15^th May 2011

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley Sunday 8 May 2011

Lessons -- Psalm 30; John 21:1-19

Now none of the disciples dared ask Jesus, 'Who are you?' They knew
it was the Lord. (John 21:12 RSV)

Many factors go to making up 'who we are': genetics, personality, family, colour, nationality, culture, religion. 'Who we are' becomes clearer to other people as they discover more about our background.

It was therefore natural that people wanted to know who Jesus was. But with him there was an extra dimension. They were perplexed because he was unlike anybody whom they had met. In Mark's Gospel Jesus asks the disciples, 'Who do you say that I am?' (Mark 8:29) Peter declares Jesus to be 'the Christ', but he misunderstands what this means so badly that Jesus then says to him, 'Get behind me Satan!'

After the crucifixion things are no clearer. When he appears in the flesh to seven of them they are bewildered. They still cannot fathom who he is.
At one level they knew it was he; at another they cannot figure him out.
'Who are you? ' they ask of a familiar figure whose presence after crucifixion defies everyday logic. More to the point, they ask 'Who are you?' to break the dread spell that evil and death cast over the earth.

The answer is that the crucified Jesus has been raised from the dead by God the Father as the sign in history of the renewal of our flawed and broken humanity (v11). Although Jesus' true identity is disclosed in a personal encounter with a few disciples, what happened in him is significant for the world.

This is made clear in that the Risen Lord shows them 'who he is' in the midst of their secular activity, by the 'Sea of Tiberias [Galilee]' (v1).
The action takes place away from the Holy City and (according to Jerome) the catch represents the entire human race, 153 being the total number of fish species known at the time.

What we have here is the equivalent of Matthew's post-Easter missionary charge to 'make disciples of all nations' (Matthew 28:19). It also reminds us of other times when Jesus called people 'to follow him'. The closest parallel is in Luke 5:1-11 where, on seeing a huge catch resulting from Jesus' instruction to try the other side of the boat, Peter says, 'Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.(v8)' There he sees that 'who Jesus is' is the Son of God whose grace alone is the power that drives the Church's mission.

Now we begin to see 'who' Jesus is -- and also 'who' we are called to be.
We can truly 'follow' him, says John, only when we see-and-believe that the earthly Jesus is the crucified-and-risen Lord of all -- that he alone is the one who 'has redeemed men and women from every nation' (Revelation 5:9).

It is a shame therefore that so many Church leaders (including some prominent preachers and theologians) reject the New Testament account of 'who Jesus is', dismissing his resurrection as a fairy tale and treating him merely as a teacher of goodwill. Although Jesus' teaching and parables are radically different from all others, it is not 'what' he teaches in itself that is important but 'who' he is: the one whose ministry led to the Cross and the empty tomb. Who he is and what he said must be held together. Jesus' teaching would not have been a source of hope if he had not been raised from the dead!

We can do our best to treat others well, contribute to the common good and share each other's joys and sorrows without believing that he is the crucified Lord of all who has triumphed over evil and death for us. But we cannot be the bearers of hope and beacons of redemptive love.

What good is it to 'do one's best' in our short time on earth if we believe that evil and death are 'normal' and that there is no hope for the renewal of the creation and the redemption of humanity? No matter how important it is to do good, we cannot ignore our part in the brokenness of the world, our inability to put things right or the fact that we must die.
To dumb-down Jesus' teaching and follow that without believing in his crucified and risen power is a recipe for false pride, resignation or despair.

The Church is summoned to say, with John, that the resurrection of the crucified Jesus is the event of hope for humanity. This incredible event is the sole purpose for our preaching, mission and ministry. We are the 'Church of the Resurrection' or we are not the 'Church of Christ' at all!
Who we are as a Christian community is determined by 'who God is' for us
and all people in the crucified-and-risen Jesus.

It is impossible to describe adequately what this incredible event means for the Church. In a way that defies everyday logic, John tells us that the Risen Jesus 'feeds' disciples, body and soul, by giving what they need
for mission even in the face of stiffest opposition (vv18,19).

Here we learn that the Christ who had fed the people body and soul during his earthly ministry still feeds them in the sacrament (vv12,13). Bread and fish were often used in early Christian art to depict celebrations of the Lord's Supper. In this post-Easter encounter John invites us to see that, astonishingly, 'communion' between Jesus and his disciples does not remain in the past (in his earthly ministry) but continues in the life of the Church.

We also learn that, as in his earthly ministry, Christ forgives the timidity of disciples and calls them to costly responsibility (vv15-19).

The exchange between Jesus and Peter is one of the most moving in Scripture. Before the crucifixion Peter was found wanting when interrogated around 'a charcoal fire' (18:15ff). Now, once more, he is interrogated around 'a charcoal fire' (21:9) -- this time by the Risen Lord after he has given them the bread and fish of 'communion'.

This is Peter's moment of redemption! The once impetuous, outspoken, 'satanic' disciple is now a broken man. Before becoming a disciple he was simply 'Simon, the son of John'. Jesus then gave him the name Simon Peter:
'Simon, the rock' (1:42). Now, though, there is no mention of being 'the rock'. Jesus addresses him three times as 'Simon, son of John' (vv15-17), the man who had not known who Christ was. He is his old self again -- a broken man who has no more illusions about his importance.

Three times Jesus asks Peter 'Do you love me' and three times the chastened Peter says 'Yes, Lord, you know that I love you' (vv15-17). The full meaning of the exchange is easily missed in the English translation of 'love'. Jesus uses the Greek word 'agape' meaning 'complete selfless commitment to another'; three times Peter uses 'philia' meaning 'deep caring for another'. In contrast to his earlier bluster, Peter is humbled before the Risen Christ. No longer is he a know-all; now he acknowledges that 'You Lord know everything; you know that I love you' (v17).

Only now, at the dawn of a new day, does Peter really know 'who Jesus is' -
- and who he is called to be. Stripped of his delusions of grandeur, Peter is now fit to 'follow Jesus'. Knowing that he is forgiven, he is ready to exercise strong pastoral leadership in the fledgling Church: to 'feed the sheep' by preaching the Gospel of the Resurrection and building up the community in the love of Christ. Now, in the light of the Resurrection, he is ready for 'costly discipleship' -- to 'follow Jesus' even to crucifixion (vv18,19).

This is a moment of redemption for the whole Church. Like Peter, we are prone to forget the magnitude of God's love and to rely on ourselves for success. Today there is much bragging about the Church's record on human rights and the environment but little enthusiasm to declare the earth- shaking reality of Jesus' Resurrection in a multi-faith society. In many quarters, it is an embarrassment.

All of us need to be shaken by the encounter of the Risen Christ with Peter and the others. Illusions about 'who we are' to further the mission of the Church must be shattered if we are to be of any use in telling the world 'who Jesus is' and shaping our life-together in response to God's forgiving love embodied in him.

If such a thing should happen -- as it did to Peter -- then we too will know that being a disciple is much more than following Jesus' teachings.
We will know that, in the person of Jesus Christ, God's costly love for us has been embodied in the midst of suffering, evil and death. And we will be delighted to preach the Resurrection of the crucified Jesus as the event of hope for the whole of humanity and to live out the Resurrection
hope even when faced with hostility, persecution or death.

We should never forget that the Church exists solely to proclaim and embody this hope for the renewal of humanity. To suggest, as many Church leaders now do, that we should ditch the Resurrection in order to appeal to 'modern' people, is both arrogant and a sad reflection on the timid state of much Church thinking. Worse than that! It is a shameful dereliction of duty in a society where, despite the cancerous effect of religious and moral relativism and atheistic secularism, men and women still yearn for hope.

It is vital therefore that we continue to say 'who Jesus is' so that you and I, and our brothers and sisters for whom Christ lived, died and was raised again, may know 'who we are called to be' in fulfilling God's high purposes for our lives.

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Rev Dr Max Champion is minister in the St John's Uniting Church, Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia. Dr Champion is Chair of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations within the UCA.