Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash
Easter is a mobile holiday, so it can appear on any number of dates throughout spring. This year we had a particularly late Easter.
When I told my wife that we were going to talk about “What comes after Easter” this past Sunday in the Sunday School class we lead, she looked at me with all sincerity and confusion and said, “So…Earth Day? Arbor Day? Memorial Day? Which one?”
For the record, Arbor Day does not always come after Easter since many states celebrate Arbor Day on a different day from National Arbor Day, which is the last Friday in April (you missed it). For instance, Georgia’s Arbor Day is actually the third Friday in February (you REALLY missed it).
That’s not exactly what I meant, though. See, when I said we were going to talk about what comes after Easter, I meant something else entirely.
If you’re a sports fan at all, you probably know that the NFL Draft was this past weekend. (No, that’s not the event that comes after Easter, either, even though it’s technically accurate.) When I saw highlights of this year’s draft, I was amazed at the number of grown men who were outwardly crying upon getting their names called.
When I really stopped to think about it, though, their tears made total sense. If someone handed me few million dollars in one night, I would be crying, too. But only a cynic would say its all about the money. Sure, the money matters quite a bit, especially if these guys came from poor families, but there’s also the fact that they are realizing a life-long dream.
Getting drafted by an NFL team is easily one of the most life-altering circumstances someone can possibly undergo. Especially if you’re in a high round.
When Matthew Stafford was drafted first overall in the 2009 draft, exactly 10 years ago, I remember reading a quote from one of his former UGA teammates. A week before the draft, Stafford was worried he didn’t have enough money left on a gift card to Barberito’s and that he might not be able to buy any food for lunch.
On April 24, 2009, Stafford agreed to terms with the Detroit Lions on a contract that was worth a guaranteed $41.7 MIL over six years. The contract could yield as much as $78 Million.
That’s quite a change, going from not having money for lunch to having enough money to buy a few restaurant franchises in a matter of days.
Now obviously these football players have been working their whole lives for this moment. It is a bit dishonest to say that they made their money “overnight” when they had been preparing for this exact outcome for a long time, but you see my point. That moment is the definition of life changing.
So now in typical fashion, I’m going to turn from talking about football to talking about the Bible. With Easter happening just a little more than a week ago, many of us still have the Crucifixion and the Resurrection pretty fresh on our minds. As we should.
Imagine, now, being one of the 11 remaining disciples. In the span of a week, they’ve seen Jesus exalted by all of Jerusalem, then killed on a shameful cross, then brought back to life. That’s a real roller coaster ride, isn’t it?
So what do we imagine that these guys would be doing after they’ve seen the man they followed for three years brought back from the dead? For those three years, Jesus was training them and preparing them to go out and share the Good News with everyone. He showed them countless miracles and taught them all sorts of wonderful things. So now that He has been resurrected and they’ve seen Him, what do you think they’re doing?
Later, Jesus appeared again to the disciples beside the Sea of Galilee. This is how it happened. Several of the disciples were there—Simon Peter, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples.
Simon Peter said, “I’m going fishing.”
“We’ll come, too,” they all said. So they went out in the boat, but they caught nothing all night.
John 21:1-3 (NLT)
They went fishing.
Now I’m not about to tell you that fishing is sinful. If that were true, most of the preachers I know would be the worst sinners of all. But it was a bad idea for these guys in this moment to go fishing because that’s who they were before Jesus came along. When we think about the passage in Matthew where Jesus says He will make “fishers of men,” we often think of how cool that looks on a t-shirt.
What we forget, though, is that Jesus was saying this to a group of fishermen. Guys who caught fish for a living. And that’s all they were ever going to be, until Jesus came along and gave them a better option.
In fact, in the span of Matthew 4:18-22, four of the seven disciples mentioned in John 21 are out fishing when Jesus comes to find them and urges them to become fishers of men. They were reverting back to their old life within a couple weeks of seeing the greatest miracle the world had ever known.
So why has nothing changed in their life between now and Easter? Things are exactly the same as they were before Jesus.
You don’t need me to tell you that this isn’t ideal. So I won’t.
“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field.
“Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for choice pearls. When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it!”
Matthew 13:44-46 (NLT)
The week before Easter, my son’s daycare had a fun little Easter Egg hunt for all the kids. They divided them up by age and let the toddlers go out to a field with mostly unhidden eggs. They were just dropped in the grass, with maybe a few put behind something.
“What’s this basket for? It’s not hard to carry one egg around, Mom!”
When my little boy got out there, he went kinda slow and just mulled the hunt over. He didn’t exactly get it, so as he gingerly walked to an egg, one of his classmates would swoop in and take it. Finally, with Dad throwing a block, our little guy found his way to one egg. And that was enough for him.
He grabbed up his purple egg and snuggled it and cherished it. That egg was all he wanted, and we could not convince him to worry about any of the others.
Even though I was a little sad that he only got one egg, I loved watching him cherish his one special egg. He had found what he wanted and that was it. Nothing else mattered.
Jesus is telling His audience the exact same thing in Matthew 13, saying that the Kingdom of Heaven is worth abandoning everything else. Even fishing.
The disciples don’t understand this yet. Without Jesus there to encourage them, they just sit around and go back to their old lives.
What happens next in this story is pretty interesting. Jesus calls out to them from the shore towards morning, after they’ve gone all night without catching a fish, and then He tells them to try casting their net from the other side. When they do, the disciples catch more than 150 large fish.
At this point, John recognizes Jesus and Peter jumps in the water to swim to shore. I especially love how John points out that they were just 100 yards from shore when Peter did this and that he didn’t help haul the overly heavy net in.
But when they all get to shore and sit down, Paul has something of a sobering moment.
After breakfast Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” Peter replied, “you know I love you.”
“Then feed my lambs,” Jesus told him.
Jesus repeated the question: “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
“Yes, Lord,” Peter said, “you know I love you.”
“Then take care of my sheep,” Jesus said.
A third time he asked him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question a third time. He said, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Then feed my sheep.
“I tell you the truth, when you were young, you were able to do as you liked; you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will dress you and take you where you don’t want to go.” Jesus said this to let him know by what kind of death he would glorify God. Then Jesus told him, “Follow me.”
John 21:15-19 (NLT)
There’s an obvious significance to this moment here. Jesus asks Peter three times whether or not Peter loves Him. The morning before Jesus was crucified, Peter had thrice denied that he even knew Jesus. Yes. I said thrice.
Did Jesus need to hear Peter say this? Did Jesus not know what Peter would say? If we believe that Jesus is God, and God is all-knowing, then we know that Jesus didn’t need to hear Peter say it. Jesus knew. But you know who did need to hear this? Peter.
Jesus gave Peter a chance to remind himself that he loved Jesus. He gave Peter a chance to forgive himself.
Now we have to be careful with that phrase “forgive himself,” because we can’t forgive ourselves of anything in the cosmic sense. That’s why we need salvation. But we can let go of a grudge against ourselves in the same way we can let go of a grudge against someone else. And if God calls us to forgive others just as He has forgiven us, then we should also be willing to forgive ourselves of previous mistakes.
If the God of the universe isn’t going to hold it against us, what right do we have holding it against ourselves?
So one problem Peter had that kept him from rushing out and following Jesus was that he probably felt unworthy. He probably felt like he didn’t deserve to follow Jesus anymore because of his sins. But there’s another issue that Peter has.
Peter turned around and saw behind them the disciple Jesus loved—the one who had leaned over to Jesus during supper and asked, “Lord, who will betray you?” Peter asked Jesus, “What about him, Lord?”
Jesus replied, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? As for you, follow me.” So the rumor spread among the community of believers that this disciple wouldn’t die. But that isn’t what Jesus said at all. He only said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?”
John 21:20-23 (NLT)
Just so we’re clear, John uses the phrase “The disciple Jesus loved” as an epithet for himself throughout this Gospel. John and Peter are clearly the two top disciples, right? They are the two we talk about most, at least, outside of Judas.
And Peter is jealous of John. He wants to know what Jesus has planned for John, especially after Jesus has given Peter the sobering message that he will be executed for his faith.
Peter says, “What about him?” And Jesus says, “Who cares? Do what I said.” (That’s a paraphrase, obviously.)
It’s easy and tempting to look at people and say, “What about them?” When we think about famous Christians, especially, we want to say, “I want to be rich and love Jesus, too. Can I be rich and love Jesus?” After all, if that guy gets to do it, why can’t I?
But Jesus will say the same thing to you that He says to Peter here: “Follow me.”
We can’t let our jealousy be the thing that stands in the way of our following Christ. When Jesus calls us to follow Him, we need to do it, no matter what the outcome. Even if it means we aren’t doing what we deem to be the more favorable calling that God has given someone else, we need to obey.
Just so we’re clear, this is not a guy I want to be anything like.
I’m going to confess here that this is something I struggle with quite a bit. There are always people I see out there doing what I want to be doing, and I say, “God, why am I not in that position?” But it’s not for me to know. It’s just for me to obey.
So what’s different after Easter? The episode recounted here in John 21 is the third time that the disciples saw Jesus after He was resurrected. And yet they still needed that one extra push from Jesus to get up and do what He had called them to do.
To translate that same question into what it means for us is essential. What has changed in your life since your own “Easter?” Since you met Jesus and you were changed by Jesus, what has changed? I’m not just talking about sin, as important as it is. How are you living for Christ now? What are you doing now that’s different from what you did before?
If we’ve been saved by Christ, then we can’t just go back to who we were. We can’t just go back to the old life we lived before. And we can’t let jealousy or shame keep us from honoring Christ. His words to Peter are the same words He would give us now: “Follow me.”
We could take the entire New Testament and Old Testament and boil them down into those two words. So let’s do it. Let’s follow Christ.