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café nights
Matt Stone reflects on John 21:1-14
Over the course of three years, the disciples saw Jesus: turn water into wine, give sight to the blind, cast out demons, heal the sick, raise the dead, walk on water, teach about the kingdom of God, talk about his own death and resurrection, ride jubilantly into Jerusalem on a donkey, get arrested, get nailed to a cross, be gloriously resurrected and appear to them in human flesh that can walk through walls. What a rollercoaster!
Yet now, in John 21, what are the disciples doing? Are they out telling everyone they meet of the fantastic news? Are they shouting from the rooftops that “Jesus is alive!”? Are they praising God for what has happened? Are they planning a mission to go to the ends of the earth and tell of God’s glory? No. Unbelievably, after Easter, after the most brilliant series of events in human history, they go fishing. Not for men, but for fish. What an anticlimax.
What on earth are they playing at? Is the scene a fulfilment of John 16:32, when Jesus announces that the hour is coming when the disciples will be scattered? Are the disciples undertaking this exercise in desperation? Are they simply so overwhelmed that they don’t know what to do? Are they going fishing just to get some space, in order to try and get their heads around what has happened? Or are they just hungry? We don’t know. But I wonder; how is the church today any different?
We come to church and hear the fantastic Gospel of Jesus Christ preached. We put our faith in Jesus’ miracles, healings, teachings, and his death and resurrection. We celebrate that through his blood, our sins are forgiven and heaven opened to us. We tell each other stories of lives transformed; of the Holy Spirit working and making a difference to people just like us.
And yet, what do we do after church? What do we do after Easter each year? Do we go out proclaiming the good news of a Gospel that really does change lives forever? Do we go out ready to set free the captives and heal the sick? Do we really allow ourselves to worship in spirit and in truth? Do we go out and live as Easter people?
If we’re honest, I suspect that we too, like the disciples, just get back to our everyday lives. However, Jesus still gives us hope today - and plenty of it. Despite the anticlimax of John 21, Jesus is still there with his disciples. They may have deserted him, but he hasn’t deserted them. In fact, yet again, he is there to serve them; cooking them breakfast and affirming them once more.
We can take great comfort from this. Despite our many failings today as a church, God is still with us. Despite our lack of faith, Jesus still has faith in us. Despite our lack of understanding of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is still working through us. In Jeremiah 32:38-40, God says “They will be my people, and I will be their God ... I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them.” In John 14:16-17, Jesus says “The Father...will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth.”
The Church – that’s me and you, young and old, black and white, evangelical and liberal – needs to start acting, not as an anticlimax to the Gospel, but as witnesses to it. Not a Gospel that we should be ashamed of, as if we have lost the battle against Richard Dawkins, but a Gospel that is victorious because Jesus is alive and the Holy Spirit is working. A Gospel that is evident in permanently transformed lives, in the outworking of the Holy Spirit in us and, crucially, in love.
We don’t spread the Gospel for our own gain; but for God’s. We don’t want to see our churches grow so that we can feel pride; but so that the lost can return to the one true Father. We aren’t called to live for ourselves; but to take up our crosses and follow Jesus into a new world – his kingdom – which is open to all. We are the servants of the one true living God, and our job is to go out into this broken, hurting, sin-filled world and bring people into God’s kingdom, God’s banquet, God’s everlasting glory. Let’s live as Easter People!
Matt Stone is this guest editor of April Reform
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