“Power Breakfast by the Sea of Galilee”
John 21:1-14

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Third Sunday of Easter—May 1, 2022

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

You’ve probably heard the term “power lunch.”  Fifteen years ago, when I was vice-chairman of the Missouri Synod’s Board for Communications, our board was privileged to hold a memorable power lunch in Washington, D.C. at the famous Willard Hotel across from the White House, attended by the Assistant to the President who served as President Bush’s liaison with faith-based organizations, and also happened to be a member of the Missouri Synod.

It’s a little early this morning for a power lunch, but you could say that our worship together here each Sunday is our weekly “power breakfast,” not with just a representative or liaison, but our power breakfast with the Lord himself as he comes to us in his Word and Sacraments.  Today’s Gospel Reading describes Jesus and his disciples having a “Power Breakfast by the Sea of Galilee.”

The disciples needed a power boost that morning because they were demoralized and at loose ends. They were upset and confused about what had happened to their beloved Master. Not many days before they had witnessed him put to death on Calvary.  Although he had twice appeared to them alive after that, it was still hard to believe. Do dead men really rise from the grave?  Maybe they had just imagined it all. They didn’t know what to think.

One thing Peter did know was fishing. So, he said to the other disciples, “‘I’m going out to fish’ . . .  ‘We’ll go with you,’ they said. So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.”

You will recall that at the beginning of the Gospels, Jesus called these disciples to full-time ministry by saying, “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”  And we are told that immediately they left their nets and boats and followed him. 

So, today’s Gospel Reading is reporting much more than just a fishing trip.  It’s reporting the disciples falling away.  For, there’s a symbolic significance to the disciples going back to their old profession of fishing.  Just as previously leaving behind their nets and boats had symbolized their faith and trust in Jesus as the Messiah, now going back to their nets and boats symbolizes their lack of faith and trust in him.

And that also symbolizes us, and our own falling away.  For, as we gather here each week, we too often have a lack of faith and trust in our Lord, we too are often confused by events in our lives and our world, demoralized and at loose ends, not knowing what to think or do.

“But that night they caught nothing.”  The failure and fruitlessness of the disciples fishing expedition that night symbolizes the futility and failure and frustration we always encounter when in our sinfulness we turn away from the Lord and go off our own way.

“Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.  He called out to them, ‘Friends, haven’t you any fish?’ They answered, ‘No.’ He said, ‘Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.’”

For these experienced fishermen, it would have been easy and natural to just dismiss such a comment from a bystander.  How could this man standing over on the shore know or say such a thing?  Why should they do what he says? 

But, perhaps they already started to suspect this wasn’t just a bystander.  As they heard this man calling to them from the shore, they probably had a sense of de jevu, taking them back to time their beloved Master had called to them across these waters, when they had been out on the lake, perhaps in this same boat, in the midst of a terrible storm. He had come to them walking on the water and called out, “It is I; don’t be afraid.”

And as this man on the shore instructs them, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some,” they probably had a sense of de jevu, taking them back three years, to the day they had been called to discipleship, when Jesus performed an identical miracle, telling them to, “Let down the nets for a catch.”

“Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.”  Jesus calling to them from the shore and giving them instruction and guidance symbolizes the first source of power in our weekly power breakfasts here with the Lord: His Word, read to us from the Scriptures; sung and spoken by us in the Liturgy, hymns and prayers; and preached to us through his servant. 

“Whoever hears my Word,” Jesus promises, “and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”  His Word empowers you to trust in him and receive his gift of eternal life.  And his Word empowers you and gives you instruction and guidance for your daily life in the world this week, as Psalm 119 says, “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

“‘Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.’  When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.”  All they had to do was trust his Word, and when they did, they were richly blessed.  The whole night long they’d thrown the net out again and again, and in frustration brought it back empty. But now, when they trusted the Lord’s Word, with one cast the net was so full it and bursting with fish they couldn’t even get it into the boat.

If the disciples were unsure about Jesus’ identity up till now, at this point all their uncertainty disappears. With this miracle, the same miracle he performed when he first called them to discipleship, Jesus demonstrates his almighty power, and makes clear exactly who he is.  The mysterious Man standing on shore is their beloved Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God.  He has to be!  Who else but the One they once witnessed calm the winds and waves on this very sea could command the forces of nature in this way?  It has to be Jesus, risen from the dead, presenting himself to them again for the third time. With excitement in his voice, John says to Peter, “It is the Lord!”, and Peter jumps into the water and swims to the shore while the other disciples follow in the boat.

Peter plunging into the water symbolizes the second source of power in our weekly power breakfasts here with the Lord: Holy Baptism, as Peter himself later wrote about Noah’s Flood, “This water symbolizes baptism, which now saves you.”  It is as a reminder of our Baptism in the name of the Triune God that each week we begin our worship service with the Invocation, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” A reminder that through our Baptism in his name we are born again God’s beloved children.  As Paul says in Titus, “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” 

In our text, Peter is in the boat, sinful, doubting, disbelieving, and we are in that same boat.  But, then, Peter jumps into the water and swims to the Lord on the shore.  Through the waters of Baptism you are delivered safely to your Lord waiting for you on the shores of heaven.

“When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread. . .  Jesus said to them, ‘Come and have breakfast’ . . . Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish.”   Here no doubt there was another de jevu for the disciples.  Because, the last time Jesus hosted his disciples for a meal was in the Upper Room, at the Last Supper.

And that is what this breakfast of bread and fish symbolizes, the third source of power in our weekly power breakfasts here with the Lord: Holy Communion. “I am the bread of life,” he says.  “And I give my flesh for the life of the world.”  “Do this in remembrance of me.”  Just as Jesus empowered his first disciples with this “Power Breakfast by the Sea of Galilee,” he invites you to a “power meal” with him here every Sunday, to strengthen and preserve you steadfast in the true faith unto life everlasting.

The final consideration for any meal is always, “Who’s picking up the tab?”  That’s the best Good News.  The entire tab to pay for all your sins and purchase you entry into the eternal feast of heaven has already been picked up for you by the host.  As Paul says in Romans, “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.  He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”

It’s a little early this morning for a power lunch, but you could say that our worship together here each Sunday is our weekly “power breakfast” with the Lord himself, as he comes to us in his Word, and Baptism, and in the holy “power meal” of his body and blood.