John 21:1-19
April 18, 2010—Yosemite
Devotion shared at First Chinese Baptist Church, San Francisco 2010 Yosemite Weekend.
How many times have you said or heard, “Let’s do lunch!” Jesus pretty much said, “Let’s do breakfast!” to the disciples early that morning.
Now that it’s been a number of days after the resurrection, the disciples have left Jerusalem and returned to their homes near the Sea of Tiberias that is also known as Galilee. This is about a 40-minute bus ride today. Rather than to set out to declare that Jesus is risen, Peter and the others decided to go back to fishing. But Jesus knew where he would find the disciples, back in their old places.
At first, the disciples do not recognize Jesus calling out to them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat. Maybe they were tired from fishlessly fishing all night. But the real reason they did not recognize Christ, and at times, I think, the reason why we do not see him today, is their lack of faith. He had appeared to them in Jerusalem, but they were not following him but have instead returned to their old routines.
When Peter and the others caught many fish, the disciples finally recognized it was Christ. They came on shore dragging their full nets. They found that Christ had already started a charcoal fire with fish on it and bread. Jesus said, “Let’s do breakfast!”
Yosemite Meals
Over the 40 years that we have been coming to Yosemite as a church, our weekend has always centered on the meals. Different people down through the years have led this effort and this year, we are happy to have Becky Lessler and Wendy Quan in charge of last night’s dinner and today’s breakfast. If it weren’t for these meals by this river near El Capitan, our Yosemite weekend wouldn’t be the same. They bring us together into community before we scatter throughout the national park. They sustain us with nourishment so that we would be strong and healthy to do those long hikes.
At Yosemite, we imitate what Jesus’ vision for his disciples is on food and love, or feeding and loving others. Jesus first provides food, causing an abundance of fish where there have been none all night. He then gathers his disciples together for breakfast, sharing bread and fish with them. He then tells Peter to feed others three times.
The link between food and love is no surprise to us. Most Chinese greet each other, “Have you eaten yet” to mean, “How are you today?” When it’s your birthday, your mothers and fathers cook you your favorite meal. When a college student comes home for the holidays, the old recipes come out. When I visit some of our church members, I know who are blessed with the gift of hospitality—those who have coffee crunch cake or dessert for me. Or when you are a guest at someone’s home and early in the morning, you can hear your host baking muffins and cooking breakfast for you. This is linking food and love together.
At the heart of our church when we are in worship is centered on a meal—The Lord’s Supper. We come to Jesus hungry and we go out nourished and restored.
Being and Serving Together
Have you ever sat down at a table of your large family? There may be three generations all together. The table sometimes can be a complete riot. A riot not in a bad way but in terms of many, many conversations going on all at once. At one end there may be all the young grandchildren who are begging for food to eat because they are hungry. Some are playing with their food. Surrounding this younger generation is the middle generation of parents and young working professionals caring for their kids and talking about the newest electronic gadgets. Then there’s the older generation at the same time talking about old favorite family stories that adds to the noise level. But at some moment in the evening, everyone turns quiet as the oldest member—perhaps the grandfather or the grandmother sitting at one end of the table starts a favorite story that captures everyone’s attention. I wondered if such a moment happened when everyone recognized Jesus.
It’s like this quiet moment, we have gathered in the name of Christ to recognize him in our chaotic and sometimes riotous lives.
Notice in the Scriptures that Jesus had prepared the setting for the breakfast. There was fish already on the barbecue. But the breakfast doesn’t start until the disciples bring something to the campfire. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.”
Jesus asks the disciples to bring something to the breakfast that is fresh in their minds, important to them at that moment, something that gives them wonder and delight. Whatever is in the net is what Jesus wants; it happened to be good, large fish. If all they had in the net were small or broken fish, Jesus would have accepted them too. Jesus asks us to bring whatever we have to him—it doesn’t have to be perfect fish, or perfect anything. What we bring would be enough. Then Jesus takes our fish and lights a fire under them. Jesus lights a fire under us to make sure others have something to eat too.
Jesus continues to invite us to eat breakfast with him as he teaches us that when we feed others, we are loving them. Simply put, feeding the hungry is one of the most powerful, most direct ways in which we can follow Jesus. Let us give what we have and who we are to follow Christ by feeding others with food and love.
Let us pray.