The Gospel of John, Chapter 21: Breakfast

 

The Gospel of John, Chapter 21: Breakfast

Read Chapter 21 here.

Since the previous chapter ended with some final-sounding words, this actual last chapter serves as a kind of epilogue or postscript.  

By the Sea of Tiberias (perhaps more familiar to us by one of its other names - the Sea of Galilee) some of the disciples are gathered.  The group includes Simon Peter, Doubting Thomas, The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved (TDWJL), and a few others.  Simon Peter says “I am going fishing” and the others go with him.  They are fishing at night, from a boat, but they do not catch a single fish.

The narrator informs us of the time of day, which, as we have seen before, is likely significant: 

Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach, but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.  (verse 21:4)

This is similar to the other resurrection appearances - Jesus shows up, but the disciples do not recognize him immediately.  Jesus speaks first, asking them if they have caught any fish, and they say, nope.  He suggests that they cast their fishing net to the right side of the boat.  They do so, and their net is so full of fish they can hardly haul it in.   

At this moment, TDWJL recognizes Jesus and exclaims to Peter, “It is the Lord!”  The text says:

When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he had taken it off, and jumped into the sea.  (verse 21:7)

It seems Pete is shocked and embarrassed. Because he is naked?  Because he doubts the resurrection?  We don’t know.  The other disciples drag the heavy net into the boat.

They all go ashore and find a charcoal fire there.  There is fish cooking, and some bread.  Jesus asks them to bring some of the fish they have just caught.  The text specifies that the net is full of large fish, 153 of them.  Another piece of miracle is that despite the huge haul, the net is not torn.

Jesus says “Come and have breakfast.”  A wonderful and simple invitation.  By this point, all the disciples recognize that it is the Lord.  Jesus gives them bread and fish.  The author notes that this is Jesus’ third resurrection appearance to the disciples.  Jesus’ appearance to Mary Magdalene doesn’t count, because she ain’t no disciple.  Or so the gospel author and centuries of tradition would have us think.

What do I love about this story?  I love it because it was one of my Mom’s favorite Bible scenes.  I love it because it’s breakfast, and cooked by Jesus.  I love it because Jesus is so down to earth and friendly.  He is quite unlike what we have seen in some of the earlier chapters of this gospel. I love it because it has a miracle involving fish.  I love it because Peter is impetuous, as always.  And I love that it is so specific about the number of fish caught.

Next we have the famous passage where Jesus offers Peter redemption from Peter’s three denials of Jesus on the night of his arrest.  Three times, Jesus asks Peter “Do you love me?”  This time, Peter is able to reply in the affirmative, three times.  Jesus has some instructions to go along with the redemption, and a dire prediction.  It’s worth sharing the whole dialogue:

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” 

He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” 

Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” 

He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” 

Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” 

Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” 

Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”

(verses 15-19)

And so we have circled back to the start of the gospel.  In 1:39, Jesus issues the simple invitation to the first disciples - “Come and see,” just as simple as “Come and have breakfast.”  In 1:42 Jesus says to Peter “You are Simon son of John.  You are to be called Cephas (Peter)”.  And here in Chapter 21 Jesus calls Peter “Simon son of John” just as he did at the start.  And in 1:43, Jesus says to another new disciple, “Follow me.”

It’s now the dawn of a new day.  We have an immense catch of fish.  We enjoy a hearty meal with close friends, sitting by the sea.  We have a renewed sense of purpose.  Given the particular week in which I am writing this, I find re-reading this story immensely comforting.  Jesus’ language is all about invitation and companionship and love; he does not use force or oppression.  “Come and have breakfast.” 

Although the story has circled back to the beginning, Jesus does not seek to return to how things were.  Jesus wants to move forward with love.

At the same time, Jesus’ words are perplexing.  Jesus reaches back to one of the major metaphors of the gospel – the sheep and the Good Shepherd – and assigns to Peter, and by implication us, the task of caring for his “sheep”.  There’s very little explanation on how to do that.  Would that we could live up to what Jesus is asking us to do!  Perhaps it’s good that Jesus didn’t spell it out to specifically, because how we tend the “sheep” now has to be different than what was needed in 1st century Palestine. Or in 17th century England, a time that at least one US Supreme Court Justice, curiously, feels is relevant to our jurisprudence.  Or in 21st century United States.

From Jesus’ prediction, Peter knows that it will not be all sweetness and light to be tending Jesus’ sheep.  

The next paragraph focuses on The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved and implies a kind of rivalry between Peter and TDWJL.  TDWJL had been following Jesus and Peter during their close conversation.  Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, what about him?”  (verse 22).  Jesus replies “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?  Follow me!”  The implication is that TDWJL will not die, but then the narrator denies that is the meaning of what Jesus said.  Jesus is basically saying, never mind about the other disciple, you just keep your eyes on me and follow me.  

This week, powerful people in this country showed just how much they want to impose draconian abortion restrictions on all women, no matter the woman’s circumstances. I will interpret this passage about Peter and TDWJL (John 21:21-23) as showing us that Jesus does not make the same rules apply to everyone.  He is able to take into account the particulars of both Peter and John’s situation.  Jesus knows each person’s situation is unique.  Justice Alito, the rest of McConnell’s Handmaidens on the Supreme Court, and on down the line to state legislators - they have no qualms about applying the steepest penalty across the board regardless of the circumstances surrounding a pregnancy (but zero penalty for the man causing an unintended pregnancy! and zero intention to provide healthcare coverage for those involved!).

But I believe Jesus is able to see the need of the woman who has a miscarriage that looks just like an abortion attempt.  I believe Jesus is able to see the need of the woman in the 3rd trimester of pregnancy, very much intended, but who finds out something has gone wrong and her health is threatened.  I believe Jesus is able to see the need of the woman who already has three children, has an unintended pregnancy, and just lost her job and her health insurance, and can’t see how she will support another child.  I believe Jesus is able to see the need of the woman with an unintended pregnancy because a man raped and impregnated her.  The Jesus I worship will not oppress these women the way Justice Alito would.  And yes, forcing any of these women to give birth against their will is oppression.

Theodicy would address why these women end up in these horrible circumstances in the first place, but I'm not going there. There is no good answer to that question. In Jesus' prediction about Peter's fate, Jesus is acknowledging that horrible things happen.

In the final paragraph of the gospel the narrator reveals that he himself is The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved:

This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.  (verses 24-25)

Thus ends this reading of the Gospel of John.  Thanks be to God.  It was not an easy read, but I feel I have gained blessing from the reading of it.  

The Gospel of John, Chapter 6:1-21: Loaves and Fishes

The Gospel of John, Chapter 6:1-21 

Read Chapter 6 here

Chapter 6 is really long, so I’m going to split it up.

We turn from Jesus’ sermon about his authority to a new scene.  Jesus leaves Jerusalem and goes to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. There are crowds following him, because he has healed the sick.  It is implied that Jesus tries to escape by going up a mountain with just the disciples.  But the crowd follows.

Passover is approaching - I guess the implication is that shops will be as bare as they are here just before a snowstorm hits, with all the bread and milk bought out.  Jesus is omniscient here - he asks the disciples, how are we going to feed this crowd? even though Jesus knows how to feed them.  “He himself knew what he was going to do.”  Unlike in previous chapters, Jesus seems to be speaking about food practically, not metaphorically.  The disciples focus only on how much it would cost to buy food for everyone. 

The text doesn’t point this out, but I think there are possibly numerous miracles that occur here. The disciples are observant. That’s the first miracle.  They have seen that in the crowd there is a boy with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish.   That’s the second miracle.  The third miracle is that the disciples are able to get the entire crowd to sit down, all five thousand of them.  Anybody who has gotten on a commercial airplane knows how long it takes just 100 people to be seated.  

The fourth miracle is that the boy was willing to share his loaves and fishes (or was he? The text doesn’t say.).  The fifth miracle is that, after Jesus gives thanks, that tiny amount of food is able to feed the entire crowd, and (sixth miracle!) there are leftovers.  

The gospel author tells us that the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand is another “sign”.  The people know that this means Jesus is “the prophet who is to come into the world.”  

Jesus sees that the people (I assume that “they” means the people of the crowd) want to make him into a king.  So he again tries to escape the crowd by going to a mountain, but this time he does not take the disciples with him.

From this miracle we can draw some lessons on how to think about scarcity.  We could learn that if we share what we have and each person only takes what they need, and no more, there can be enough for everyone.  We could learn that by being calm (everyone sitting down) and distributing things methodically, there can be enough for everyone.  

I can’t help but point out that this scene is downright socialist.  We could learn that if everyone puts a little bit into a big pot of loaves and fishes called Medicare, then we can have enough for everyone (even those under the age of 65) to have at least basic medical care. (It’s true, though, that to implement that, we would have to sit down in a grassy field for a few years, waiting nervously for a completely new method of distributing medical care to take shape.)

But perhaps the biggest lesson the author is trying to impart is that Jesus can provide us with enough.  In past chapters, Jesus has used food as a metaphor, so I think it is fair for us to read this story as saying once again, that metaphorically, Jesus meets our needs.  It’s a reinforcement of the living water metaphor Jesus offered the woman at the well, and of the “bread of life” metaphor that is coming up later in this chapter.

After Jesus goes off by himself, the disciples get into a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee back to Capernaum, even though night has fallen.  It’s dark, the sea is rough, and the wind is strong.  The text does not say, at this point, that the disciples are terrified.  They are rowing, and are about 3-4 miles from shore, when they see Jesus walking on the sea. That is the point when they are terrified, and rightly so.  Jesus tells them, it’s me, don’t be afraid.  And then magically the boat has reached the shore.

We also see in this chapter that Jesus does not want to be an earthly king, and that he is desperate to be by himself, away from the crowds.  

Metaphors:  There is no explicit metaphor, but we can easily read the feeding of the crowd as representing food meeting our needs, and the stormy waters as the vagaries of life.

Images and themes: crowds, loaves, fishes, boat(s), a storm, walking on water.

People/Beings:   Jesus, the large crowd, the disciples (including Philip and Andrew), a boy with food.   

Places:  the Sea of Galilee, and both its shores; a mountain, a grassy area; in a boat; Capernaum.  

What Fish Would Jesus Serve?

Our conversation at dinner last week, in which we show ourselves to be grossly ignorant of each other’s religious traditions.

Me:  I bought herring snacks for Passover.  But Dad already finished them off, and it’s not even Passover yet.

(Herring snacks are small bits of herring pickled with rather lots of onion.  They are not nearly as objectionable as gefilte fish, but an acquired taste just the same.)

Husband:  We don’t have bagels at Passover.  I can’t have herring snacks when there are no bagels.

(This must be one of the 613 laws: "And you shall not eat of the snacks of herring except that you eat them with bagels."  - Book of Comestibles 3:36.)

Me:  But I made Passover bagels.

Husband (shaking his head sadly):  No, herring snacks are not for Passover.  They don’t go with Passover bagels.

Son:  I thought fish was for Lent.

Husband:  Didn’t Jesus talk to fish?

Youngest Daughter (who has been somewhat paying attention to my reading of Bible stories):  Didn’t Jesus serve fish to a huge bunch of hungry people?  He took 3 fish and 2 loaves and fed a whole bunch of people.

Husband:  I always thought it was gefilte fish that he served, because, doesn’t the Bible say it was a loaf of fish?

Me: It was 2 fish and 5 loaves.  Of bread.

Son:  Is that why the cafeteria serves a fish sandwich every Friday?

Anyway, I am glad the herring snacks are gone and I don’t have to buy any more for a while.  They are stinky.

Pursuit of Happiness

"...We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..."  Read the full text here.

Here's how we pursued happiness on this Independence Day 2011.

Thanks to all who make this life, this liberty, and this pursuit of happiness possible.

It Was Dad's Idea

Last Friday we suddenly discovered that it was a long weekend, with a day off school on Monday.  The Common Household Husband suggested that our Youngest Daughter have a spur-of-the-moment sleepover on Sunday.

When 11-year-old girls see each other for the first time in two days, they feel compelled to scream with delight.  As our guests arrived, they hugged and screeched in the front hallway.  I walked past the girls into the kitchen, where my husband was standing, holding his fingers in his ears.  I said pointedly, “This was your idea.”  He said, “But I thought they would be quilting.”

Dad-sponsored sleepover activities:

Eating Pizza 

Stuffed Crust Pizza! Yay for Dad!  After dinner, the girls jumped up and down in the kitchen singing camp songs at the top of their lungs.  You probably know the song “Bananas”, which starts, “Eat – Bananas, Eat, eat bananas” and ends with “Go – Bananas – go, go – bananas.”  These girls knew several other verses, for oranges and cows and such.  We heard all verses.  The neighbors probably heard too.

Scientific investigation

At about 8:30 PM, two of the girls rushed into my office and said, “We need the computer!”  I asked why, and they said breathlessly, “We need to look up eosinophil!”  I figured this was some character in a video game that they wanted information on how to beat.  “You want to look up who-what?” I said.  They exclaimed, “It’s something scientific! But first we need to know how to spell it.”  “Oh,” I said, “a scientific endeavor. Well, you certainly can use my computer for that.  And I’ll bet the Common Household Dad will know how to spell it.”  Sure enough, he did.  

We have a microscope in our spare bedroom (every spare bedroom should have one) and the Common Household Dad had gotten out the prepared slides, one of which was a sample of eosinophil.  The microscope activity probably lasted a full 15 minutes.

Observing nature

The Common Household Dad owns and operates a fish tank containing a few fish and one adult snail.  I will have nothing to do with the fish tank, which is a kindness to the fish considering my track record on taking care of the rest of the house.  To young children the fish tank is a good source of amusement, and our sleepover guests were no exception.  Apparently a spontaneous generation miracle occurred, because, as the girls were looking in the tank, one of them cried out, “Oh, look!  There’s a baby snail!”  Much proclamation of cuteness ensued.  “Oh, my gosh!  The baby snail is gigantically tiny!”  Then they started trying to explain how a single snail could have babies.

Mom-sponsored sleepover activities:

- Salad with the pizza.

- Getting up at 2:15 AM to turn off the light and make the girls go to sleep (at the request of one of the girls).  Dad slept through this part of the sleepover.

- Making misshapen eggs and rubbery pancakes for breakfast

- And attending weddings:

Weddings

The next morning after breakfast I was invited to attend some weddings.  The Common Household Dad was not invited because he had already left for an important appointment at the casino.  The game room was an utter mess, but was a good site for each of the girls to marry a stuffed animal.  The most important role seemed to be that of the flower girl.  Flowers were represented by cards.  The flower girl threw the cards up in the air and they landed all over the room.  The second most important moment was when the groom was instructed “You may now peck the bride” (when the groom was a penguin) or “You may now devour the bride” (when the groom was a polar bear).

A successful sleepover.  Good job, Dad!

Activity for this weekend: clean up the game room.  This will be a kid-sponsored activity.

Saving the Ecosystem, One Gefilte Fish at a Time

The goyim are not fond of gefilte fish.  Speaking for the goyim, I can say that gefilte fish is okay if you have it with some horseradish sauce, but otherwise it’s like eating salty gelatinous paste with a fishy smell.  If the Israelites leaving Egypt ate this stuff, then I’ll eat my hat. 

The Children of Israel love gefilte fish.  I will never understand why.  Maybe it’s biblical to love the unworthy.  I mean, look at it.  Is it lovable?  No.

But consuming gefilte fish is now good for the environment.  I am not making this up.  It has to be true ‘cuz I heard it on NPR.  

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124459181&sc=emaf

Surprise #1: Israel currently has a shortage of gefilte fish.  This is not good, what with Passover starting in 21 days. It just wouldn’t be Passover without gefilte fish.

Surprise #2: Israeli gefilte fish producers get most of their fish from Illinois.  Illinois?

Surprise #3: The kind of fish they get from Illinois is Asian carp. Talk about yer globalization.

Israel put a hefty tariff on imports of Asian carp, so gefilte fish producers stopped importing the fish from Illinois.  And here’s the environment part.  The Asian carp are pests, getting huge and eating up normal fauna as they swim up the Mississippi River.  The waterways of Michigan need our help, folks.  With the Israeli fish factories not buying Asian carp, they are going to overrun the rivers and lakes (the carp, not the Israelis).  So this year, we all need to eat twice as much gefilte fish, so we can reduce the Asian carp population. 

This is serious.  Secretary of State Clinton is using diplomacy at the highest levels to solve the problem.  Let’s do our part.  Don’t forget the horseradish sauce.

Beware of Dead Fish

Common Household Hint:

Beware of dead fish; they still can fight back: Do not stab yourself on the dorsal-fin spines of a red snapper fish. If you stab said spine on, for instance, your finger, then your finger will swell and hurt like the dickens. Try to find out before, not after, you prepare the fish, that the spines contain a toxin.

I hope that I will be able to play the piano again someday (sob).