Jesus Restores His Discouraged Team 

David W Palmer

(John 21:2–3 NLT) Several of the disciples were there—Simon Peter, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples. {3} Simon Peter said, “I’m going fishing.” “We’ll come, too,” they all said. So they went out in the boat, but they caught nothing all night.

Jesus’s graduating trainees had become very disappointed and discouraged after the death of their leader. Despondent, they went back to fishing. After a fruitless night of toil, they were even more discouraged by a complete lack of fish. But at dawn, the resurrected Jesus appeared and revealed himself to them through a miraculous catch:

(John 21:4–6 NLT) At dawn Jesus was standing on the beach, but the disciples couldn’t see who he was. {5} He called out, “Fellows, have you caught any fish?” “No,” they replied. {6} Then he said, “Throw out your net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you’ll get some!” So they did, and they couldn’t haul in the net because there were so many fish in it.

When Peter realized that it was the Lord, despite his three denials of Jesus, He was first into the water to rush to his Lord:

(John 21:7–9 NLT) Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, “It’s the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his tunic (for he had stripped for work), jumped into the water, and headed to shore. {8} The others stayed with the boat and pulled the loaded net to the shore, for they were only about a hundred yards from shore. {9} When they got there, they found breakfast waiting for them—fish cooking over a charcoal fire, and some bread.

Peter rushed to Jesus. This was an amazing turn around from his response to the first miraculous catch of fish that Jesus gave him; previously, he asked Jesus to depart from him when conscious of his sinfulness (See: Luke 5:8). We can all learn from his second response. Peter was guilty of denying the Lord and deserting him in his hour of greatest need. From his return to fishing, we receive the impression that he had given up on his calling to ministry. But when he rushed to Jesus, he is a role model for how to respond to God when we are guilty; we should run to him, because that’s when we most need his merciful forgiveness and his empowering grace to get free of sin. In other words, God is the solution to sin; he is not the one from whom we should hide when guilty:

(Hebrews 4:16 NLT) So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

Jesus demonstrates perfect leadership skills in this story. His team had felt his death and absence. The state of their hearts was revealed in their desertion of him in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus’s apprentices had become a disheveled bunch: one of their number had suicided; several of them had been disputing about which of them would be the greatest; and the mother of two brothers had interfered—requesting that her boys have places of honour over the others by getting to sit at Jesus’s right and left hand. The whole remaining team must have been greatly confused, confounded, and convicted. 

After Jesus’s greatest victory—right when he and his team should have been celebrating his resurrection—he was faced with a crisis; he urgently needed to stabilize, unify, and restore his team. How did the Master go about this?

First, he helped them in their immediate felt need to catch some fish; he demonstrated that he didn’t condemn them, or have any intention to punish them for going back to fishing. They were truly free. He filled their boat with a huge lucrative catch.

Second, he cooked breakfast for them. This is a simple act of love and service that any leader can do. It showed his team how much he loved them, and that he wanted to provide for them. What’s more, it was an invitation to re-enter close fellowship with him. His apostles must have been amazed at his love