From Fishermen to Shepherds

 From Fishermen to Shepherds

John 21: 1-19

This past Sunday was the Third Sunday of Easter and for some the Gospel Lesson was from John 21. This is the account of Jesus meeting the disciples on the shore after they have gone back to fishing and his subsequent conversation with Peter. I have always liked this account, a natural meeting of friends along a beach in the early morning. I have previously looked at this as one more example of Jesus revealing himself after death, and or course, the significant “Do you love me” conversation with Peter. This morning, though, something else struck me. Something “hidden in plain sight” as it were. 

In the absence of Jesus and his immediate teaching and actions, in the absence of a sense of where they should go from here, the disciples returned to what they knew, to what gave them purpose prior to meeting Jesus. They went fishing. Using their talents to provide for themselves was what they (we) were trained to do. It was how one survived and provided for personal and family well-being. Re-enter Jesus, providing an abundance of fish and a breakfast of bread and fish. Then comes the conversation with Peter (with each of us), and Jesus refocuses Peter(us) from fisherman to shepherd; from ones who gather, produce, create to get what we need for our own well-being to ones who receive from God’s abundance what we need as we feed,  tend, care for others (and God’s creation). 

This line of thinking can lead us into self-examination. How do I use the resources with which I have been blessed? Am I fishing to provide for self or am I shepherding to help others? What kind of existence do I lead when I take my focus off of Jesus and revert to “what I know”, to self-interest, forgetting that God’s abundance is enough for me, forgetting that my focus should be first on God and then on others? 

Here’s the good news, Every time I fall into this fishing focus on life, there is Jesus, standing on the shore with breakfast prepared in abundance to sustain me for the work of shepherding, of feeding and tending his creation and for life in God’s community.

How will you shepherd today?