty. People will take note that you’ve been with Someone different.This last conversation with Jesus on the beach was exactly what God had planned for Peter and the others before time began. The invitation to belong to him, and the call to them and to us, to make disciples was not God’s plan B. We have been God’s plan A for the redemption of the world from the very beginning. Jesus death, resurrection and ascension did not happen because of the choices of some terrible people. This is the strategy of a purposeful God and his commission to those he came to save was set in motion before the foundations of the world.No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father. John 10:18If you are in Christ, there are no ordinary days, only extraordinary moments written by the hand of the One who was nailed to the tree.HE IS RISEN!! And so are we!— Lifted from the pit of our failures and pain, just like Peter, and transported to a life full of hope and purpose. Let’s drink daily from the fountain of God’s grace and truth, receiving his extravagant love and allowing it to flow into the lives of those around us, wherever He takes us!This is real life!