of their best efforts. It is a picture of life without Jesus. When Jesus enters the scene, and his disciples heed his voice (v. 6), we see these fishermen overwhelmed with God’s abundant supply. Their nets are filled with food. Jesus makes all the difference.
From Not Knowing Jesus to Belief in Him When Jesus stood on the shore by the Sea, the writer notes that “the disciples did not know that it was Jesus” (v. 4). To use a Johannine turn of phrase: The disciples are in the dark, and they have yet to see the light! (cf. 1:9–13). After Jesus speaks to them (v. 5: “. . . do you have any fish?”) and they obey his word (v. 6: “Cast the net . . .”), thereby seeing Jesus’s promise come to fulfillment in the amazing catch, the apostle John recognized Jesus and tells Peter about it (v. 7: “It is the Lord!”). The light came on in their minds, as it were, and they now knew Jesus—a picture of belief in the Son, in whom there is abundant life. When the big catch was about to be pulled ashore, Jesus speaks to the disciples again, telling them to bring some of the fish and invites them to have a breakfast with him (vv. 10, 12a). By then, the rest of the disciples figured out who they were dealing with, so that “none of the disciples dared ask him, ‘Who are you?’ They knew it was the Lord” (v. 12b). Here we see a transition from disciples who lack knowledge concerning Jesus to their acknowledgment of him as Lord. Signs of Life What to make of these contrasts? In John’s broader narrative, the text invites us to see in the sea a sign in God’s creation that evokes life in the Spirit. Such life directs us to listen to the words of the Son, which are “Spirit and life,” so that believing in him we might have eternal life in his name (cf. Jnh 6:40, 63; 20:31). In John’s symbolic Gospel, lack of fish in the sea becomes a sign of a life without Jesus (a sign of death, as it were), and the abundance of fish becomes a sign in creation of the overwhelming fullness of life in the Son who through his glorification unto death gives us his Spirit (cf. 1:33, 7:37–39, 19:30). Another sign of such life in the Spirit, the life of faith in the Son, is having breakfast with Jesus, which gives us an image of fellowship with him (21:12–15). This picture of fellowship and friendship reflects the Johannine church, the community of disciples that gathers around Jesus to confess him as Lord and listen to his life-giving words. Restoring a Disciple As the life of Peter reveals, being a disciple of Jesus is tough business. Earlier in the gospel, after the bread of life discourse, Peter stands as a model of the disciple who puts his belief in the Son, when others turned their backs on him: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal like” (6:68). Later on, Simon Peter, who had promised to Jesus, “I will lay down my life for you” (13:36–38), denied him three times as Jesus had foretold, stating that he was not a disciple of Jesus (18:15–18, 25–27). But then, we see in the appointed text how Jesus transforms this Peter from a disciple who cannot follow and does not know Jesus to one who confesses him as Lord and receives his word to “feed my lambs/sheep” (21:15–17) and accompanying invitation to be his disciple yet again (v. 19b: “Follow me,” cf. v. 22) even unto death (vv. 18–19a). In 78