After Jesus raised from the dead he appeared to the disciples a few times. This one particular time some of the same disciples as before headed out to do some night fishing and in the morning had an encounter with Jesus.
“Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.
He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”
“No,” they answered.
He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.”When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.
Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.
Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.” (John 21:1-14)
It seems that these disciples are getting back into their familiar pattern of life before they met Jesus. They fish all night and catch nothing. Jesus calls out and instructs them to cast their net again and bam, too many fish to pull into the boat but this time the nets don’t break. They get back to shore and there find Jesus who had whipped up quite a nice breakfast.
This whole encounter seems like a demonstration of the ways of the kingdom and a redirection of the purpose of life. In Luke 5 Jesus says, “from now on you will fish for people” but here they are fishing for fish like they used to. Latter in John 21 Jesus asks Peter three times, “Do you love me?”. Each time Peter says he does and each time Jesus’ response is different. Jesus told him, feed my lambs, take care of my sheep and feed my sheep. If you have healthy sheep a byproduct is lambs. To tend and take care of a flock includes increase. What Jesus has called them to looks different than what they used to do before they met him.
I think it can be easy to receive a revelation about who you are and what your life is about but then fall back into the old pattern of life. But here Jesus is saying, “don’t go backwards, go forwards”. It’s funny that Jesus was cooking fish on the shore when they fished all night with no success. Then the only reason they caught any fish at all was because of Jesus. The kingdom of heaven has everything we need to do everything we are commissioned to do. And what we are commissioned to do is pull the kingdom of heaven to earth. To do this we can’t keep fishing for fish, we have to step into our God given destiny.