1^st May 2013

Rev Clive Skewes, at St John's UCA Mt Waverley Sunday 14 April 2013

Scholars often wonder if the 21st chapter of John was originally part of the Gospel. There is a certain ring of finality in the concluding sounds of chapter 20. Yet all the manuscripts of John's Gospel include chapter 21. There is no existing manuscript which leaves out chapter 21. So what do we make of this chapter?

John begins his Gospel with a Prologue in which he is aware that he is writing a new Genesis One, in which Good Friday corresponds to the sixth day of creation when God completed and brought to its full fruition all his work - hence the cry of Jesus 'It is finished'; Easter Saturday corresponds to the Sabbath when God rested; and Easter Sunday, the first day of the New Creation, or what some writers have called the Eighth Day.

This framework, along with John's use of 'fulfilment' language in the second part of his Gospel indicates the author is claiming to have brought Israel's Scripture to its final goal. John knows he is writing Scripture.
Indeed he tells us that his Gospel has been written that we may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that believing we may have life through his name. The Prologue is embodied, takes on flesh and blood, in the Gospel action, particularly in the trial and death of Jesus.

Balancing the Prologue is an Epilogue which Professor Sherri Brown and others argue is what John 21 is. This epilogue presents the consequences of the events in chapter 20. So chapter 21 is full of transformations (NT
Wright) which spread throughout the scene. Already Thomas' confession of Jesus, 'My Lord and my God', indicates the transformation of Jewish monotheistic worship from within. Now in Chapter 21 fruitless fishing becomes a sudden morning surprise. Peter's denials are transformed into stumbling affirmations of love and loyalty. Jesus' questions are turned into commissions; feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep. Finally vocation itself is transformed. Peter will glorify God by his own martyrdom. What more natural, what more utterly challenging, than the simple command, 'Follow me'? What are these transformations but of the signs of the new creation revealed through the bodily resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday. By these means John brings the Gospel story beyond its conclusion in chapter 20 into the time of the readers.

To sum up: John's writing encompasses the beginning of all things in the mind of God in eternity to the yet-to-be revealed future we all face. His Gospel does not end with trumpets of victory and a loud final 'Amen' at the Empty Tomb because there is much more to come. So his last words project us forward into that future as witnesses and as the new community of God.

Sherri Brown argues that John realises the future of the new 'Jesus movement' will be in nations and cultures that know little or nothing of Judaism, the Old Testament or its rituals. One of the ways he prepares us for communicating our message in this new situation is by writing a Gospel that assumes the basic covenant relationship between God and his people without ever using the word 'covenant'. Instead he uses words like 'know', 'truth' and 'believe' and 'love' as currency for the new largely Gentile environment.

Jesus manifests himself one final time to his disciples. The use of the word 'manifest' indicates this is a theophany of God's presence among the disciples.

Seven of the disciples go out fishing at the instigation of Peter. The last time he instigated anything in the gospel was his abortive intervention at the arrest of Jesus. That finished up in him warming himself by a charcoal fire with the enemies of Jesus in the court of the high priest. Peter, in denying Jesus there, was thrown from his former self-understanding being sure he could lay down his life for Jesus.

Now Peter, having broken the covenant relationship he had accepted from Jesus, has returned to his old occupation of fishing. The rest of the chapter focuses on restoring the covenant relationship between Jesus and Peter, and sets Peter in his role of pastoral authority over the community of Jesus' flock.

Before that happens, Jesus affirms the nature of that community that is later called the faithful, the assembly, or the Church.

After a long night of failure, morning breaks to reveal Jesus standing on the shore. He addresses his disciples as 'children'. The same words were used in the covenant renewal of chapter 13 where the disciples were characterised as 'his own' and Jesus called them 'children'. 'Children'
does not mean 'infantile' but is part of the characterisation of the people of God in the Old Testament as 'the family' or 'kindred' of the Lord God. It is a reminder of our preciousness to God our Father, our privilege and status, our closeness to him, as well as our utter dependence on him. Identifying the covenant community as the children of God sets the stage for the wondrous catch and the renewal to come.

The Beloved Disciple is the one in John who witnesses and gives access to the other disciples. He is the first to recognise Jesus: 'It is the Lord!'
Peter, in keeping with his earnest zeal, gets dressed and jumps into the sea in an effort to get to Jesus. As they reach the land, Peter returns to the boat on Jesus' command to haul ashore the amazing catch of fish in the unbroken net.

The abundance of fish reminds us of the abundance of wine at the wedding in Cana (chapter 2) and the abundance of food in the miracle Jesus provided of the loaves and fishes (chapter 6) and indicates the fullness and inclusiveness of the Church through God's gift. Some argue that the number of fish, 153, paralleling the number of then-known nations, signifies the universal character of the mission of the community bringing into one the children of God scattered over the earth. The unbroken net indicates the unity of the community in the new life given by Jesus. 'The risen Jesus, the giver of new life, comes to make efficient and effective the work of the disciples. The motif of abundance brings home the presence of the messianic era and signals the actualisation of the new messianic covenant community.' (RM Chennattu, Johanine Discipleship.)

Having signalled the universal nature of the Church and its mission, Jesus now deals with authority in the inclusive Church. Roman Catholics would claim to see here the establishment of the primacy of Peter and evidence for the claim that he was the first Pope. But the primacy of the Bishop of Rome only evolved in later centuries. Also, what we find in Acts is that James is the early leader of the Church. John is using this passage about Peter for teaching about the authority of leadership, the same as he uses the Beloved Disciple, John, for teaching about witness, the paradigm for discipleship in the Church.

The charcoal fire prepared by Jesus calls to mind two things: (1) Peter's last scene of covenant breach with Jesus, and (2) their earlier final meal together before Jesus' passion. And this meal calls to mind similar covenant meals in the Old Testament: Abraham's treaty with Abimelech in Genesis 26; Jacob's treaty with his uncle, Laban, in Genesis 31; Moses ratifying the covenant with Israel before they entered Canaan in Exodus 24; and at the writing of the Law in Deuteronomy 24.

All seven disciples are present at the meal on the seashore, but the focus is on Peter. Jesus confronts Peter at every stage in the narrative, upsetting his equilibrium and challenging him to make decisions and take new action. That is the nature of the Gospel!

Jesus' question put to Peter three times, 'Do you love me?', restructures Peter's three-time denial into a binding relationship with consequences for leadership and mission. Jesus, using the phrase 'more than these'
probably means 'more than these things', is questioning Peter's love for him compared with his love for other things. That includes his former way of life, especially, I think, even his own skin. But Peter no longer takes confidence from his own self-understanding. Peter, like all of us, can only trust in Jesus' total understanding of him, and the power of that grace of Jesus, from whose fullness we have all received. Those who enter into covenant with God face an absolute claim for love which is set over against everything else. Only God, who makes the claim, can enable us to meet the claim: 'Lord, you know all things: you know that I love you.'

Having reconciled the breached relationship between Peter and himself through his threefold question and Peter's threefold response, Jesus sets out the terms of Peter's mission to serve the new covenant community. He is to feed and tend the flock, which is what God's shepherds were always called to do. Leadership is pastoral, as the new Pope Francis has set out to demonstrate. Peter's journey then comes to an end as Jesus calls for his obedience and implicates Peter's eventual crucifixion in parallel with Jesus' own: 'Follow me.'

What of the Beloved Disciple? The Gospel writer must address the destiny and mortality of the disciple whom Jesus loved, the one who has journeyed and abided with Jesus throughout the Gospel story. In the 1st Century there soon arose questions about the pastoral role in authority and the testimonial role of discipleship. These roles do not have to be incorporated in one person. They can be, but usually are not. The best disciple is not necessarily the shepherd of the community. So in this gospel these roles are embodied in two separate characters: Peter and the Beloved Disciple. The writer then concludes his account by attesting to the Gospel's limitless nature. He speaks in the first person and sends us, his readers, into the world and our shared future as the new covenant community of God, children living in the love and faith of Jesus.

A charge adapted from CH Spurgeon, Following Christ: I charge you all in these evil days, keep close to Jesus. Follow him with the utmost care, reverence and love. Follow him with intense ardour and with all your heart, soul and strength - and make that the one thing for which you live.
Do not let anything divert you from the straight path of obedience to your Lord, for to that you are called above everything else. If people come to you and talk about progressive thinking and reconstructing moral limits; if people want you to re-invent yourselves into a group of social activists and professional dissenters, or offer you novel spiritual paths to self-fulfilment, telling you to get up to date, stand firm to this - that you will follow Christ wherever he leads.

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References: GIFT UPON GIFT - Covenant through Word in the Gospel of John:
Professor Sherri Brown.
Reflections on Bible Readings, Year C: NT Wright.
RM Chennattu: Johanine Discipleship.

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Rev Clive Skewes is Assistant Minister in St John's Uniting Church, Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia.

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