In the Easter season,
from Easter Day to Pentecost,
we reflect on the presence of the risen Lord,
and we rejoice in His presence.
Our reflection is stimulated by the accounts of the extraordinary,
difficult to describe,
experience of Jesus’ followers,
like today’s gospel.
But our real focus is His presence with us now,
in our own lives,
in our Christian communities, in the 21st century.
Christians are, exactly, members of the community that knows
that Jesus is risen because they encounter Him in their midst.
Eastertide is the time to look again at who we are and where we are,
The time to look and listen for the signs of Jesus’ presence among us.
John’s gospel is layered with meaning.
Its stories have a much wider significance than may appear on the surface.
That is true of today’s Gospel,
which comes from the closing chapter of the gospel.
In this chapter,
the evangelist intended his original hearers to reflect
on what it is like to be the community of Jesus’ followers,
on His risen presence with us
on our recognition of it,
on what it means to be Church.
In John’s account of the last supper, the passion and the resurrection.
‘the beloved disciple’,
or ‘the disciple Jesus loved’, figures at critical moments,
often along with Peter.
The beloved disciple sits next to Jesus at the last supper,
and Peter gets him to ask Jesus who will betray him.
The beloved disciple is with Mary at the foot of the cross
(Peter is, we infer, not there),
so close Jesus can speak to him: ‘this is your mother’
and from that moment he made a place for her in his home.
The beloved disciple and Peter race to the tomb
in response to Mary of Magdala’s news on Easter morning.
The beloved disciple gets there first,
looks inside and sees the grave cloths but no body,
but does not go in: presumably frightened.
Peter arrives, goes in first,
‘the beloved disciple’ follows him, and believes.
It is completely clear that ‘beloved disciple’
was a leading member of the community from which this gospel emerged
and that he had shared his stories and reflections with them.
Following tradition, let’s call the beloved disciple ‘John’,
identifying him with the John who wrote the Gospel and some letters.
There is a rich strand of theological reflection
on the way certain New Testament people capture aspects of the Church and its nature.
The principle people with these roles are
Jesus’ mother Mary, John the beloved disciple,
Peter , and Paul.
In a sense they are different personalities of the Church:
each is a gift to the Church as a whole
and for the Church as a whole.
They represent different perspectives,
different attributes,
within the Church.
In our tradition especially, Peter is ‘unifying order’,
the organized leadership which no group of any size can exist without.
John is ‘the beloved’,
the personal, direct, deep knowledge of God’s love shown in Jesus.
These ‘beloved disciple’ passages encourage a meditation on these two perspectives,
represented by Peter and John, in the Church:
The evangelist intends us to do exactly this.
Today, Peter decides to go fishing
and the rest decide to follow him.
This, quite deliberately, identifies Peter as the leader.
Of course we are not supposed to think this is about fishing,
the evangelist expects us to think of the Church in the World:
about our mission to share Jesus’ life with everyone.
So they go fishing, following Peter.
And this fishing expedition is a drawn-out failure.
This happens in the dark, another significant sign in John.
A new day dawns. It is light.
And Jesus directs operations, from the shore
but they do not yet know it is him,
the apostles cast their nets again
without knowing exactly who they are obeying.
And they have great success.
At this success, the beloved disciple says to Peter
‘It is the Lord’.
We are supposed
to notice that it is the beloved disciple
who recognises and overtly acknowledges
the presence of Jesus directing the group
and tells Peter.
The grace of
‘seeing the Lord’ directing the community
is not ‘ordered’,
it is not ‘organized’,
rather it comes from being loved,
being the beloved,
from that deep and personal relationship.
and it must be spoken of,
the beloved disciple must say what he sees.
Once told it is the Lord,
Peter reacts with gusto, with embarrassing enthusiasm,
and seems to neglect the task in hand,
running nearly naked to the shore.
But, when Jesus asks for the fish,
he jumps back into action,
leading again,
and gets to work pulling the net in.
Then they all share a meal
provided by
and served by
Jesus
But still Jesus’ presence is mysterious:
he is not recognisable
(otherwise the question they don’t ask ‘who are you?’ wouldn’t be a sensible)
and yet, simultaneously, he is recognisable.
The evangelist intends us to hear this as a reference to the Eucharist.
So, this gospel points to two places to look
for the abiding presence of the risen Lord in Church, in the Christian community:
the first is when we see Christians truly embracing the world (the fish)
the second is when we gather for Eucharist.
These are the places where we will find ourselves thinking,
and perhaps sometimes even saying:
‘It is the Lord’….’It is the Lord’…
And with the heavenly hosts….
to him be all praise honour glory and power, for ever and ever. Amen