In the Beginning: The Book of John

(John 21:10-14 [HCSB])

10 “Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught,” Jesus told them. 11 So Simon Peter got up and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish — 153 of them. Even though there were so many, the net was not torn.

12 “Come and have breakfast,” Jesus told them. None of the disciples dared ask Him, “Who are You? ” because they knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came, took the bread, and gave it to them. He did the same with the fish.

14 This was now the third time Jesus appeared7 to the disciples after He was raised from the dead.

Breakfast with Jesus

Jesus appears to the Disciples a third time and does something very mundane: He invites them to breakfast on the seashore bright and early in the morning. How wonderfully God-like to do the practical thing. Flat bread and fish would have been the standard fare as John tells us in verse 13. Tilapia, a fish we are probably serving at our own supper tables, may very well have been what Jesus served since it is indigenous to that area even today.

Theologically, the language that Jesus uses, when he offers His followers bread, seems reminiscent of the Last Supper. We find a familiar tone suggesting the prospect of redemption. No matter the mistakes, spiritual status was renewed around a fire on the shores of the Sea of Galilee at sunrise. What a beautiful image. What hope!

“Take and eat; this is My body. What once was broken is now made whole. Take and eat and be made whole again.” (my interpretation; this is not Scriptural)

I think it is worth repeating that when Jesus appeared to His Disciples and others, after His resurrection, He was not a phantom or an apparition. Jesus “appeared” as a living being breathing and eating … totally alive!

What we are to take away from this passage, and others like it is simple. We are to accept specific references to Jesus and His earthly ministry as literal: 153 fish in a net is literally the number of fish the net held, and is not symbolic. Jesus and His miraculous ministry before and after the resurrection are not narrative license or metaphor. They recount God’s gift to us in the person of Jesus Christ, and yes they are absolutely supernatural. John provides a literal account to illustrate the reality of God in the flesh.