Sometime after Easter, Peter said to some of his friends, “I’m going fishing.” It was what he knew, how he could support himself if this Jesus gig didn’t work. And, at that point, he couldn’t figure out what the Jesus gig would be. The wandering seemed done. They were on the edge of something (resurrection is a big deal), but no one knew just what.

So they went fishing.

After fishing all night they had nothing.

A guy shows up on the shore. He says, “Got any fish?” – a question designed to drive frustrated fishermen absolutely nuts.

“Nope”

“Throw the net on the right side of the boat and you’ll find some.”

A stupid idea. What’s this guy know? But for some reason they did it. And got a load of fish they couldn’t get into the boat.

They figure out it’s Jesus. When they get to shore, he’s got a fire going…and already is cooking fish.

And then Jesus gets Peter back on board after the deny-three-times.

What I love about this story is that Jesus lets Peter leave  fishing on a high note. The best catch he ever had and then he goes back to Jesus. He had a clear picture that from now on, even he stayed fishing, his success was going to depend not on his own skills but on Jesus – who didn’t need Peter for breakfast fish.

Sometimes people are specifically called to abandon what they are doing and go do a similar thing for Jesus. But Jesus is gracious about it. He lets us know that he knows what’s going on better than we, he lets us know that he has sources of fish we don’t know about, and he tells us that he knows we betrayed him and he’s still open to conversation.