Jesus · c. AD 30
Chapter 59
Breakfast on the Shore
He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.”They cast it therefore, and now they weren’t able to draw it in for the multitude of fish.
For parents
Jesus tells Peter ahead of time about his death: when Peter is old, someone else will dress him and carry him where he doesn’t want to go. The Gospel says this showed the kind of death Peter would die, a death that would bring glory to God (John 21:18–19). Nothing about that death is described beyond the text’s own words.
After this, showed himself to the once more, beside the . This is how it came about.
was there, and , who was called Didymus, a name that means “Twin.” of in was with them too, and so were the sons of and two more of Jesus’ disciples. They were all together.
“I’m going fishing,” Simon Peter told them.
“We’re coming with you,” they said. They set out at once and climbed into the boat. That night they caught nothing.
When morning came, Jesus was standing on the beach. But the disciples didn’t know that it was Jesus.
“Children, do you have anything to eat?” Jesus asked them.
“No,” they answered.
He said to them, “Throw the net on the right side of the boat. You’ll find some there.” They threw it, and now the net was so full of fish that they couldn’t pull it in.
Then that disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, said to Peter, “It’s the Lord!”
As soon as Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he wrapped his coat around himself, because he had no clothes on. Then he threw himself into the sea.
The other disciples came in the little boat, dragging the net full of fish. They weren’t far from land, only about two hundred , roughly a hundred yards.
When they got out onto the land, they saw a charcoal fire, with fish and bread laid on it.
“Bring some of the fish you caught just now,” Jesus told them.
Simon Peter went up and dragged the net to land. It was full of fish, a hundred and fifty-three big ones. There were so many, but the net wasn’t torn.
“Come and eat breakfast!” Jesus said to them. Not one of them dared to ask him, “Who are you?” The disciples knew that it was the Lord.
Jesus came and took the bread and handed it to them, and the fish as well.
That made three times now that Jesus had shown himself to his disciples after he had risen from the dead.
When they had eaten their breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” Peter answered. “You know that I have affection for you.”
“Feed my lambs,” Jesus told him.
Jesus asked him again, a second time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?”
“Yes, Lord,” Peter answered. “You know that I have affection for you.”
“Tend my sheep,” Jesus said.
Jesus asked him a third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you have affection for me?”
It made Peter sad that Jesus was asking him a third time, “Do you have affection for me?” “Lord, you know everything,” Peter said. “You know that I have affection for you.”
“Feed my sheep,” Jesus said to him. “I tell you for certain, when you were young, you dressed yourself and walked where you wanted to. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another person will dress you and carry you where you don’t want to go.”
Jesus said this to show the kind of death Peter would die, a death that would bring glory to God. When he had said it, he told Peter, “Follow me.”
Peter turned around and saw a disciple following. It was the disciple whom Jesus loved, the one who had also leaned on Jesus’ chest at the supper and asked, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”
Peter saw him and asked Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?”
Jesus said to him, “If I want him to stay until I come, what is that to you? You follow me.”
So word spread among the brothers and sisters that this disciple wouldn’t die. But Jesus didn’t say to him that he wouldn’t die. What he said was, “If I want him to stay until I come, what is that to you?”
The of John ends this way. “This is the disciple who testifies about these things, and who wrote these things. We know that his witness is true.
“There are many other things, too, that Jesus did. If all of them were written, I suppose that even the world itself wouldn’t have room for the books that would be written.”