From Failure to Overwhelming Restoration - John 21.1-19 // The Resurrection & Today - Jeremiah Lepasana

John 21 answers two foundational questions we find ourselves asking now and again: 1) given the pain I see others experiencing, what hope is there for the world? and 2) what about me...what hope is there for me? 

The story of John 21 opens with the disciples struggling to catch fish. They worked overnight and nothing they did worked. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, Jesus shows up and at this Word and instruction there were fish - lots of fish! I know not many of us are fisher-people. But the point is larger than fish and fisher-people. The connection in the text is to a promise that all the disciples would have known from growing up - a promise from Ezekiel 47 about a coming overwhelming restoration. Jesus seems to say that the coming restoration flowed through him! He is the source.

Peter, one of the disciples, does what bold people do and he swims straight to source. Yet, the text slows down the narrative and brings us into the conversation between Peter and Jesus. And this is important because this shows us what it means to be brought into this overwhelming restoration. We see that overwhelming restoration does not look like winning lottery tickets or game-winning Super Bowl drives. It looks like deep-life heart and soul surgery. 

For Peter, coming into contact with overwhelming restoration looked like Jesus asking him to release three things: 1) to release his load-bearing failures, 2) to release his visions of a liberated-future, and 3) to release his knee-jerk inclinations to comparison! 

What would it look like if we, through the Spirit's power, released the same? How much lighter would we live? How much peace would you carry?