If you’ve surfed the channels during a normal workday, you’ve likely encountered a variety of game shows. Family Feud, Jeopardy, the Price is Right, amongst many others. One such show is Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. If you know the show, you likely know the basic premise: someone is answering multiple choice answers, and getting closer to one million dollars each time. Yet, as they go along, the questions get harder, as the value of the question goes up. Eventually, they reach a moment where their knowledge is eclipsed- and they are stumped. What do they do? We’ve probably all got an idea- use a lifeline! We’ve seen it many times. These are usually present in many games or moments of difficulty, in something where it is designed to push you to the limit. Perhaps you want to be a millionaire, but you’ve found your mind going blank. You’re not sure where to go. You might use a mulligan during a trivia night or even during a golf tournament. Whatever it is, we might need help in!
If we expand our horizon, it’s not just about game shows in our daily life, is it? In reality, it may not take us very long to see the way that we may have lifelines or second chances in our faith life as well. We are certainly all familiar with the concept of Reconciliation, and perhaps we utilize the sacrament with some level of frequency. With that said though, what does forgiveness really look like? How do we understand our Lord’s interaction with us when we do wrong, and we need restoration back to what is right?
In the Gospel this morning, we are given a very clear account of the disciples interacting with Jesus after the Resurrection has taken place. The disciples seem a little numb with it all at that point, and they aren’t quite sure what to do. While they are sitting around, Simon Peter gets the idea to go fishing. On the surface, we can see that as some particular activity that we do ourselves to go blow off steam, or to simply get away and have some peace for a while. For Peter, this is a little different, however. This is an area of his life that he is familiar with. It is something comfortable, and so he is returning, even in spite of being told that life is going to be different after his call by Jesus. He was very clear with Peter- you are no longer going to be searching for fish, but searching for men.
Yet, in this moment, they simply go back to what was familiar. It is as if they are simply drifting about in the uncertainty of life at that time. Notice something else, though. While they are out in the water, they are doing their very craft and what they used to do for a living. They can no longer do this effectively, as we are told they catch nothing. Why have they suddenly turned into washed up fishermen? The Gospel of John tells us, and that is by the stark contrast that the appearance of Jesus makes for us. He asks them, “Children, have you caught anything?” We can likely hear the rather sorry response, “No.”
Jesus responds, and tells them to throw their nets over the other side of the boat. When they cast in the net, they could not pull in the net, because it is filled to abundance by the Lord’s own command. What this serves as for them is a very clear and concrete reminder: without the Lord, they can do nothing! With the Lord, though, they are granted heavy success! They are finally given what they seek, and what they labor for: even a simple load of fish.
The story is not finished here, however, since we are given a moment to consider another moment where one of the disciples had a point of failure and did not follow the Lord. Simon Peter, if you recall back to the story of Jesus being condemned to death, had a tremendous struggle in following the Lord. He stood outside, warming himself by a charcoal fire, and when asked if he knew Jesus, denied Him three separate times. At the very last occurrence of this, he has an emotional reaction, because he realizes what he has done: he himself has fulfilled the Lord’s own prophecy that Peter would struggle to follow Jesus three separate times before the rooster announced the morning.
This, then, is a moment for him to be restored back to where he was, because Jesus asks him a simple question three different times. “Do you love me?” While the words used to denote love vary slightly in the Greek, they all point back to a simple question- is there a love for Jesus in Peter’s heart? Now, make no mistake, this is a new chance- Jesus is offering Peter a lifeline here! “Do you love me?” Are you willing to go back and to fix the times when you said no? We know that this is a parallel, because Peter is distressed when Jesus asks Him the three times- and the third time he is filled with despair! Is Jesus even listening to what I am saying?
Well… yes, he is, in fact.
The matter at hand, while we could look back and see Peter’s failure alone, is that there is renewal. We can guess that Peter was not proud of what happened when Jesus was being condemned to death, and we know that because we observed that when it occurred, he went off, weeping bitterly. It was not a proud moment for him. Yet, Jesus gives Him a do-over. When Peter couldn’t have expected to fix that himself. He couldn’t go back and request a do-over by his own power. Who knows, perhaps Peter had a sense of the gravity of His betrayal, and because of this, he may have felt that he needed to return- that he could no longer be worthy of that place of serving the Lord. No matter what the point of failure was, he knew something was amiss.
Yet, notice: Jesus still comes to Peter. Isn’t it riveting that He does? Doesn’t it mean something that Jesus was willing to give him that chance anyway? Jesus, even in the moments when Peter may still be struggling, reaches out and asks him a simple question- do you love me? Brothers and sisters, this isn’t just a moment for Peter, but it is a moment for each one of us. When we sin, whenever we cut Jesus off, whenever we settle for our own comfort, we are in moments of betrayal. Yet, Jesus doesn’t want us to live in those alone, with no way to fix them. Rather, what Jesus is more interested in is restoration. He wants to give the apostles, especially Peter, that chance to experience the power of the Resurrection.
Are we willing to experience the power of the Resurrection ourselves? Let’s not fool ourselves- each of us have weak points and we have failures. We each have our ways that we have said in so many words, “I do not know him.” Jesus gives us the chance to experience a life-line. He wants us to go back and be able to say “Yes Lord, you know I love you!” over and over again. Life is not easy! We see in the Acts of the Apostles, the Apostles are being ordered to stop speaking Jesus’s name. They may have figured it out after that, but we do get challenged, and sometimes, we fail, or at least I know that I do. Perhaps you have that feeling as well. Sometimes, those ways are in larger ways, and perhaps even in ways that we feel that we will never fully recover from. That didn’t stop Jesus that day, however. It shouldn’t stop us either. We need to be bold in confronting the moments in life when we have done wrong. The times when we didn’t do what we should have or the times that we might have betrayed the Lord in whatever we’ve done.
This should also encourage us along, as well. We know that life is difficult in a variety of ways. Do we see it as something we have to do alone? The disciples were starting to make that mistake, and yet, if they had not returned to God, then they would not have been restored to that place where they belonged. It did take an admission on their part that they could not do it alone, but that is okay- because we really aren’t meant to ourselves. We are meant to have use for those lifelines that we have!
If we are willing to admit our mistakes we know that we can be given that place of restoration! Just like the book of Revelation, we too are given the ability to call out to the Lamb, and to not only witness His own powers and riches, but to also experience our own share in those powers and riches. They aren’t simply removed from us, but rather, are given to us again, if we but make a return to the Lord! It is not that we are stuck in a place where we cannot possibly return, but we are always given that ability.
The Lord gives us lifelines! All we have to be willing to do is cast out our nets again. Let us be the ones who, even in spite of where we have gone or what we have done, are able to say, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you!” again in a new way.
Do you hear the question? Jesus asked Simon Peter that day, and he asks it to all of us: “do you love me?” Then “follow me!”
