John 21:1-19

Year C - Easter³ or Assured³

April 10, 2016

John 21:1-19

In Luke the Disciples know up front that they are shifting from fishing for fish to “fishing for people”. The rest of the story is in practise of how to “care for people”. 

In John disciples just shift from Baptizer John to Jesus. The disciples are shown how to care for people. It isn’t until the end of John that we have a reprise of the Lucan call.

Fishing for fish isn’t always easy, even for locals who know the territory. Jesus called out to unsuccessful fishermen to break the pattern they had set up and fish from the other side of the boat. In this shift, a new vision comes. This gets concretized in Luke with “fishers of people” and in John with a ritualized encounter between Jesus and Peter—

Do you love me more than you love fishing?

     Yes.

          Feed lambs/children.

Do you love me?

     Yes.

          Care for my sheep/people.

Do you love me?

     YES!

          Fish for people.

And so it goes around and around:

     Fish/Care —> learn how to do this —> fish/care —> learn more —> fish care ...