Resurrection – The Great Interruption of Normal
7th April 2024
John 21:9-19
Last week we remembered Jesus’ crucifixion.
But did you know that actually very few specific crucifixions were remembered…?
Although history records the brutal practice of crucifixion as a prevalent form of execution in the ancient world, there are almost no accounts of named victims of crucifixion.
Crucifixion was meant to dehumanise and eliminate a person.
And so, virtually all those crucified were forgotten.
So why was Jesus remembered…?
Because God raised him from death.
In his book The God Revolution, Bruce Hamill summarises what God has done in the person of Jesus, and what it means for us:
… the turning point, around which faith revolves,
lies in the experience of God presenting to the first Christians (and to us also) a life lived from a source outside of our violently structured world,
and doing so in a way that opens up a new and different kind of world.
The beautiful story is one in which Jesus of Nazareth not only understood something about God that others were blind to, he also lived his life in a startling self-abandonment of love. …
When it all "hit the fan" in a classic moment of sacrificial violence, he was brutally tortured and executed naked and in public shame.
[But] those first disciples …found themselves addressed again by the same Jesus, and welcomed into a new world in the midst of the old one.
It became for them, not the end of it all, but the beginning of something new.
(Bruce Hamill, The God Revolution, p62)
Let me repeat some of that.
Jesus shows us “…a life lived from a source outside of our violently structured world, and doing so in a way that opens up a new and different kind of world.”
The risen Jesus appeared to his disciples and welcomed them into “…a new world in the midst of the old one.”
A new world…
On Easter Sunday we remember that the Resurrection was the ‘Great Interruption’.
The Interruption of evil, hatred and death.
The Interruption of scarcity, futility and defeat.
The Interruption of brokenness, loneliness and guilt.
The Resurrection interrupts normal.
Normal died. Jesus lives.
And in him, so do we.
Resurrection life pops up right in the middle of your fears, sorrows, doubts, and guilt.
It is truly miraculous that Jesus transforms
inadequacy to acceptance;
failure to success;
scarcity into abundance.
The catch of fish by the disciples (under Jesus’ instruction) is a sign of abundance.
Life with Jesus is associated with abundance.
Do you feel a bit ‘wobbly’ - emotionally or spiritually? – there is a word of grace in this resurrection encounter.
These disciples were facing an uncertain future.
What do you do when your future is suddenly up for grabs?
When you feel adrift, "at sea."
· When you mourn the loss of a loved one,
· experience the pain of a failed marriage,
· work hard but have no financial security,
· are committed to your job, but fear its evaporation in ‘restructure’
· or feel your emotional or physical health is declining.
What did the disciples do?
They took comfort in familiar routines.
They went back to what they knew: fishing.
The resurrection interrupts them.
Jesus does not make appointments.
Jesus appears in the midst of their ordinary activities.
His appearance is an instance of pure grace,
with no strings attached.
Note that the men haul in their catch before they recognise Jesus;
they do not earn it by first declaring him Lord.
Despite their doubts, their fear, their fatigue, their failure, they follow the directions of the stranger on the beach.
Live-giving abundance flows.
On Good Friday we focused on the crowing of the rooster, signalling Peter’s denial of Jesus.
It’s important to read today’s corresponding encounter about the restoration of Peter…
(the re-calling of Peter as a disciple).
This is one of the most obvious ‘call-backs’ to a previous biblical episode,
and certainly one of the most theologically meaningful.
This Resurrection encounter interrupts the gnawing guilt within Peter.
On the beach a charcoal fire burns.
In the courtyard of the high priest, Peter denied Jesus beside such a fire.
The emphasis in this Resurrection encounter on the beach is fellowship.
Jesus restores Peter into relationship.
Jesus faces Peter and ask this personal, vulnerable question: ‘do you love me?’
It could not be more loaded, nor more simple.
It is also the only question that matters.
Jesus restores Peter into relationship – showing us all that Jesus died AND LIVES to bring us life in restored relationship.
We are not left paralysed in our guilt and shame –
we are offered the opportunity to turn from our past,
and express renewed love and devotion.
And, like Peter, we are given a commission by Jesus ‘Feed my sheep’.
Love for Jesus is connected to care for others.
To follow Jesus is to show love for others as the outworking of God’s love alive in us.
Resurrection interrupts the normal, familiar routines.
We are called to ‘follow’, which means we are called to join in God’s redeeming work;
to trust where love will take us –
God’s love for us;
and our love for God.
Let me conclude with a reflection by William Loader…
A Reflection on John 21:1-19
The blame forgotten, shame covered, Peter leapt into the sea. Where tears once drowned hope and denials became despair and self loathing, now eyes had seen that figure on the shore, that body once strung across the stained wood of execution.
A revived fishing business, the dull depression of remembered cowardice, of failed courage, bad dreams of abandonment, a deep sea of pain, now splashed with new hope.
Peter would make it to the shore.
He is risen. Peter is risen from the dead. Three times denied. Three times invited to love again by him who three times prayed his own despair and, three times mocked 'mid three crosses, in three days rose to resurrect Peter.
Peter made it to the shore.
Others made it to the shore. They ate together, a fellowship of grace and rehabilitation, of forgiveness and hope, a symbol of the persistence of divine love, also for you and me.
~ written by William Loader