When a Disciple Gets Distracted
Read John 21:1-14.
"I'm going out to fish!"
While these words may seem innocuous, they can be really dangerous words. It's been a few days since the resurrection, over a week, and it appears the disciples haven't seen Jesus lately. Peter is antsy. He is a "do something" kind of guy, used to being active, and right now, he's not doing anything. He's waiting on—he isn't quite sure what. So, in lieu of anything else to do, Peter reverts to what he knows best. "I'm going out to fish!" And the others join him.
Now, what's wrong with that? What's wrong with fishing? Well, nothing...except... Peter is not just filling the time. He's going back to what he knows. In whatever time has passed since he last saw Jesus, he's decided that this Jesus thing is over now and he needs to get busy earning a living. Sure, Jesus is risen, and that's great and all, but what difference does it make to him? He has a life to get on with. So Peter goes back to what he knows once he gets distracted and forgets all the things Jesus has told him before this.
Jesus called Peter to be a "fisher of people," but now Peter is content again to be a "fisher of fish."
Again, the practice of fishing is not a problem, but for some disciples today, the things that were "B. C." (before Christ) are a lot more dangerous to life and to their witness. When we get distracted, when we go back to what we know rather than move ahead with what Jesus wants for us, we can end up back in some dangerous places: addiction, immorality, simply living for ourselves, and so on. Wormwood, the fictional senior tempter in C. S. Lewis' book The Screwtape Letters, advises his nephew (a junior devil) to distract his "patient" with good things, things he knows and enjoys, and that will take his eyes off of Jesus. It's still a strategy that works today.
We live in the afterglow of Easter, when a lot of folks focused on or at least heard about Jesus this past weekend. What will we focus on this week, this weekend? One reason we need a local church is to help us stay focused. Every week, every Sunday, our energies are refocused on Jesus through a community that worships and serves the risen Lord. And we need daily time in the Scriptures to remind us again to focus on Jesus. We forget. We get distracted. There are so many things vying for our attention. But when a disciple gets distracted, it can lead to a loss of focus on Jesus or far, far worse things. We need the community, we need the church to help us stay fixed on Christ.
(By the way, did you notice that there was a Methodist among the disciples? Someone took the time to count the fish before they could eat them! 153 is a rather precise number...someone counted!)
"I'm going out to fish!"
While these words may seem innocuous, they can be really dangerous words. It's been a few days since the resurrection, over a week, and it appears the disciples haven't seen Jesus lately. Peter is antsy. He is a "do something" kind of guy, used to being active, and right now, he's not doing anything. He's waiting on—he isn't quite sure what. So, in lieu of anything else to do, Peter reverts to what he knows best. "I'm going out to fish!" And the others join him.
Now, what's wrong with that? What's wrong with fishing? Well, nothing...except... Peter is not just filling the time. He's going back to what he knows. In whatever time has passed since he last saw Jesus, he's decided that this Jesus thing is over now and he needs to get busy earning a living. Sure, Jesus is risen, and that's great and all, but what difference does it make to him? He has a life to get on with. So Peter goes back to what he knows once he gets distracted and forgets all the things Jesus has told him before this.
Jesus called Peter to be a "fisher of people," but now Peter is content again to be a "fisher of fish."
Again, the practice of fishing is not a problem, but for some disciples today, the things that were "B. C." (before Christ) are a lot more dangerous to life and to their witness. When we get distracted, when we go back to what we know rather than move ahead with what Jesus wants for us, we can end up back in some dangerous places: addiction, immorality, simply living for ourselves, and so on. Wormwood, the fictional senior tempter in C. S. Lewis' book The Screwtape Letters, advises his nephew (a junior devil) to distract his "patient" with good things, things he knows and enjoys, and that will take his eyes off of Jesus. It's still a strategy that works today.
We live in the afterglow of Easter, when a lot of folks focused on or at least heard about Jesus this past weekend. What will we focus on this week, this weekend? One reason we need a local church is to help us stay focused. Every week, every Sunday, our energies are refocused on Jesus through a community that worships and serves the risen Lord. And we need daily time in the Scriptures to remind us again to focus on Jesus. We forget. We get distracted. There are so many things vying for our attention. But when a disciple gets distracted, it can lead to a loss of focus on Jesus or far, far worse things. We need the community, we need the church to help us stay fixed on Christ.
(By the way, did you notice that there was a Methodist among the disciples? Someone took the time to count the fish before they could eat them! 153 is a rather precise number...someone counted!)
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