This has been a big weekend for college football seniors as the NFL Draft has been going on and players from all over the country are finding out where they will playing professional football. In our first reading this morning we heard about a member of the Pharisee team being converted or drafted to the team known as the Way. In the reading from the Acts of the Apostles this morning we heard of the Conversion of Saul of Tarsus, later to be called Paul, through a direct revelation of Jesus Christ, himself. In the Gospel reading, we heard of another revelation of Jesus as seven of the Apostles are back to their fishing routine and not out doing the will of God for their lives. Saul was on his way to Damascus to do his thing, which was wreak havoc among the disciples and Peter and the rest were back doing their thing, which was fishing. Only none of them would be very successful. Saul would be stopped in his tracks by Jesus and so would the other disciples. They would all move off in a new direction with new marching orders after being confronted by the living Christ. In the events with Jesus Paul, Peter and the other apostles move off in a new direction. They experience repentance as they turn around from where they were to go off in a direction that Jesus wants. They also experienced some healing as Paul is healed of his blindness and Peter of his guilt over denying Jesus. In the season of Easter, the apostles come face to face with the living reality of Jesus Christ.
When it comes to the meaning of Easter, you really have to admit that the only word that will do is - Resurrection. It is the one word that all of Christianity hinges on. We could probably get by without feeding of the five thousand, or some of the other miraculous events attributed to Jesus, maybe even his Virgin Birth, but we cannot get to first base in the doctrinal foundations without the Resurrection. It is the reason for the season when it comes to Easter, to Holy Week, to Palm Sunday, the season of Lent, to Epiphany, to Christmas itself. The resurrection gives importance and meaning to all the occasions of the Christian year. Without the resurrection, then as Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians, “we of all people are most to be pitied if it is only in this life that we have hoped in Christ.” If Christ has not been raised from the dead then it was something else that made those apostles suffer beatings, jailing, torture and killing. I find it very hard to believe that they would endure all that over a made-up story. I have to believe that the group of men who were so frightened of the Jewish authorities one moment, when Jesus was crucified, then became so emboldened as to go out into all Judea and the surrounding country and BOLDLY proclaim Jesus as the Christ, the anointed one of God. They became so bold as to enter the Temple grounds and preach and teach in the Name of Jesus. Not only that, we heard of a man this morning who was raised up in the Jewish Faith and was so strongly zealous for the traditions of his people that he began to persecute the followers of this new Way as they were called in those early days. Then all of a sudden something happens to this man that he turns completely around and joins up with them. He just had a change of heart, he just felt bad about all the things he was doing to these poor people that he decided to join up with them to make amends. Well, brothers and sisters in Christ, I would say that they all had an encounter with the Resurrected and LIVING Jesus Christ. They had come face to face a living and breathing Jesus who they knew for certain had been put to death, executed, hung on a cross and died a cruel and horrible death. They knew that he was dead but now they were confronted with the reality of a risen and living Lord. Last week, we heard about Thomas' reply, he could only say, "My LORD and my God!!"
In the episode at the lake the disciples are not carrying out the mission Jesus gave them. A question we might ask is why did he meet the disciples on the shore like that? After all, he had already showed himself to them in the upper room twice. The only answer I can see is that he had to get them moving in the direction he had for their lives, which is why he appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus. The living Jesus Christ confronted Paul and during the three days of blindness and he probably re-evaluated Jesus based on his previous evaluation.
(a) Jesus: "Simon, son of John, do you love [Agapatas] me more than these?" Peter: "Yes,
Lord; you know that I love [Phileo] you." Jesus: "Feed my lambs."
(b) Jesus: "Simon, son of John, do you love [Agapatas] me?" Peter: "Yes, Lord; you
know that I love [Phileo] you." Jesus: "Tend my sheep."
(c) Jesus: "Simon, son of John, do you love [Phileis] me?" Peter: "Lord, you know
everything; you know that I love [Phileo] you." Jesus: "Feed my sheep."
Jesus tried twice to get Peter to respond with a love that was sacrificial, like his, but Peter was only able to respond with a love that is between friends. Jesus wants our love to be like his sacrificial, overwhelming and total. But you notice that the third time he met Peter on his level, where he was. That's the way he does, he meets us where we are and comes to carry us where we have not been before. Likewise, Jesus met Paul on the Road to Damascus, and ended up taking him many places and eventually to Rome.
Sharks only grow when they have a have a large environment, if they are in an aquarium they only grow to six inches, but in the ocean they grow to eight feet or more. The same thing for the disciples, when they stayed in Galilee, they stayed six inches long, but when they were put into the whole creation, they became something great. Peter, Paul and the rest of the apostles became great because they took a message of God's love for us to the whole world. We are the inheritor's of that message and mission. Jesus met Peter and Paul where they were, beside the Sea of Galilee and on the road to Damascus. The message is urgent and is the same as it was 2000 years ago. God is saying I love you and he sent his Son with that message to tell us of that maybe the only way we would listen, by becoming the Lamb of God. Jason Tuskes was a 17-year-old high school honor student. He was close to his mother, his wheelchair-bound father and his younger brother. Jason was an expert swimmer who loved to scuba dive. He left home on a Tuesday morning to explore a spring and underwater cave near his home in west central Florida. His plan was to be home in time to celebrate his mother's birthday by going out to dinner with his family that night. Jason became lost in the cave. Then, in his panic, he apparently got wedged into a narrow passageway. When he realized he was trapped, he shed his yellow air tank and unsheathed his diver's knife. With the tank as a tablet and the knife as a pen, he wrote one last message to his family "I LOVE YOU MOM, DAD, AND CHRISTIAN." Then he ran out of air and drowned. A dying message - something communicated in the last few seconds of life - is something we cannot ignore. God's final words to us are etched on a Roman cross. They are blood red. They scream to be heard. They, too, say, "I Love you." This is the message that is confirmed in the Resurrection, that God so loved the world that he gave us his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will have eternal life, and never die.
DOCTRINAL POINTS
1. JESUS CHOOSES US: This is seen in the choice of Saul [Paul] as an Apostle even
when he had persecuted the church. When Judas had forsaken his role as an
Apostle and hung himself, the apostles cast lots to find someone to take his place.
They chose Matthias. Later we find in Acts 9 that God had chosen Paul to be the
twelfth apostle.
2. JESUS IS THE LAMB: John has a revelation of Jesus Christ, only now he
is Lamb of God. This is a picture of the throne room of God and the Lamb is
given honor and glory because he had been slain and by his blood had
ransomed saints from every tribe, language, people and nation. By his
resurrection he had become the first fruits of the servants of God who would a
kingdom unto God.
3. JESUS’ WORK IS FRUITFUL: The risen Jesus fulfills his prophecy concerning his being lifted up by drawing all to himself through the ministry of the disciples. This is symbolized in the huge catch of fish, which Peter and his helpers haul ashore. Apostolic ministry is fruitful insofar as it is Jesus’ and the Father’s work.
APPLICATION/DISCUSSION:
1. Jesus wants us to be fishers: The disciples returned to their old occupation
of fishing, Jesus wants us to be obedient to him and become fishers of
people. As John wrote he had died and was raised to ransom by his blood
many people from all over the world.
2. Jesus wants us to be fed: When the disciples arrived on shore there was
breakfast of bread and fish awaiting them. Remember the feeding of the five
thousand was with bread and fish. We need to be nourished if we are to go
out fish for people. We are to be fed on every word that proceeds from the
mouth of God. We need to feed on the written word as well as the incarnate
word [Jesus and the Eucharist].
3. Jesus wants us to be followers: He specifically went after the disciples to
them back on board the mission he had for them. He also went after
Saul of Tarsus because he knew that this was the kind of zealous man he
needed on the team. The result of all their and our efforts is the scene in the
throne room of God, There will be thousands and thousands of people there
worshipping and praising God.