April 14, 2013 | 4:00 p.m.

Going Where You Do Not Wish to Go

Adam H. Fronczek
Associate Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church

John 21:1–19

The story Shanique will read follows almost immediately on the one we heard last week, the story of doubting Thomas. At the end of that story we read, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:30–31)

That statement certainly has all the marks of being a conclusion. But apparently the story isn’t over yet. There is this one last story, and on a personal note, it’s one of my favorite stories in the entire Bible: the imagery is so rich I really feel like I’m right there.

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Gary Badcock is a Christian ethicist who wrote a book called Choosing, about how to figure out what to do with one’s life. Toward the end of the book, he summarizes part of his thoughts this way:

At the beginning of this book, I wrote of my own childish belief that God had a plan for each life, a plan that a given individual might miss if he or she was not attentive to God’s call and obedient to his voice. As a youth, I took such a view. It was as if I were waiting for a bus, or a “streetcar named vocation”; if I became bored and decided to wander away from the street, it would pass me by. But is it really possible to miss the will of God in this way? I have found such a vision of the Christian vocation to be extremely unhelpful, and because I am convinced that there are many people (especially young people) who are similarly mistaken, I have sought to develop a different understanding of the Christian vocation. Christian vocation is not reducible to the acquisition of a career goal or to its realization in time. It is, rather, something related to the great issues of the spiritual life. It has to do with what one lives “for” rather than what one does. (Gary Badcock, Choosing)

It’s an interesting thing to think about. Do we all have some one thing that we’re supposed to be doing? It’s kind of like the question, Is there one perfect mate out there for each of us? Well, Gary Badcock would suggest that the answer is no, and that furthermore, it’s pretty hard to “mess up” your life by somehow missing that job you were supposed to take or the person you were supposed to end up with. Life seems so full of unexpected twists and turns; often it’s better to worry less about what we should be doing and pay greater attention to how well we are living our lives regardless of what we are doing or who we are doing it with. One way or another, God’s will tends to come and find us. That’s a reassuring message if you’ve not always been 100 percent sure about what you’re supposed to be doing in life. Maybe that’s OK.

Today’s scripture lesson seems to bear that out; it’s a story in which we see two instances of people who are not exactly sure what they are supposed to be doing but who end up finding their way because they choose to follow Jesus.

The disciples, seven of them, are together near the sea. We are still in the near aftermath of Jesus’ death and resurrection; he is no longer with the disciples as he once was, so you get a bit of a sense that the disciples are all sitting around trying to figure out what they will do next. It’s how we feel when someone near to us has departed. Imagine the scene when the family returns home from the funeral or when parents come back to an empty nest having dropped off a child at college. Here we have the same kind of awkward scene, seven disciples sitting around the seashore trying to figure out what to do next. They pace around aimlessly, putter around looking for something to do, wrap their fingers on the table. It’s so fitting that finally Peter gets up and says to the others, “I am going fishing.” And nobody else has any better ideas, so they all get up and go along.

Then the literary artistry of John begins to take shape. The disciples are out on a boat, and the fishing is miserable—they don’t catch a thing. It’s the very same circumstance they were in several years earlier when they first met Jesus, when he told them to come and follow him. And the scene is reenacted. A strange man calls to them from the shore, “Try casting the nets on the other side of the boat!” And when they do, it the catch is so big they can barely haul it in. The first one to put it together is a nameless disciple simply referred to as the one Jesus loved; when they bring in the big catch, he realizes it is Jesus waiting for them on the shore. And he tells the others.

John adds a little color to the story by supplying the detail that Peter is naked—suddenly the story takes on a kind of fraternity fishing trip feel—and Peter jumps out of the boat and swims to the shore. The others bring in the boat, and a short time later, they’re all on the beach just like old times, a charcoal fire burning, fish and bread cooking as they enjoy breakfast together.

You get the sense that Jesus waits until things settle down a little—maybe breakfast is over by now or perhaps there is a lull in the conversation around the fire; everyone is feeling good and perhaps they’re all catching their breath after a good laugh. And Jesus turns to Peter and asks, “Peter, do you love me?” “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.” “Feed my sheep.” “Peter, do you love me?” “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.” “Feed my sheep.” “Peter, do you love me?” “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.” “Feed my sheep.” The question, asked three times, is asked of the disciple who, before, had denied Jesus three times. There is no mysterious or hidden meaning here. If you love me, says Jesus, then take up the work I have taught you to do, teach the things I have been doing, take care of the people I have called you to serve—feed my sheep. And then, this:

“Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.” (John 21:18–19)

I imagine that perhaps at this point Peter was upset. He was so excited about the joy of a literal day at the beach, which suddenly became a hard day. The fact that Jesus asks him three times “Do you love me?” is a clear reference back to the fact that before the crucifixion, Peter tells three people that he doesn’t even know Jesus. Then there’s the challenge: Follow me! Follow me somewhere you may not wish to go.

The thing that I think clarifies what is going on in this story is a look back at what happens earlier, when the disciples are out in the boat. Remember that, when they’ve caught nothing, a man on the beach in a boat calls out to them, “Cast the nets on the right side of the boat.” They do what he says, and it’s only after that happens that one of the disciples recognizes that the man on the shore is Jesus. This is representative of something that happens again and again in the Bible: obedience comes before recognition (Albert Schweitzer, The Quest for the Historical Jesus). People have to obey God, they have to follow God and walk in God’s ways, they have to trust God—and it is often only after they begin to follow that they discover God’s will for them, God’s plan, God’s presence in their lives. When Jesus has the conversation with Peter, the same thing is going on. Peter has been despondent ever since the crucifixion; Peter knows he was complicit in Jesus’ death. But Jesus, in a display of his incredible grace and forgiveness, invites Peter back into a relationship with him. “Do you love me?” There is the request for obedience, for friendship, for restored relationship between Jesus and Peter, and then comes the instruction about what to do: “Feed my sheep.” Continue my ministry. That was Peter’s call.

So when Jesus concludes the story by telling Peter, “Follow me,” he is inviting Peter into the next step of a relationship of trust with him. When Peter does not know what is next for him, Jesus says, “Come with me and I will show you.”

The takeaway from this story is simple, and I hope helpful. Many of you may have felt as if you would like to know more clearly what it is that God wants you to do with your life. And many of us are hesitant to follow God and to trust God to enter our lives because we don’t have all the answers we want about where it might lead us. Many of us would like to be more sure that the thing we’re doing right now is the right thing. But God seems to be less concerned with exactly where we are or what we are doing and more concerned with how we are doing it. Wherever life finds you this week, however unclear the next step may be, God says, simply follow me; I will show you where to go.

You are where God wants you to be. And you are doing what God wants you to be doing. Obedience precedes recognition. Follow me, says Jesus. And I will show you the way.

Amen.