Breakfast On The Shore
BREAKFAST ON THE SHORE
JOHN 21:9-14
Jesus cares about our physical and psychological needs as well as our spiritual needs.
Eventually all the disciples arrive, following Peter. They find that Jesus has already been at work. He has made a fire upon the shore and has cooked some fish and provided some bread. Jesus asks them to bring some of the fish which they themselves have caught and Peter goes back to the boat and hauls the net ashore. In it there were 153 fish but the net was not torn.
Jesus then asks them to have breakfast with him. There is about him a numinous quality which stops them from asking who he is, but, in fact, they knew without having to ask that it was the Lord. In any event he can cope with shyness. He came and took and distributed both bread and fish as he had done to them and the five thousand beside the same lake before (6:11). It was in a meal, which must have reminded them of meals which they had shared with him, as well as of the feeding miracle, that he revealed himself. Luke too shows that “He was known to them in the breaking of the bread” (Luke 24:28-35). So in this informal fashion was Jesus revealed to them for the third time after he was raised from the dead.
Notes 21:10: it is not clear why Jesus asked them to bring their fish when he had already prepared some for them to eat. It appears that their fish was not used on this occasion. 21:11: this number has long exercised the ingenuity of commentators. It may simply be that they counted up and this happened to be the total. But many have seen it to be symbolic. Some suggest that it represents the 153 different species of fish known to ancient naturalists, or that, as factorial seventeen, it symbolizes perfection (as ten and seven were numbers indicating completeness). In either case this would be taken as referring to the complete apostolic mission to all men which would be carried out by the church without the nets breaking. However, the primary meaning of the whole chapter must undoubtedly be sought on the plain literal level. 21:12: “Who are you ?”—this was the question the Jews had put to him in unbelief (8:25). 21:13: while it would be wrong to see this as a celebration of the Holy Communion, our doctrine of the Lord’s Supper should include the idea of eating together with the risen Jesus in our midst.