John 21:1-19
I once heard Richard Rohr make a comment that went something like, “There’s nothing to be learned from success after you turn 30.” Failure seems to be a great teacher, and now that I am much closer to my 40th birthday than I am to my 30th, I can attest that this is true. There is a certain amount of grace that comes to us when we face our failures squarely, seeking to learn what we can from our missteps and mistakes. Indeed, failures are fertile ground for growth.
Indeed, this is a notion that Jesus understood well. After the events of the Easter weekend, Jesus’ followers seemed steeped in failure. In the Garden, they all run away. Even after firmly declaring that he would never dissert or disown Jesus, poor Peter denies his Lord three times. Of course, who could forget how Peter chopped off that servant’s ear only to be rebuked by Jesus.
Even after the resurrection and Jesus has appeared to his followers twice, they still seem to be short on luck. As Peter and a few others try to catch some fish, they are once again proven failures. Some might suggest that Peter’s movement back to the fishing boats of his former days is a failure in and of itself. Surely Peter should be busying himself with the work of the revival, which has now begun with Jesus’ resurrection? Whether Peter decides to go fishing because he desires to go back to his old way of life, or if he chose to cast the nets out again in an attempt to put some food on the table of his friends and family, it does not matter. Well, at least it does not seem to matter to Jesus.
John opens this third post-resurrection story of Jesus revealing himself to the disciples with Peter and a few others frustrated after a long night of fishing. They are about to pack it all in when a voice calls out to them from the beach. These men do not know who it is at first, yet they respond anyway to the call to cast their nets once more on the other side of the boat. The evening’s frustrations and failures soon melt into the past as the net is raised to the surface revealing a tremendous catch, so much so that it becomes challenging to wrangle.
It’s then that these failures realize who it is that has called to them. Peter immediately abandons ship and swims to shore, leaving his friends to do all the work. In a moment of grace, Jesus invites his friends to bring some of their catch and join him for breakfast. It’s a remarkable thing that even though Peter and his associates did not reap this great harvest of fish by their cunning or ability, Jesus calls for them to bring some of the fish that “you have just caught” (verse 10). He just as easily could have said, “Bring some of the fish I have just helped you catch,” or, “some of the fish I caught for you.” Even though they are failures, Jesus gifts them with a grand catch and, perhaps, some dignity, too.
Breakfast concludes, and the story moves onto the next scene. The group is full of their feast and perhaps a little sleepy from their labor, yet there is a reckoning that is about to take place. I suppose Peter knew it was coming, this question of if he really loves Jesus. One cannot deny a friend or master in the way that Peter did and not have their loyalty or love questioned. Jesus asks pointedly, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” Peter quickly responds in the affirmative, pointing out that Jesus, by virtue of his Godness, should already know the answer.
Instead of berating Peter for his lack of faith, or for his failure to express his love and faithfulness through concrete actions, Jesus issues a call: “Feed my lambs.” Peter has failed multiple times, yet Jesus continues to call him into service. Twice more, Jesus put this question of love to Peter, and each time, Peter answers in the affirmative. Then, Jesus issues the call to care for the sheep that Jesus so dramatically loves. There can be no doubt concerning what Peter is now to do with the remaining days of his life.
Following the third and final question and response, Jesus proceeds to describe for Peter the type of life he will live in old age. The picture Jesus paints is not all sunflowers and roses; instead, it is bleak and ends in death, presumably by non-natural causes. By the standards of the world, Peter will die a failure, led about, not by friends, but by enemies to places he does not want to go. Luke wants us to know, however, that Peter’s seemingly final failure will glorify God.
Our culture prioritizes and glorifies success. This priority has infiltrated the church as well. The people you will open this story to feel it every day of their lives. As pastors, we feel the need to prove our worthiness and our faithfulness in terms of worldly success. Reports concerning conversions, baptisms, and metrics recording giving and attendance are demanded from us. The temptation is ever present to measure our faithfulness to the God who has called us in terms of these reports. More often than not, we feel like Peter after a long fruitless night of fishing.
But Jesus has not called us, pastors or otherwise, to be successful. No, perhaps counterintuitively, our failure is what leads us to be ordained by the resurrected and risen Lord as apostles who tend the flock. While this passage certainly speaks to us who have given ourselves to the ministry of proclamation, it is no less relevant for our Sunday School teachers, board members, youth leaders, potluck organizers, and janitors. We are all called, not from the place of our successes, but from our failures, to engage in a ministry of care for God’s church.