Easter Wednesday
by the Revd Dr Robert Wilson PhD (Cantab), Old Roman Apostolate UK
Today’s Gospel from St. John records Jesus’ resurrection appearance to his disciples by the sea of Galilee. There were together Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, the sons of Zebedee and two others of his disciples. They went fishing with Peter, but that night they caught nothing. When morning was come Jesus stood on the shore but they did not recognise him. He told them to cast their net on the right side of the ship. When they did this they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. The beloved disciple recognised that it was Jesus. Peter then girt his coat about him and cast himself into the sea. The other disciples came in the ship, for they were not far from the land, about two hundred cubits, dragging the net with fishes. When they came to land they saw hot coals lying and a fish laid thereon and bread. Jesus told them to bring the fishes that they had caught. Simon Peter drew the net of one hundred and fifty three fishes to land. Although there were so many, the net was not broken. Jesus told them to come and eat. None of them dared to ask him who he was, for they knew that it was the Lord. Jesus took bread and gave it to them and then the fish.
The Gospel has recorded how the women had found the tomb empty on the first Easter morning and that Jesus had appeared to Mary Magdalene. He then appeared to the disciples in Jerusalem later that same day, and the following week to Thomas as well (who had not been present on the previous occasion). Some of the disciples then returned to Galilee. Simon Peter and the sons of Zebedee were fishermen. They had originally been followers of St. John the Baptist, but had transferred their allegiance to Jesus. They had later been called to abandon their fishing business and become permanent followers of Jesus, who had said that he would make them fishers of men. It is therefore fitting that they should receive a second commission by the resurrected Jesus while they were fishing on the sea of Galilee.
The story is told with the detailed precision of time and place that is so characteristic of St. John’s Gospel, resting as it does on the witness of the beloved disciple, who had been a Galilean fisherman and was (along with Simon Peter) Jesus’ closest follower. It is a fisherman’s story and he can remember how that night they had caught nothing, but in the morning they saw a mysterious figure on the shore who they did not recognise, but at whose direction they had caught a hundred and fifty three fish. He had then realised that it was Jesus, but Peter, always the more impulsive of the two, had reacted more quickly and jumped into the water ahead of the others who followed in the boat, which was close to the land, about two hundred cubits. Although there were so many fishes the net was not broken. None of the attempts to find a symbolic significance in the number of a hundred and fifty three fishes appear to be satisfactory. It seems best to take it at face value as the memory of a fisherman who can remember exactly the number of a good catch.
After Jesus’ capture and arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane the disciples had all forsaken him and fled. Despite his earlier protestations of loyalty, Peter had denied him. But Jesus had told him after his great confession of faith at Caesarea Philippi that he would be the rock on which the Church would be built. He needed to be rehabilitated and recommissioned by the resurrected Jesus, whom he had denied three times. Jesus therefore asked him three times about his loyalty and commanded him to feed his sheep. He foretold that Peter would himself one day be martyred, for, though he had fallen away once, in the end he would be loyal. Peter had then asked what would happen to the beloved disciple, who had leaned on Jesus’ breast at the last supper and asked who it was who would betray him. Jesus replied: “So I will have him to remain till I come, what is it to thee? Follow thou me.” This saying had led to an expectation that the beloved disciple would remain alive until Jesus’ second coming. But it is pointed out that “Jesus did not say to him: He should not die, but: So I will have him to remain till I come, what is that to thee? This is that disciple who giveth testimony of these things, and hath written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.”
These concluding words of the Gospel affirming that it is based on the testimony of St. John, the beloved disciple, most probably represent the attestation by the church that he founded in Ephesus to the truth of his witness. It is not known exactly when St. John, who, as we read in the early chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, had proclaimed the Gospel in the earliest days of the Church in Jerusalem alongside Peter, later migrated to Ephesus. It is known that he was the last of the apostles to survive, but there is no agreement about when his gospel was published. It is usually supposed that it is an old man’s testimony as he draws near to the end of his life, though in the concluding scene it is Peter who is said to grow old. At any rate, at some point after Peter’s martyrdom under Nero, St. John published his own written testimony in Ephesus. It may have been written early soon after Peter’s martyrdom, or it may not have been put into the final form until later. What matters is that it is based on the eyewitness testimony of one who had been, along with Peter, Jesus’ closest disciple, who had himself beheld the glory of the Word made flesh.
St. John had made a written testimony of the same gospel that St. Peter had proclaimed in those early days of the Church in Jerusalem, which we heard in today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles. The God of Israel had glorified his Son Jesus, who had been delivered up and denied before Pilate. He had been raised from the dead and had commissioned his disciples to preach to the nations that they should repent and be converted that their sins may be blotted out.
Let us pray for grace that we may be enabled to remain faithful in our proclamation of that same gospel in our own time and place.
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