Christ the King- Epiphany, Wilbraham MA
John 21; 1-19
Michael Hamilton
May 4, 2025
Please pray that the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts is pleasing and acceptable to God. Amen. (pbs)
I remember my college course of Art, Literature, and English Composition which required watching a few movies, reading a few books, and listening to a piece of music then writing a different type of composition about each. It was a great class, but it also conflicted with all of the other work that needed to be done so when I discovered Cliff Notes on Shakespear’s play on King Lear, I grabbed them. I suppose Cliff Notes still exist but if you are unfamiliar with them, they were a concise retelling of the story but included information, comparisons, and meanings behind what was being read. They were amazingly helpful in making sense of the Elizabethan language I was being introduced to.
Chapter 21 of John’s Gospel is a little bit like Story Hour at the local library with a blend of Cliff Notes. It is story hour because so many parallel stories, and loosely hidden meanings, are nestled into 19 lines of verse to give the encapsulated message of John’s gospel as well as then revealing the relationships and important facts that are necessary to understand and finish the book. Look at the imagery that was used-
- The fishermen catch nothing all night until told to put out the net again vs. the original calling of Peter, Andrew, James and John all called to be fishers of men.
- Peter is naked and clothes himself when he realizes it is Jesus vs Adam covering his nakedness in his shame for sinning when he heard God’s voice in the garden.
- Fish cooking on charcoal fire with bread vs the feeding of 5000 on that same body of water, the communal meal of the last supper where Jesus supplies and distributes the food, the charcoal fire that burned in the inner courtyard where Peter denied knowing Jesus three times.
- Jesus asks for the first time if Peter loves Him more than these… Open Parenthesis ‘more than these’, it is not a competition of who is greater or loves more, but a question if Peter is all in, is without reservation, able to make a full commitment and Peter says that he is, Closed Parenthesis. In the Cliff notes we see a footnote which compares Peter’s honesty of answering Jesus face to face, “you know I love you” to the answer given to a servant girl asking a question and Peter denied knowing Jesus. Returning to the text, Jesus tells Peter, ‘Feed my lambs’- we see an asterisks of meaning to demonstrate that feed my lambs also means to support the young, the helpless, and those less able to protect themselves.
- Now, I am not sure about you, but when I hear my full name, Walter Michael Hamilton called out, it meant one of two things- and one of them was not good. How do you think Peter felt when Jesus asked for a second time, “Simon Peter Son of John, do you love me?” I imagine the hairs on the back of Peter’s neck were standing up, his heart was racing, and he began to sweat, but answered, “Yes LORD, you know that I love you” and fearing the worst and expecting a punishment or rebuke but instead, Peter hears, “Take care of my sheep.” The Cliff Notes would now have an annotation that Peter had not felt as weak kneed and nauseated as he did in that moment since answering the second woman that stated, “you too are Galilean, surely you were with Him” and Peter proclaiming “I do not know that man.” End of notation.
- The other time that I expect my full name to be used is when I am swearing an oath or taking on a contractual obligation such as, “I, Walter Michael Hamilton swear to tell the truth, the whole truth” type of oath, or “I, Walter Michael Hamilton promise to pay the bank a gazillion dollars for this mortgage over the next 30 years.” So aside from the inquisition that Peter was worrying about, ‘Simon Peter Son of John do you love me?’ and in answering in the affirmative, Peter is swearing to accept the responsibility of “feeding the sheep” of the Good Shepherd that is about to leave the flock. Skipping ahead to the bolded lettering of the Cliff Notes, we now realize that Peter has professed his commitment and love of Jesus in equal proportion to the times he denied knowing Jesus. Peter has sworn he is all in and fully committed to the task at hand and he is willing to be the rock on which Jesus utilizes to continue to build the community of believers that are about to come forth. It is also noted in italics “you will stretch out your hands and they will be bound, and you will be led to where you do not want to go” was the fine print of the contract that Jesus wanted Peter to realize. This shepherd job was not a place of easy living, but rather, in time, you too will face the fate that you desperately tried to avoid that night in the courtyard. You too will be misunderstood, hated, and persecuted for encouraging others to love one another, serve one another, and to lift up the downtrodden. After carefully reviewing the contract and commitment Jesus asks Peter, and each of us, to sign our name on that imaginary line; I Simon Peter son of John do solemnly swear, and I Walter Michael Hamilton do solemnly swear, and you Joanne Annibell Matilda Edwina LaPlante do solemnly swear, and you, (please state your full name), do solemnly swear, to Follow Jesus.
- The Librarian reading the passage to us finishes with, “and they lived happily ever after once the kingdom arrived, but until then, the people that signed that contract lived out their lives feeding lambs and sheep, caring for the wounded, the lonely, and the hungry, and welcoming other lost beings into the fold as they awaited the return of the Good Shepherd.” Part of that commitment was to make space for the especially difficult ewes, the obnoxious rams, and the unwanted black sheep and scape goats too. “The End.”
That would be a good place to end the reading if this were a story of people long ago in a land far away that doesn’t demand our attention today. But, we know that the living WORD of the gospel is speaking to us too. At times, it is easy to see the disciples as being clueless. We know that they experienced the resurrection on Easter, have seen the risen Christ twice, they received the Holy Spirit, and yet, they found themselves lost, fearful, and without direction. Seemingly in a depressed state, they return to their old ways and go fishing. It’s almost comical, but these professional fishermen never caught a single fish in all of the bible without the intercession of Jesus. Invited to breakfast with fish already cooking on the grill, Jesus tells the disciples to bring some of the fish that they just caught, and I think that is significant. It wasn’t that Jesus didn’t, or couldn’t, provide enough fish, but more importantly, it was the invitation for the disciples to bring what they had to the meal. With Jesus about to depart, the ongoing mission was going to require each believer to bring what they could to the work that needed to be done, and that contribution would augment what God was already going to provide.
It is too easy to think that we are wiser than the disciples, that we would have been better at it, that we would have recognized Jesus, we would have done more, we would have…. (fill in the blank). But I think we delude ourselves, or at least I do, because I too just experienced the resurrection of Jesus at Easter, I’ve received the Eucharist and partaken in the body and blood shed for me, and I have also received the Holy Spirit but even so, I am not sure that my daily life reflects any of these profound moments as I too have returned to my ‘old ways’, and I’ve been lax in bringing what I can to the work that we have been given to do. If you find yourself thinking the same thing, then I invite you to pray with me to begin again. God doesn’t need another contract with us but for my own commitment to the work in front of me I will pray, “I Walter Michael Hamilton am asking the Holy Spirit to direct me to living fully into the dreams, desires, and mission that the Resurrected Christ would have me do.”
Amen.