Following the recent events in the upper room
event with Thomas, the disciples return to their "former" lives; they’re fishing!
I guess I’m puzzled as to how after all that they've been through, they decide
to go fishing. Sure, it’s their livelihood and yes, it may be their way of
processing what they have experienced, and… yet, it almost suggests, it’s back
to “business as usual.”
Needless to say, John 21:1-19 has is reasons for
telling us this story and he continues... a “stranger” appears on the shore and
inquires as to how they’re doing. They respond with some frustration, not so
well. The stranger calls out to “try another side” and see what happens. Maybe
their “old habits” and practices were just not working?
Whatever it was,
they ventured back out and found huge success. Their nets were overflowing.
They catch 153 fish. Why that number? Many have guessed but it may simply imply
all of the community of believers. The number may simply imply that many were
caught.
Perhaps John is relating this story to remind
us not to fall into our old ways of doing things? It is Jesus telling us to reach out to the
world and “put our nets back in the sea” even when we are tired and have had no
luck. In relating his encounter with Peter, Jesus reinforces his teaching the
need for us to love one another by caring for each other. We are asked to abandon
our old habits of fear and leave our “comfort zones” to create new habits. We
are called to be mindful of the needs of our world and in so doing actively
live our faith.
They were, after all, fishermen. Psycholigy tells us that people under stress undergo a process of regression that sends them back to entrenched attitudes and behaviors. Jesus seemed perfectly willing to start over with these men who had abandoned him, and to confirm that they had been chosen, not in spite of their life experiences, but because of them. Some commentators have suggested that 153 was the number of "the nations of the earth," but the only historical citation for it is found in a much later source (which doesn't prove that this thinking could not have been current when John wrote the gospel). If that is its meaning, then it would be consistent with the command to make disciples of all nations.
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