Business as Usual?

By Rev. William Dohle

Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” John 21:12

Well, Easter is over.

Another year of chocolate bunnies, Easter dinners, family gatherings, and sunrise services is behind us. The Easter lillies are blooming. The parties are over. Now we buckle back into reality, back into the daily grind. Now we prepare for summer and the excitement we have planned there, not really thinking that anything important in our lives has changed.

That is what the disciples thought too. Days after Jesus rose from the dead, Peter decides that it’s back to business as usual. “I’m going fishing,” Peter announces. It is, after all, what he was doing before Jesus called him on this crazy adventure. It’s what Peter does best. And the other disciples decide that’s the best thing to do too. “We’ll come too,” they say.

So, Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel, the Zebedee brothers, and a couple other disciples decide to go back to the boats, back to life as it was before Jesus of Nazareth came on the scene. They get in and they throw their nets out for a catch. Peter relaxes into his familiar patterns and the disciples go back to life before Easter.

Only things are not the same. Everything is different! Christ is risen from the dead! So, while they are out fishing, Jesus appears on the shore. He calls out to the boat and asks if they’ve caught any fish. “Of course not!” Thomas answers.

“Then throw your nets over to the other side!” Jesus replies.

The disciples shrug and move the nets over to the other side of the boat where, in a repeat of an earlier miracle, they catch more fish than they can handle! John cries out, “It’s the Lord!” And Peter jumps out of the boat and rushes on shore where he finds Jesus, cooking breakfast for the disciples. “Bring some of the fish you caught,” he says. “The coals are perfect!”

So, the disciples sit there with their food in their hand stunned. Stunned because they expected nothing to change when everything had. Stunned because the Lord they expected to be living in heaven is sitting there in their midst. They had expected to go back to life before the resurrection. They found out they could not. Easter had come upon them and everything had changed!

Everything has changed for us too. Easter has come upon us and Christ’s resurrection has turned the world completely on its head. No, things look pretty much the same. Your job is still waiting for you. The same boss will greet you this week. The work load hasn’t disappeared. The same problems sit unresolved in your family. And the physical pain you’re experiencing hasn’t gone away.

But despite how it may appear, what truly matters in life has changed because Jesus is risen from the dead! And we see that change in Christ’s presence among us. Jesus is here with us even now. He isn’t in the grave! Jesus is risen! And he’s sits and stands amongst us. He is there in the hospital bed you are cleaning and among the patients you are caring for. He’s there at work when you’re frustrated with your boss and on the road with you as you journey home. He’s there amongst your family and friends waiting for you at home, at church with others who praise His name. He’s there, meeting you on the shore, with breakfast already at hand. The eternal host of the meal, cooking up your breakfast, making sure the wine is filled, serving up forgiveness and grace along with the fish and bread he’s prepared.

Jesus is risen and everything has changed. For He is there now wherever two or three are gathered in His name.

So let us rejoice in Christ our Savior, who meets us wherever we may be to turn our world, and the universe, completely on its head. Amen.