[AI translation] Jesus appears to his disciples for the third time in this scene, after he has risen from the dead. This story begins in a very drab way, very simple, ordinary, even sad - but it continues and ends in a very triumphant, majestic and reverent way. It is about bankruptcy, its cause and the solution Christ gives. That is why it is relevant to us. So let us see!1) First, bankruptcy. The hesitant disciples go fishing, toiling all night at their craft, but catch nothing. In the twilight of the morning, Jesus stops on the shore and says to them, "Have you anything to eat?" The weary, listless disciples do not recognize him, thinking he is some wandering stranger. They shout back, "No!" Sad but true, there's nothing to hide! Not even after a whole night's toil! It was all in vain, but it didn't work! It's bankruptcy!
It's a failure to realize that what you're doing is futile, pointless, pointless, pointless! That he is not well as he is, that he has not succeeded in what he wanted, that he cannot succeed in what he is striving for, that he is wasting his strength, wasting his time, wasting his sweat, but all his efforts are in vain! "Have you anything to eat?" Do you know how Jesus would ask that today? Something like this: Have you succeeded in life? Are you happy, are you satisfied, is there peace in your heart? Do you think it's good the way it is, and don't you feel that it should be different? Because it's not right, you've tried so many times to do it differently, but it didn't work!
Oh, but there are so many people in the world today, like these disciples here on the Lake of Galilee, who do their craft, working hopelessly, dutifully, wearily, pulling the yoke, always starting again, treading the mill - but the expected result always falls short. When you were younger, did you have any ideas about your life: what your marriage would be like, how you would bring up your children? You had dreams you wanted to realise! You worked hard, you worked hard, you couldn't really say that you had been sneaking away, you had burnt a good chunk of your life in your toil: well, was it worth it? Have your plans succeeded? Have your dreams come true? Did it turn out the way you imagined? Have you found what you were looking for?
The disciples, ashamed, confessed that they had none! Do you have the courage to admit that you are in trouble, that even after all the night's hard work, your bed is still empty, you have caught nothing, your heart is still empty, your soul is still hungry, you have nothing to satisfy yourself and those around you. You were left with a great, gaping emptiness, a sense of lack.
It is interesting that Jesus waits until morning to address the disciples. He waits until the bankruptcy is complete. The arrogant human heart needs this! For if Jesus had asked them at midnight if they had anything to eat, the disciples, confident in their craft, would have shouted back in a rush that they had nothing now, but they would have! True, they hadn't yet, but we still had the whole night ahead of us! I'll help myself, says the confident man, and try another way, better, with more strength and zeal! Just as yesterday, someone who has been dealt a terrible blow by life told a part of his life story. Three years ago, his situation and his continued work in the place where he was became completely impossible - so he went bankrupt. So he left everything behind and went to a country town to start a whole new life! A new life with an old heart? Of course, he didn't! What a great mercy that he didn't! The disappointments continued, the bankruptcy increased. He had to come here too. He returned to the capital, now with the only hope that, as long as he was in good health, he need not despair, he would get by somehow! Soon that too was lost: five famous doctors diagnosed him with the most hopeless of diseases. Bankruptcy was complete! And then Jesus stood on the shore of his life and spoke to him!
If His help had come sooner than before the bankruptcy was complete, we would have claimed success, patted ourselves on the back and said: well, I am clever after all, I just need to get a good grip on the oars and the net! Well, Jesus is waiting for us to admit total failure. He may already be standing on the shore watching you struggle with the net. Maybe he's been listening to you sighing long ago, complaining bitterly about why God hasn't helped you, why God has abandoned you. Perhaps you are at the end of your strength, He has heard you resolve to make one last effort, - but even then He will wait until you have given up all hope in yourself, in your own strength, skill, wisdom, and then, only then, only then will He intervene with His help. He asks, not as if He needed it, but so that we may admit that we do not have it, we do not have it! He asks if you can still bear it, so that you can admit that you can no longer bear it. Don't be afraid to confess to Him that you have nothing, that your life is bankrupt in every way!
2) Because then you will find out why you are not, what the reason for your bankruptcy is! Here, in this story, there are two reasons. Choose which one suits you!
a) One is that they did not do what they did well. Why not well? They were professionals, old, experienced fishermen! Because they did their job by following their own minds. Because, once you have come into contact with Christ, you should never go fishing according to your own individual will and imagination! When he says, "Cast the net on the starboard side of the boat, and you will find it," he means to let us know that, behold, without me you cannot even fish! It is not enough to have work, toil, skill - (you cannot even fish) - you need a blessing, and the latter gives meaning to the former! To have a real result, a real benefit, a real purpose, a real meaning, you need something else! Something that man can no longer put in, that no longer depends on man, that comes from above: it needs the Lord Jesus Christ. He Himself! You cannot leave Jesus out of everyday life! Even if you are an expert in your own profession, in your own craft, Jesus knows even better than you! And if you cast your net, take up your pen, divide your money, educate your children - that is, if you do your daily work in fellowship with Him - according to His instructions, the results will be different! Let me tell you that the brother I have just spoken about has indeed been given a whole new lease of life after admitting total bankruptcy. He is now casting his net according to the Lord's instructions, and he is casting it, a lot! It is a joy to see his happy face, his sparkling eyes! So, it is really like that today! Are you doing what you do well? In fellowship with Him, in obedience to Him?
The very life of the disciples was in danger of falling back into an ordinary occupation separated from Christ after the great festive experiences. Well, it is into this ordinary life that the risen Christ now enters! He is about to teach them that from now on there is no day in their lives and no occupation that they will not do in fellowship with Him!
b) The other reason for the disciples' bankruptcy is that they are not actually doing what they should be doing: catching fish, when Jesus told them to fish for people! They are not doing their job! They should not be here now, but on their way to spread the gospel. They are acting like those who don't know about the great Good News that Jesus rose from the dead! Therefore, they are now having the same experience of Jesus as when they first met him. Then they were at the Lake of Galilee. They were fishing in vain. They cast their net at Jesus' command and their net was torn. Then Jesus said to Peter, "You will catch people from now on! That is what he is reminding them of now, the vocation they ran away from, evaded, abandoned! You can't! All fugitives must be bankrupted! Those who are called to a higher life must not live on a lower standard!
Are you not bankrupt too, because you are not living the life to which you have been called and redeemed by the Lord? Are you not also a fugitive, whose place is not among the sons of the world, but among the witnesses of the Lord? Christ did not die and rise again so that you might live an almost vegetative life, that you might toil joylessly and aimlessly like a machine, that you might earn your bread somehow, that you might somehow make a living - but He died and rose again so that you might rise above all this to the standard of redeemed life, of life serving Him. Into a higher life of which Christ gives the purpose, the meaning, the content! Are you not bankrupt because you are not living the life you could live on the basis of Christ's death and resurrection?
3) And if you are truly bankrupt: give thanks! Grace this bankruptcy! No greater misfortune than the absence of this bankruptcy! For this is what the Lord is waiting for! For someone to confess, honestly, painfully, without hope, that he has nothing to eat! Before experiencing any true blessing and miracle from above, the soul must come to the disappointing confession - i.e., of its own strength - that it has nothing to eat!
As the disciples answered Jesus' question, "Have you anything to eat?", NO! This is where VAN begins! For only into an empty soul can Jesus put His blessing. It's a big problem when someone proudly, confidently answers, "I do! Look, here's this or that action of mine that makes me visibly different from a lot of worthless people! Or: behold, here are the services I have rendered in thy name, O Lord! Or here is my good habit of always helping whom I can. Or here is my suffering, my abuse, which I bear with such patience! Well, I do have something after all! - Such a full soul can't fit what Jesus would give! It's good to be able to say from the heart, truly, exhausted, weary, disappointed, hopeless: "I have nothing, Lord! In vain have I tried, in vain have I been weary, in vain have I tortured myself, still I have nothing good, nothing beautiful, nothing true! I have no wisdom, I have no holiness - I have only a big, empty, bankrupt, disillusioned, disappointed heart, I have only a miserable, ruined, miscarried life, but I bring it here and give it to you, Lord! This is what the Lord is waiting for! In such a heart He can put His blessing!
It's all right that you can't bring, give to the Lord anything He asks of you - it's all right! Just tell Him! Tell Him that you have NOTHING!
It is such empty-hearted people that the Lord is coming to seek again! Today in our church, together with our evangelical brothers and sisters, we begin a whole week of evangelism. It's as if on the shore of our lives, Jesus stops - as he did on the shore of the lake - and speaks to us. He wants to speak to many precious souls, so that all bankrupt souls may say it with courage and full confidence:
Broken and empty, I give myself to him,
That He may make me new, He may fill the void.
All my troubles and sorrows I give to the Lord,
He bears all my burdens, He erases my sorrows, He erases my griefs.
Canto 459, verse 2
Amen
Date: 23 September 1951.
Lesson
Jn 21,1-14