Posted 04/12/2026
Hello again! Happy Easter! One of my favorite sections of the Bible is the Gospel of John chapter 21. Although it deals with the time right after Jesus miraculously rises from the dead, it's a very "human" chapter full of moving scenes. Let's look at some of them!
(Really, the Gospel of John's best kept secret is that it's imminently "human," despite some of the more "flowery" language, like in the first chapter. Or, is it due in part to such language that it feels more down to earth? Read the snarkiness of the guy who was cured by Jesus in John chapter 9 and tell me the Gospel of John ISN'T down to earth.)
This was one of the best pieces of art I could find about John 21. I'm a little surprised artists haven't covered this more, at least that I've seen. Artists, get to work depicting Jesus and Peter hugging it out!!
After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We will go with you." They went out and got into the boat; but that night they caught nothing. |
Imagine Peter's perspective by this point, near the end of Jesus' regular time on earth: a few years ago, a raggedy-looking traveling rabbi miraculously spawns a bunch of fish in front of you and says to follow him. He does another miracle in healing your family, so you're sold - this guy has gotta be the one to restore the kingdom of Israel like everyone's hoping the coming messiah does. You follow Jesus as you all go and down the Judean countryside (and then some, what do you mean the gentiles are part of God's plan of salvation??). You, Jesus and all his disciples become best friends (all that traveling and then Jesus' whole Passion? Trauma bonding anyone?) but then The Fuzz kills Jesus, so there goes the last three years of your life. On top of that, when Jesus needed some backup most, you read the room wrong, cut off someone's ear in the heat of the moment, and then say you have nothing to do with Jesus. Well this sucks.
Then of course comes the whole deal with the resurrection and whatnot. Well this rocks. Jesus is back, the kingdom of God is on the up-and-up AND NOTHING CAN STOP US NOW!!!! Except maybe the Romans. And the Jewish authorities. And anyone else who thought Jesus was out of his mind. I guess we'll deal with all that in a bit.
So in between Jesus' resurrection and setting off to bring Jesus' message of hope to the rest of the world, what's the move? I can imagine all the disciples sitting around in a room, maybe the resurrected Jesus is off visiting someone else and no one's sure what to do. If Jesus has conquered death, I guess we'll just... go back to work until the next big thing happens? There must have been a weird mixture of relief that the worst was behind everyone, but also a sense of complete bewilderment. "Okay, Jesus is back from the dead so basically everything we think we know about God and the universe is being called into question, so uh... I guess... we'll go fishing????" And everyone's just like "yeah okay fishing time."
Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, "Children, have you any fish?" They answered him, "No." He said to them, "Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some." So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, for the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his clothes, for he was stripped for work, and sprang into the sea. But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off. ... Now none of the disciples dared ask him, "Who are you?" They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. |
If John 21 takes place after all of Jesus' other post-resurrection appearances, then I can imagine the time between his previous visits and now left Peter and them with lots of questions they were dying to ask Jesus. For Peter though, being one of the three closest to Jesus (see the Transfiguration) and the one of the last ones to turn his back on Jesus by denying knowing him days earlier, Peter's love, guilt, confusion and all those other feelings were probably reaching a fever pitch within him. And here's Jesus, showing himself again by repeating the same kind of miracle that started their relationship some years prior. Cheeky miracle.
When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish that you have just caught." ... When they had finished breakfast ... |
Now this, this right here. This should be pure crack cocaine heroin for the prayerful, imaginative Christian mind. Inject this scene straight into my veins. There are other snippets about the disciples traveling, making odd remarks and so on, but this, to me, is one of the most evocative scenes in the gospels. (Another one of my favorite parts is in John chapter 9 - Jesus is trying to talk about things spiritually, he gets fed up and says "okay, look, Lazarus is dead," and then shortly after, I feel it's not impossible to read Thomas saying "let us go to die with him" as a sarcastic statement of defeat. I can see Thomas throwing up his hands and rolling his eyes as he says that.)
Real talk though, if you ever need to meditate, have some serious prayer time with Jesus, this is THE go-to image. Imagine yourself on the shore with Jesus. You can think of all of the BS in your life as preceding your time on the beach with Jesus, as Jesus is also at the beach with his wrongful arrest and execution behind him. God the Father sends his lovely waves to crash up against the shores of the sea, providing the best possible sonic backdrop for such a moment. There you are, sharing breakfast with Jesus, maybe in complete silence, maybe you go over bits of your life together, maybe you sit there stunned and let the other disciples do all the talking, pestering Jesus with questions about what exactly the heck is going on with the whole life, death and resurrection business...
So yeah, I've spent many hours in prayer with my Bible open to this chapter. Taking this image to adoration? Hooooo nelly now there's a good holy hour.
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." He 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." He said to him, "Tend my sheep." He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was grieved 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. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you girded yourself and walked where you would; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go." (This he said to show by what death he was to glorify God.) And after this he said to him, "Follow me." |
Then there's the whole bit about Jesus reconciling Peter to himself. This part is also awesome, but I feel like people do not focus on the breakfast part enough... maybe I just like breakfast food too much... mmmm... biscuits and gravy with Jesus...
But yeah, Jesus reassuring Peter in his role as shepherd is good. And another detail that totally didn't have to be there at all is the part where it says "Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time," as of course, Jesus is having this high-level spiritual conversation that leads into being a prophecy about Peter's life and death, but Peter, perhaps thinking chiefly of how bad he let Jesus down recently, might have been wondering if Jesus was just rubbing that in or something. But ain't that great, they get to share one last (recorded) exchange of love before Jesus ascends into heaven.
Peter turned and saw following them the disciple whom Jesus loved, who had lain close to his breast at the supper and had said, "Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?" When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, "Lord, what about this man?" Jesus said to him, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!" The saying spread abroad among the brethren that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?" |
Of course, it wouldn't be a scene with Peter and John without one last instance of Peter's ego getting the best of him. Peter gets all this grace and a good last word from Jesus and not 30 seconds later is Peter saying "OH YEAH WELL WHAT ABOUT THIS GUY?" And Jesus is just like. "Dude. Worry about yourself for a second." And as for the Gospel of John being super human-y, the author then takes the time to squash a rumor where people was taking Jesus' phrasing out of context or misinterpreting it lol.
And one last note about this passage from John for now... some scholars out there say that since chapter 21 feels tacked onto the Gospel of John we have in Bibles today, it must be FAKE or WRONG or something since chapter 20 seemed to wrap things up. So let's just ignore chapter 21, some say. Well, what if your favorite anime wrapped up all nice and neat, and then they released an OVA to add on some content, huh?? Would you be mad at that OVA or would you be like "OH SICK NEW CONTENT?" Yeah that's what I thought. So chapter 21 is the Gospel of John OVA. It can still be canon, get over it B)
... I hope God is okay with me comparing the gospels to an anime OVA ...
Anyways all of this is to say that I really like the scene of Jesus eating breakfast on the beach with people. I hope to be able to do that one day. Go read the gospel of John now okay thanks.
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