Going Against the Grain

John 21: 1 – 8

John 21: 9 – 19

May 4, 2025

It had to be an exhausting time for the disciples. This merry band of confused ones have gone from the highs of Palm Sunday, through the absolute low of Good Friday, back up to the unimaginable high of Easter – of Resurrection Day. And the hits just keep coming! Appearances of Jesus – depending on how you count – at least 10 of them before Jesus ascended back to heaven.

10 appearances. 10 appearances of the resurrected Jesus. 10 appearances of Jesus once again becoming real – revealed, transformative, and present in their lives. Friends, part of the d news of the Gospel is that Jesus continues to reveal himself to us, even today! Continues to enter into history, into our own lives, revealing what is possible and reconnecting us to God in a relationship that was the reason for his coming in the first place.

But even with the appearances, the horrific images of the Thursday evening and Friday death of Jesus still had to be the things of nightmares for the followers of Jesus. Especially for Peter.

It probably didn’t take much to take Peter back to the evening hours of Thursday night and early Friday morning. It would have been dark, everyone simultaneously excited over the arrests and inquiry while also exhausted by the timing. In the midst of the courtyard, with the fire creating flickering shadows across the walls and observers, Peter is accused not once, not twice, but three times of being with Jesus.

Over the course of the early morning hours – in the darkness, amongst the shadows, assailed by exhaustion, and overcome by fear Peter denies Jesus three times. The rooster crows. Jesus looks at Peter reminding Peter that Jesus had predicted this denial – a denial that Peter vehemently declared he would never make – and Peter wept. Wept bitterly, the text tells us. Undoubtedly shedding tears filled not only with grief over what was unfolding but also shame and embarrassment over his own behavior.

But fear will do that to you, won’t it? Fear has a way of contracting your world until the anticipated results – all of them terrible – seem to be the only likely outcome. In the darkness, overcome by fear, we rarely make decisions that can stand the test of day, of reason, of hopefulness. Fear has a way of making your world so small, so frightful, that unimaginable decisions in the daylight become nighttime, fear-bound realities.

Friends, rarely is fear a good place from which to make decisions.

And yet here Peter is, on the Sea of Tiberius (also known as the Sea of Galilee) having gone back to what is known, comfortable, and thus unable to generate such fear. Peter, even after the Resurrection, has gone back to his previous life, his previous vocation. Fish is amazingly caught, Jesus is once again in their midst, and a meal on the shore becomes a recommissioning to ministry.

I can’t help but imagine that Peter, as they are sitting there eating breakfast, is thinking about Thursday night and Friday morning. About a time when, just a few weeks before when overcome by fear, Peter made the decision three times to deny Jesus as his Lord. The text doesn’t tell us of these memories. This isn’t the first time Peter has seen the resurrected Jesus. In fact, we are told it is the third. But Peter had to know a reckoning was coming; had to know that Jesus would do something in response to Peter’s fearful denials. It had to be….. awkward, to say the least.

The moment has come. A moment that certainly Peter had to have anticipated and also a moment that Jesus knew – for Peter’s sake – had to be grasped. “Peter, do you love me?” In the broad daylight, after the resurrection and surrounded now – not by adversaries but by the disciples – “Peter, do you love me?” “Peter,” when confronted with the angry accusations of the relative of the one struck by Peter with a sword during the arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane – a strike resulting in the loss of his ear, a question resulting in Peter’s final denial; “Peter, do you love me?” “Peter,” absent all the fear that clearly consumed you – “do you love me?”

The text tells us that Peter was hurt by the insistent questioning of Jesus. But what did he expect? Bold, rambunctious, impetuous. Yes, the one out of the boat walking on water. The one declaring Jesus as Lord and Savior. Peter, the Rock. Peter, the denier.

The reality is that Peter needs the forgiveness that comes with accountability and repentance. Peter needs the grace that tells him he is not defined by his denial. Peter needs the restitution that comes from a God of never-ending new possibilities.

Peter, you the one who denied being one of his disciples, do you love me? Peter, you who denied being from the same area as Jesus, do you love me? Peter, you the one who denied being in the garden with Jesus, do you love me?

Peter, once consumed and defeated by fear is asked three times if he loves Jesus. Does he love him dearly, completely, sacrificially? Does Peter love Jesus with a passion that cannot be cloaked by fear? Does he love Jesus with a passion that will not count the cost?

Peter, do you love me? It will be costly. The rest of the text speaks of the price Peter will pay as he continues to love Jesus. Peter, do you love me? You know I do Lord. Then follow me. Follow me when everyone s cheering. Follow me in the quiet times of prayer and reflection. Follow me in the heady times of service and miracles. Follow me, when fear threatens to overwhelm you….. again.

Follow me.

Friends, do we love Jesus? Maybe, like Peter, we are still young, still learning, just beginning to come to terms with what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Maybe we love Jesus but, at times, we have let our fear compromise our love. Maybe we have been tempted by other gods. Maybe we have leaned away when difficult times were asking us to lean in.

That’s okay. Grace reigns supreme! Follow Jesus.

Notice, Peter received no rebuke, only a recommissioning. Peter received no condemnation, only restoration. Peter, once consumed by fear, got bathed in grace and is remade.

Friends, we start our days with the best of intentions, don’t we? We leave church every Sunday ready to go out and be the people God needs us to be in our stormy world. We go out, ready to be faithful, but all too often we are broken by our own fear, our own inadequacies, our own brokenness.

In the midst of all of that, God meets us, God loves us, God pours grace into us, and God recommissions us to go out and be his people. Imperfect – yes. Broken – at times, but in the lifelong process of being made whole. Sometimes weak, sometimes fearful, sometimes stumbling but always – ALWAYS – victorious in Jesus and filled with Holy Spirit power.

Fear holds no power over us. The darkness is always followed by the beauty of sunrise. Trust in the same grace that restored Peter. Live, and serve, in that same Holy Spirit power. Amen.