Breakfast on the Beach

Some days after Thomas saw the scars, the friends of Jesus walked north to Galilee, back to the lake where most of them had grown up. Jesus had told them he would meet them there.

One evening Peter stood up. "I'm going fishing."

"We'll come too," said the others. There were seven of them: Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, James and John, and two more.

They fished all night and caught nothing.

As the sky turned gray, a man stood on the beach. "Children," he called, "haven't you caught any fish?" (Seven grown men with beards, and he called them children.)

"No!" they shouted back.

"Throw your net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some."

They did, and at once the net was so heavy they could not pull it in.

John stared at the net, then at the shore. "It's the Lord!"

Peter grabbed his coat, put it on, and jumped into the sea. (Most people take their coat off to go swimming. Peter was in a hurry.) The others followed in the boat, dragging the net about a hundred steps to land.

On the sand they smelled smoke. Jesus had a charcoal fire going, with fish cooking on it and bread beside it.

Peter knew that smell. On the night Jesus was arrested, Peter had warmed his hands at a charcoal fire in a courtyard. Three times people asked if he was Jesus' friend, and three times Peter said, "I don't know him!" Then a rooster crowed. The next day Jesus was nailed to a cross, and he died. On the third day he rose again.

"Bring some of the fish you just caught," said Jesus.

Peter hauled the net up onto the beach. It held a hundred and fifty-three big fish, and the net did not tear. (Somebody counted every one. Fishermen always count.)

"Come and have breakfast," said Jesus. Nobody dared ask, "Who are you?" They knew. Then he handed them the bread and the fish.

When they had eaten, Jesus turned to Peter. "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?"

"Yes, Lord. You know that I love you."

"Feed my lambs."

Again: "Simon son of John, do you love me?"

"Yes, Lord. You know that I love you."

"Take care of my sheep."

A third time: "Simon son of John, do you love me?"

Peter's face crumpled. Three questions, beside a charcoal fire. "Lord, you know everything," he said. "You know that I love you."

"Feed my sheep," said Jesus. Then he told Peter that when he was old, other people would tie him up and take him where he did not want to go. Jesus was telling Peter how he would die.

"Follow me," Jesus said.

A charcoal fire burns out by lunchtime, and Peter was still Peter. Later he got things wrong again, and a friend had to set him straight. But he never again said he did not know Jesus. He fed the sheep for the rest of his life, telling crowds about Jesus and writing letters to Christians far away. When he was old, he was killed for following Jesus, just as Jesus had said on the beach.

This was the Lord that Peter followed. He lit the same kind of fire Peter had failed beside, and he cooked the fish himself. Then he handed his sheep to the friend who had said, "I don't know him!" Soon Jesus would return to his Father, and he was leaving his flock with people he had forgiven.