Come and Eat Breakfast

Today's reading: 1 Chronicles 23-24; John 21


John 21:12 Jesus said to them, "Come and eat breakfast." Yet none of the disciples dared ask Him, "Who are You?" --knowing that it was the Lord.

The disciples had followed Peter out to the sea to go fishing. It had probably been 3 1/2 years since they'd done that and now that Jesus was gone it seemed like a better option than waiting around doing nothing. They had fished all night and all they had to show for it was empty nets but before long a stranger appeared on the beach and told them to put their nets back in the water on the opposite side of the boat and when they did their nets were overwhelmed with fish. It must have been at this point that the memories of a similar thing that had happened before when Jesus told them to do it with the same results. It was then that they knew it was Jesus and they learned a valuable lesson, they couldn't do anything without Jesus, even something they already knew how to do.

They learned something else about Jesus that day, He liked to eat with them. On two occasions after the resurrection Jesus ate with the disciples. The first time He did it to prove He wasn't a ghost, this time it seems it was just to have fellowship with them. He saw what was happening and that they were trying to return to their old life to see if they could get by without Jesus and He showed them they couldn't, but instead of a lecture or a tongue lashing about their lack of faith, Jesus instead wants to eat and spend time with them. We often think that when we stray and get off track that Jesus gets mad and want's to punish us but that's not what He does. Jesus calls us back to Himself so that we can get back on track.