Jesus Leaves no Unfinished Business

Jesus Leaves no Unfinished Business: John 21

One of the leading doctors in the world, a doctor at the London Chest Hospital said these words – “If there was a time we could say this is a miracle, it is now. This is a miracle”. This was in reference to the one event that captured the entire sporting world. It united friend and foe in the sporting fraternity. It was the sudden collapse of Fabrice Muamba who is a young footballer born in Congo and playing his football in the English Premier League. I was following the event from the moment it happened with my sister in law who is a doctor. And when the doctors announced that technically Fabrice Muamba had been dead for 78 minutes, even she agreed that it was a miracle.

This week Fabrice Muamba walked his first steps of his new life, so to speak. But I wonder what those steps entail. I wonder what his conversations are. I wonder whether there was any unfinished business that he had with anyone on and off the field. I wonder whether there was any unfinished business someone had with him. And how will those 78 minutes change his life? How would those 78 minutes change your life if it were you?

We celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, an event that has defined world history.  This actual event was a week of a lifetime for a man who had been close to Jesus for his last three years. A trusted lieutenant of the Lord, he mostly got things right. At the last and most critical moment, Simon Peter denied the Lord three times.

But I want to say today that with the Lord there is no unfinished business.  What did this mean then for Peter in this distressed week.

Confrontation.

John 21 begins by saying that Jesus appeared again to His disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. The number of previous visits is alluded to when v 14 says “This was now the third time Jesus appeared to His disciples after He was raised from the dead”. For you this may be a casual statement but I can imagine what it must have meant for Peter. With each appearance He must have wondered, “Is this it”. When the Lord finally confronts Peter what was it like. First, He does not rebuke him for going back fishing. Instead the Lord graciously concludes what was a failed return from retirement with a successful result – a great haul of fish. When Peter discovers it is the Lord, he does not even bother to wait for the boat. He heads straight to the shore. He knows that at the shore lies another opportunity to start things all over again. He must have remembered the woman caught in adultery and how Jesus treated her. He must have remembered Zaccheus who always short-changed people and how that day he became a changed man. And the resurrection of Christ offered him a similar chance. As it does indeed for each of us.

What Peter finds is a breakfast waiting for Him done by the Lord Himself. That must have blown his mind and that of the other disciples. For what Jesus longs to do is to confront you with His love, the love He demonstrated on the cross – expressed in His words in John 15: 13, “Greater love has no one than this; to lay done one’s life for friends”.  The basis of His confrontation is always His love for you, so that a song I heard long ago says, “Its your kindness that leads us to repentance O Lord. Knowing that you love us, no matter what we do. And makes us want to love you too”. And make us want to love the life you have put in us and therefore to be good stewards of God’s LIFE in our lives. That is the goal of Christ’s confrontation. It is the goal of Christ’s resurrection.

Restoration

Simon Peter knew it was coming. Indeed as I have already said, he was hoping for it to happen and be done with. Two times Jesus had appeared and had said nothing. But now after a rather somber breakfast, they must have pulled off to one side and the conversation began. The Lord asks Peter three times whether he loves Him. Most commentators say, and as I have previously preached that the three times this was asked was symbolic because it cancelled the three times Peter denied the Lord before the cock crowed. True as that may be, my recent reading of this encounter raised some questions. These questions were in light of another disciple as seen in these verses leading to this encounter (20:2, and 21:7). In these verses, this disciple is referred to in proximity to Peter as the one that Jesus loved.

Could this have disturbed Peter? Could this have driven him to the bravado and brashness that characterised him? Was he trying, when he attempted to walk on water to prove something to Jesus? Was it the same when he chopped off the ear of the soldier who came to arrest Jesus, and many such incidents before this? So much so that the only question that Jesus asked was “Do you love me?” It hurt so much when He asked this a third time that he cried in reply – “Lord you know all things. You know that I love you”.

The resurrection of Christ means that He lives. And He lives for blunderers like Simon Peter and I; people who love the Lord but are insecure in our love for Him. We try so hard to serve the Lord so as to gain His approval and to prove that we love Him. Jesus seemed to have been content with the response that Peter gave – Lord you know all things, until Peter’s final blunder in 20: 20 (read). Once again he compares himself in this discussion with the disciple whom Jesus loved  –  to which Jesus’ response is basic and true – “what does it mean to you  how I deal with other people. You follow me”. The resurrection of Christ offers us another opportunity to follow Him just as we are – blunders and all and even when we feel others are more loved. You follow Him to find the way, the truth and to live the LIFE. You follow Him.