Living the Resurrection

John 21:1-14

Tell It in Whispers
1. today we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. More people come to church at Easter than at any other time, including Christmas.

2. churches pull out the stops. Fresh flowers, Easter lilies. A people’s choir. New songs. New clothes. Friends, family. A new Easter banner. We don’t do it any better than we do it at Easter (thanks to decorating people!).

3. this day is gigantic for Christ-followers. Everything we believe about Christ hinges on the reality of his resurrection. The Apostle Paul boils it down to this in I Corinthians 15: no resurrection…
* Christ is still dead
* Preaching like I’m doing this morning is a waste of time
* We are liars in what we say about Christ
* Our faith is simply the stuff of whistling in the dark
* Our sins have not been reconciled with God
* Death still reigns

4. everything we believe about Christ comes down to the historical fact of his rising from the dead. The resurrection is a theological Mt. Everest or Great Wall of China or Grand Canyon.

5. what’s remarkable about the gospel accounts of Jesus’ resurrection is this – the gospel writers tell the story in whispers.

6. Jesus who was dead is not dead anymore. He has risen. He is alive. He is here.
7. how strange. How unlike how we would orchestrate Jesus’ resurrection.

8. we would call in Stephen Spielberg or Peter Jackson to stage the event. Or maybe hire the firm of Koopman-Ostbo. We’d dream of a multi-sensory production with tons of lights, lots of people, spectacular sound affects. We’d create this wow-experience that would knock us off our feet.

9. but God had something a good deal different in mind. He’s so unpredictable.

10. this is how he staged it:
* in the darkness of the early morning hours when the world was asleep & no one was around Jesus’ tomb
* along the road to Emmaus with 2 unnamed followers who drag Jesus to a kitchen table to eat dinner before they figure out who he is
* with some of his followers in an out-of-the-way room, doors locked, for fear of losing their lives
* on the shore of the Sea of Galilee early one morning after an unsuccessful, all-night fishing outing

11. hardly the stuff of a Hollywood production, a Broadway show, or a state-of-the-art music video

12. Frederick Buechner, The way the gospel writers tell it, Jesus came back from death not in a blaze of glory, but more like a candle flame in the dark, flickering first in this place, then in that place, then in no place at all. It was the most extraordinary thing they believed had ever happened, and yet they tell it so quietly that you have to lean close to be sure what they are telling. They tell it as softly as a secret, as something precious, and holy, and fragile, and unbelievable, and true.

13. they told it in whispers BUT that doesn’t mean it had a whispering affect upon our world. Things have not been the same since. If Jesus’ resurrection occurred in whispers, its sound waves have bellowed out so loud over the last 2000 years that spiritual ear drums have been bursting. How about yours?

Breakfast is Ready
21:1-3:
1. now to the story. The fish were calling. Peter was itching to get back out on the water. In times of disorientation we often turn back to what we know best. For Peter that meant fishing.

2. he gathered up some friends – Thomas, Nathanael, James & John & 2 unknown disciples – and took off for (Detroit Lake) the Sea of Tiberias (Roman name for the Sea of Galilee). They fished all night & got skunked. They didn’t catch a thing!

21:4:
1. this verse haunts me. It comes on the heels of Jesus appearing twice to his disciples. Here he comes again.

2. but they missed him. They didn’t recognize his voice or his looks. They didn’t “see” him standing there. They failed to realize that he was the One they had just spent 3 years with! How could this be?

3. when Mary Magdalene ran up against the resurrected Jesus she was so taken up with her grief & sorrow that she mistook him for the gardener. And now Peter & the gang are so pre-occupied with fishing that they fail to dial into Jesus.

4. this would never happen to us would it? I wonder how often Jesus draws near to us but we don’t see him? Too caught up in our dreams, our problems, our agendas, our disappointments, our excitements or simply the boredom of life.

5. beware – open your eyes – Jesus is near

John 21:5-6:
1. Jesus tells them to throw their nets back into the water – if they do they’ll catch a boat-load full of fish. They do & they did.

2. Jesus commands; the disciples obey; fish are caught. We never go wrong when we obey what Jesus tells us to do:
* repent for the kingdom of God is near
* you must be born again
* go, sell your possessions and give to the poor
* love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you
* seek first my kingdom and my righteousness

John 21:7-8:
1. John is 1st to recognize Jesus. Does this say something about his spiritual discernment? I think it does:
* at the Last Supper it was John who sat closest to Jesus & leaned on him
* Jesus told John, only John, that his betrayer was Judas
* he alone of all the disciples was at the cross when Jesus died
* Jesus gave John responsibility for taking care of his mother, Mary
* he was the 1st to believe the resurrection
John stays closer to Jesus than the rest. I want to be like John, do you?
2. you know what that means? Closeness translates into an intimate knowing & recognition. The closer we stay to Jesus, the more we listen to him, the more we follow him, the greater will be our spiritual discernment.

John 21:9-14:
1. Peter swims to shore & finds a fire of burning coals. Yikes. The last fire he saw was the one he denied Christ around. But this fire is different. Jesus was cooking breakfast – blackened halibut & freshly baked sourdough bread.

2. Come and have breakfast he tells them. I love this picture of Jesus. He meets these hungry fishermen at their point of need. He cares for their tired, sleep-deprived bodies.

3. no theology lesson. No test on the Sermon on the Mount. No review of the meaning of his parables. No repeat of the Great Commission. But breakfast – bread & fish.

4. 2 of Jesus’ resurrection appearances include meals – this breakfast & the dinner he sat down to with the 2 disciples he met on the road to Emmaus.

5. have you ever thought of breakfast & dinner as times, places of spiritual formation where Jesus shows up in your life? More on this in a few minutes.

Jesus is the Host
1. meals figure prominently in the Bible. The people of Israel ate a meal together to remember how God liberated them out of Egypt – the Passover Supper. The last group event Jesus held with his 12 disciples has come to be called the Last Supper. Jesus gave his followers a meal to remember how he liberated them out of their sin – the Lord’s Supper.

2. the gospel writers – Matthew Mark Luke & John – are fond of telling stories of Jesus at meals. While eating & drinking with both followers & foes, Pharisees & partiers, Jesus revealed himself. He talked. He worked. He loved. He welcomed & called men & women to himself.

3. we eat meals 1st out of necessity. We need carbohydrates, proteins, fats, fibers, vitamins & liquids to stay alive. We eat meals 2nd for pleasure – garlic mashed potatoes, steamed asparagus sitting in melting butter, honey-baked ham, waldorf salad, multi-grain rolls, tossed green salad, angel food cake topped off with fresh strawberries.

4. in the Scriptures meals transcend necessity & pleasure. They are events for spiritual formation – our being formed into Christ-likeness.

5. in our story Jesus is the Host. He serves the disciples bread & fish. Do we recognize him as the Host at our meals together?

6. as we prepare the meal. As we eat. As we talk, laugh, argue, share or listen. As we eat out of necessity and pleasure. Do we open our eyes & ears to his Presence among us? Do we listen for his voice?

7. what if we sat out an empty chair at our dining room tables for Jesus. A reminder that he is always with us, even while we eat.

8. we forge our family values & culture around meals. Memories are made & stored up. Let’s not forget that meals can be times of forging our spiritual values, culture & memories as well if we are keen to sense Jesus our Host sitting at the head of our tables.

9. families eat fewer & fewer meals together these days. Meals often come out of a can or a box or a package so they can be quickly prepared & quickly eaten. Jesus is seldom acknowledged in our eating & drinking. Are we missing something that has long been apart of our Judeo-Christian heritage? I think we are. Meals are sacred times.

10. Jesus is the Host. Let’s sit down together & eat in the presence of the Risen Christ. Let’s honor him by what we say & how we treat each other. Let’s take time to bring him into our conversations. Let’s listen for his still, small voice. Let’s be sensitive to the nudge we may feel in our hearts. Let’s use our meal times to celebrate our blessings, honor one another, flesh out our faith, and be ever ready to call him Lord.

11. as you sit down to enjoy your Easter dinner today, pull up an empty chair to the table. Let it remind you that the resurrected Christ lives among you & is with you & in you…even as you eat & drink.