A short easter post
Jesus cooks breakfast, Peter gets restored and the disciples wonder
Originally published in The Echo newspaper
The resurrection changes everything — but do we let it?
The story of Jesus’ life, death and bodily resurrection can seem like a pop song on repeat if we are not careful. This Easter, it may be helpful to search the Bible for hints as to how we should view this cosmic event.
Paul makes it clear that if the resurrection did not happen, Christians are the most pitiable people on earth (1 Cor. 15:13-19). But the fact is that the resurrection did happen.
Paul hands down early church testimony dated to within a few years of Jesus’ crucifixion when he writes that, after resurrecting, Jesus was “seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that he was seen by over 500 brethren at once” (v. 5-6).
John adds more detail, forbidding any thought that hallucination was involved: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life” (1 John 1:1, emphasis mine).
Beyond attesting to the reality of Jesus’ resurrection, the Bible models what our response should be to that event.
My favorite story comes in John 21, when the disciples, having nothing better to do and tired of waiting for Jesus to reappear, decide to go fishing. (How similar to us. Jesus just is not interesting enough to hold our attention, so we go fishing, or shopping, or scrolling.)
Unbeknownst to them, Jesus is standing on the seashore and tells the disciples to cast the net on the right side of the boat (John 21:6). When the disciples haul in a catch of 153 fish, Peter immediately knows it’s the Lord, dives into the sea and starts swimming toward him.
The Son of God then proceeds to cook the disciples breakfast. He does not rush to tell them about what he experienced (partly at their hands) during his crucifixion, or berate them for their faithlessness and cowardice. Once again he stoops down to their level, feeding them, letting His presence sink in.
I think that is how Jesus treats all who have failed to believe in him fully – as their God and king – and those who have denied him, as Peter did. He is such a loving Father that He will still nourish us and protect us even as we wrestle with doubt and idolatry, letting His subtle, consistent blessings awaken us to the fact that he was there all along.
Indeed, it is only after Peter eats the fish that Jesus cooked for him that he begins to repent (John 21:15-18). For those who doubt or revile Jesus’ resurrection, Romans 2:4 still holds true: it is God’s kindness that leads us to repentance.
May that kindness lead us to a fresh realization of who this Jesus is as we enter Easter. We have not abided in Christ until his resurrection becomes our daily source of joy and strength.
We get yet one more picture of how we ought to respond to Jesus’ resurrection in Luke 24, in the words of two unnamed disciples who suddenly realize who they were talking to on the road to Emmaus: “Did not our heart burn within is while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” (v. 32)