Gone Fishing

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Last week, you heard how Jesus appeared to His disciples in the locked room. And not just once, but twice. He broke into their sad reverie and breathed His peace upon them. Then He told them not to just sit there. “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me,” He told the women (Mt. 28:10). And so the disciples went to Galilee, and there they waited for the Lord.

You can almost picture their restlessness. They were not afraid, because Jesus had given them His pervading peace, but they were not at ease. After all, their fear is gone, but so is their Lord. What will happen now? Go to Galilee. Hurry up and wait. The Spirit will come, someday. Eventually you will see Jesus. And then what?

So it is no surprise that Peter gets up and decides to go fishing. He might as well go and do something useful. Someone has to pay the bills, and they are not going to get fed just by waiting around for Jesus to appear mysteriously again. So he announces that he is going out fishing, and six of the disciples decide to accompany him out on the water.

This is something they are good at. They are good at fishing for fish. Before Jesus came along, these men made a very respectable living as fishermen. Now that things are in flux and uncertain, this is something they can go back to. If they have to sit and wait, they might as well spend the time doing something they know how to do, and earn some money at it.

So they got in the boat, went out on the water, and spent the night fishing. But how did they fare? Nothing. Nada. Zip. Not one solitary fish in their nets. This thing they thought they were good at, this life they thought they could go back to like nothing happened – it failed them.

And then, just as dawn was breaking, Jesus appeared to them, standing on the shore. “Children, do you have any fish?” He called out to them. At first, this must have been a little irritating to those in the boat. We have spent all night catching nothing, and then this wise guy starts yelling about did we catch anything? No, man – we got nothing. Nothing to show for a night of hard labor and no sleep. Nothing but empty hands.

“Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” Our Lord instructs them to put out their nets on the other side. As if that will net them the fish that have been eluding them all night. As if they had not thought to try that spot hours ago. As if these career fishermen, the sons of career fishermen, did not know how to do their work.

But they did as they were told, and the net was filled to overflowing. In that one cast, they filled the net so full that they could not haul it into the boat. They caught in that moment all the fish they had missed the whole night through. And yet, despite the enormous haul, the net did not break. They struggled to bring in the 153 large fish, but they did it.

And when they got to shore, there stood Jesus waiting for them with a fire laid and fish and bread cooking on it. After all this, the Lord already has fish, and has no need of their miraculous catch anyhow. But He bids them sit with Him, and He feeds them with His own food.

So it is between the Church and her Lord. The members of the Church get antsy in the absence of their Head. And, from the looks of it, who can blame them? It seems as though Jesus is not around. He certainly is not here visibly. You cannot touch Him, handle His flesh, or stick your hand into His riven side. Just as mysteriously as He came, so has He gone.

And so comes the antsy feeling that you need to do something. Anything. Nothing is happening, so something ought to be. Let's get up and go fishing. Let's find something to do to keep busy. Idle hands are the devil's playthings. The Church at rest is the Church defeated.

So you cast your nets into whatever spot looks good, in hopes of pulling something in. And there are myriad nice-looking places to cast your nets.

Some have cast their nets into the hole of social justice. In this fishing hole, the bait is the chance to make everything right in and with the world. Alleviate suffering for the masses. Feed the hungry. Comfort the oppressed and persecuted. Fight for justice for the underdogs. Tend and care for the great unwashed masses. And if you feed them, they will come. This is the work of the Church, so they say. The way to their hearts is through their bellies.

Others have cast their nets into the broad marketplace of public opinion and trends. The way to net the biggest catch is to make the net as broad as possible. So what if you lose the small fries, so long as you bring in enough of the big ones. Make the net wide and open enough that it looks nice to everyone. Open all the loopholes. Make it as easy as possible to get in. Make every way the right way. After all, every fish eventually swims the same stream. The way to get the fish to shore is to enable them to swim there themselves, just being scooted along by the net.

Another popular fishing hole is the hatchery. Cast your net over the children and haul them in, by hook or by crook. If you can get the kids to come, their parents will follow. Kids are our future, so we have to get ahold of them early and mold them into good people. The truth does not change, but the methods must. There are loads of programs, tactics, games, ditties, gimmicks, snacks, and whatever else it takes to get them to show up.

Cast the nets in all these places, and see what happens. St. John does not record the amount of junk they pulled up. Who knows what they caught, but it was not fish.

But Jesus calls out to His people, “Cast your nets on the right side!” Let out your lines in the right places. Cast your nets in the place where God is pointing you. That is, do what Jesus commands. For when you are in the place where He places you, doing the things He commands you, then you actually catch fish.

See how it worked for Peter and the disciples. They had spent all night casting out all over the place, and catching nothing. But when they heeded the Word of the Lord, their net was filled to overflowing. And yet their nets did not break; neither did their ship sink. Guided by the Word of Christ, the disciples netted a catch more than they thought they could handle. It was all they could do to bring it ashore.

This is how it works with God. He has done all things needful. It is finished. Jesus has been to the cross. He has died the death for sin. He has nailed the record of wrongs accounted against you to the cross and has wiped it clean. He has died, but now is raised. There is now nothing for you to do but to listen and believe.

When Jesus says “Repent and believe the Gospel”, you do. When Jesus is baptized into the water and sealed with the Word of God, you follow right along into that watery grave. When Jesus gives His Body and Blood poured out as the sacrifice for you, you take and eat them for the forgiveness of your sins. When Jesus tells you to go and love your neighbor as yourself, you go and visit the lonely, feed the hungry, heal the sick, comfort the distressed, and all the other stuff that makes this world go round. You do these things because Christ has done it all for you already, and because His gifts are already yours by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus stands at the shore with fire banked and food prepared. He does not need your fish. He does not need the works of your hands. For He has prepared a gracious feast of His own, with which He feeds you in body and soul. And to which He invites you to bring others.

The disciples sat down around the fire and ate the food that the Lord gave. And no one asked Him “Who are you?”, because they knew that it was the Lord. How did they know? It was revealed to them in the breaking of the bread. The same as it was revealed to the disciples in Emmaus. Jesus reveals Himself to His people through His gifts. He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies you through these things, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

You could not know Jesus Christ nor come to Him, but He has sent His Spirit upon you to call you to faith and give you the words of eternal life. Do not cast about every which way, but cast where and how the Lord commands, and haul in the miraculous catch He gives. His is the fish and His is the sea. He gives the catch and He gives the gifts. He has accomplished it all, so that you might reap the benefits.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!