[AI translation] Jesus appears to his disciples for the third time in this scene, after he has risen from the dead. This story begins very drably, very simply, ordinary, even sad. But it continues and ends in a very triumphant, majestic and reverent way. The hesitant disciples go fishing. They toss about their craft all night, but catch nothing. In the twilight of dawn, Jesus stops on the shore, calls out to them over the water, "My sons! Do you have anything to eat?". The disciples, tired and discouraged, think they are being asked to eat by some stray stranger. But they have none! No matter how well-intentioned, they have nothing to give! The voice comes back, "No!" Sad, but true: After a whole night's toil, there is none!The Lord is waiting for this "no"! And not only then, but also today, He expects of every disciple that he will be able to say "No", once truly, from the heart, exhausted, tired, disappointed, hopeless! Before any real blessing and miracle from above can be experienced, the soul must come to the disappointing, or self-disappointing truth that there is not! True spiritual blessings cannot be attained without total bankruptcy! You cannot pick fruit from a basket as long as it is full of garbage! You have to pour out the garbage first! You have to empty the basket, and only then can you put the fruit in it! There is always trouble in a man's soul until he can answer this question of Jesus with certainty and pride: Yes, I do! Behold, here are my good deeds, which make me visibly different from a vile man! Here are my services, done in Thy name and for Thy sake! Or my beautiful sermons I have preached of Thee, or my sufferings, my abuses, which I have borne with such patience! Well, I have much to give You, Lord! Such a soul, full of its own food, can never experience the blessing from above and the miracle of Christ in its life! I have already found that all I have to give to the Lord is rubbish! Until I pour it out of my soul, I cannot receive the riches of Christ!
Do you have anything to eat?" asks Jesus. "I wish everyone could say from the heart: Truly, Lord, I have nothing to give you! In vain are all my efforts, all my labours, and yet I have nothing good, nothing good, nothing beautiful, nothing righteous. I have no wisdom, no holiness, only a great emptiness, an empty, bankrupt, disillusioned, disappointed heart to give You, Lord! Blessed is the man who has truly recognized this inner, spiritual emptiness, who does not delude himself that he has it, but honestly, sadly, disappointedly confesses to the Lord that he does not have it! There is nothing! Because this "there is none" is the precondition for there to be now! And from the Lord be all that I have labored for in vain! Jesus said the same truth in the Sermon on the Mount, "Do not therefore be anxious, and do not say: What shall we eat? or: What shall we drink? or: What shall we be clothed with? For all these things the Gentiles ask. For your heavenly Father knows well that you have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be given unto you." (Mt 6,31-33) "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Mt 5,3)
To the answer "no" the cry is heard again from the shore, "Cast your net on the starboard side of the boat, and you will find". They obey, and a miracle happens: 'They cast it there, and could not take it out because of the multitude of fish'. They know at once from this abundant blessing who the wanderer is, not far from them, on the shore! The One to Whom all power in heaven and earth has been given - the Lord Jesus Himself, the Risen One! They say to each other in amazement, "The Lord is there"! Who knows how long Jesus had been standing there, silently watching the troublemakers, but they only now recognized Him, after He had interfered with their work! It was impossible for them not to understand the great teaching: "See how you can do nothing without me? You cannot even fish without my help, my advice and my blessing! See how true it is that he who has once known the Lord Jesus cannot do even his ordinary trade well without Him! What this story so beautifully illustrates is true not only for the believer, but also for the believer in general. It is not enough to work, to toil, to be blessed! The latter gives meaning to the former! If the blessing is not there, the effort, the skill, the practice, the physical strength, the boat, the well-working net, are in vain: they will not catch anything all night. For the work to have real results, real benefits, something else is needed! Something that man cannot put in, that no longer depends on man! Something that comes from above! It needs the blessing of the Eternal Holy Lord God!
For the believer, this truth has very practical consequences. I could sum them up by saying that the believer must reckon with the Lord Jesus Christ even in the exercise of his most ordinary, most mundane craft. Above all, that Jesus is there. In the twilight of the morning, the disciples do not immediately recognise the Lord, who is not far away. He is described as being two hundred cubits, or about a hundred metres, from the beach. They do not know how close the Risen Lord is to them! Many times, when one is tired, sweating, in the heat of everyday work, one doesn't even realize how close one is to the Lord! Perhaps much closer than you think or feel!
Sometimes, very hopelessly, the believer can be surrounded by the churning, ever-moving waters of the sea of life, its mysterious, fearful depths! Sometimes all effort, all labour, seems very vain! Let the believer remember that he is not far from the shore, the shore of the invisible world on which the risen Jesus stands! He knows, he sees the trouble. It is therefore free, and indeed necessary, to look towards the invisible shore, even while practising one's craft, and to wait and ask for blessing! Jesus, standing on the shore, says: "Now cast your net on the other side and you will find! He is giving you very practical advice and guidance. He's telling you what to do. He also tells you how to do it! Even though you are a recognised expert in your own profession, Jesus knows even better than you! And if you then cast the net, pick up the pen, the hammer or the spoon according to His instructions, you will see how different the results will be! It is not enough to be zealous! The real benefit of the work is when one zealously works according to the Lord's provision!
The same ministry, done in the same way, can be very different in results depending on whether one undertakes and performs the work at the Lord's direction or on one's own behest. He casts the net in the boat in the same way and in the same place now as before. The only difference between the work now and the work before is that now it is done at the Lord's command, whereas before it was done at his own will. This is the surplus of the believer's work. It is that He waits, asks, demands that Jesus should have a say, that He should advise, that He should direct, that He should be Lord over His most ordinary work! Therefore, everything turns on the readiness of the believer to obey? Behold, in the case of the disciples, what they could not achieve with their experience, their expertise, the strength of their two hands, they achieved at once by obedience to the word of Christ! Where one can and dares to obey, a miracle always happens! There the net is always rent by the abundance of blessing! The surest way to be assured of the presence and power of Christ is believer obedience. We have just said that Jesus could have been standing on the beach a long time ago, but the disciples did not recognize him. Even when he had already spoken to them. How did they come to the happy, dreamy realization that "the Lord is there"? By obeying first: they had cast the net! Then they received the blessing, and after that their eyes were opened to see Jesus. This is always the way of the conviction of Christ's presence, of seeing Him: first obedience - blindly - then the blessing, abundantly! And only then the vision, the happy realization that the Lord is there! What happiness it is when, even in the course of one's ordinary work, one realizes again and again, even in the course of one's craft, with grateful dreaming, that the Lord is there! That the Lord is there, that the Lord is really there! There, where one casts the net at His command.
But there is a deeper meaning to this story. Let us see it from the beginning! As the disciples sit there together, as Peter finally speaks out, saying, "I'm going fishing". As the others join him, saying, 'We will go with you' - there is a weariness, an indifference, as if what is described here had not happened after Easter. As if the disciples were not after this great event, that Jesus rose from the dead! There is no sign that these people sitting here fishing together witnessed the greatest miracle in the world, the resurrection, just a few days ago! Somehow we would not expect them to! They would run through the streets of Jerusalem and shout from the rooftops the great good news to the world that Jesus has risen from the dead and appeared to them! After such an experience as they had already had, how can Peter say, "I am going fishing! For they are in the knowledge of a great good news, a news that will one day renew the whole world! News that will one day reach even to the depths of the grave! And then these people will go fishing in the certainty of such great news!
Something is not right here! This is not their job! And here the Word is speaking to the believers! You, who have perhaps already had several encounters with the Risen Jesus Christ, who have already come to the certainty of Jesus' redemptive work for yourself, who have already had Easter: what sign do you give of all this? What has your family, your church, what has this world gained by Christ's resurrection and appearance to you? Can you keep silent before the world, can you come to terms with the fact that there has been an Easter in this world? Do not the angels wonder that you can live so joylessly, so indifferently, so bored, as if you had never met the Lord? Don't you think it's not right? That there is something wrong here, just like with Peter and the others?
Yes, there is a great trouble here! Surely, this is the barren life of most believers, and even of believers' fellowships and Bible study groups! They ponder the past, but cannot face the future! He lives for his great and holy memories, not for his hopes. He has no strength and impetus for the spiritual service for which Jesus has chosen and ordained him! He cannot start a new life, he returns to the old!
Thus many believing souls are stuck between darkness and light, halfway, in the twilight, and at a lower level than they should and could live!
The warning of this Scripture is that once you have said yes to Jesus, do not return to your old life! Whoever has put his hand to the plough should never look back, for he cannot plough in that way! Once Peter had left the net because Jesus had said to him, "From now on you will catch people" (Lk 5,10). The Lord has also appeared to you so that the world, the world around you, may know from you that Christ is risen! It is for this reason that he has now appeared again to his disciples, to warn them and to call them back to service. If only he would appear to you now in such a way that you would understand the warning!
Amen.
Date: 8 May 1949.
Lesson
Jn 21,1-14