John 21:12 KJV:
[12] Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine.
It’s the third meeting Jesus is hosting for some of his disciples after his Resurrection. Like any good host, Jesus wants everyone to be relaxed before they really get into the serious business at hand for them. So he starts his meeting with a fish fry as it were. Fish sandwiches to be exact or at least their version of a fish sandwich, which was simply bread and fish—a highly appropriate meal for a meeting with a bunch of fishermen, cooked by someone that once said, “man does not live by bread alone.” (Matthew 4:4)
Peter, being the highly excitable guy, really needed this moment of respite because he was going to be a featured recipient of Jesus’ instructions to these men.
Peter was so fired up after John pointed out from their boat that it was the Lord on the bank, that he threw on his fishing coat, jumped into the water and literally by himself dragged their enormous catch, net and all, up to Jesus’s cooking fire. Talk about an adrenaline rush!
Isn’t it wonderful to have a Lord which knows exactly what we need, before we even know ourselves? (Matthew 6:8)
Now some people get the impression that the Lord was rebuking them for going fishing, however this is not the case, as evidenced by Jesus himself cooking from their catch!
They most likely went fishing in this interim between Jesus’ Resurrection and his ascension back to Heaven, simply to earn a living, just as Paul made tents later on in early church history.
Many things are going on in John’s short recount of this third appearance by Jesus to a select group of his disciples.
Let’s briefly point out a few more.
Jesus chose 12 Apostolic disciples representing the 12 tribes of Israel from the Old Testament, but meets here with only seven of them. Seven, in this particular instance, reflects back to God’s Covenant with mankind—a covenant soon to be ratified by the fully completed New Testament 12, Apostles of the Lamb, after the day of Pentecost.
Be mindful that a Covenant and Testament are one and the same. This is called numerology (use of numbers to illustrate a deeper meaning), and is classic Apostle St. John the Evangelist imagery.
Later John runs with this type of imagery in his epistle entitled “The Revelation of Jesus Christ.”
We have discussed the latter parts of the events chronicled in John 21 in previous articles. So we will pause here for now with a handful of other scripture references closely connected with the interplay going on in John’s recount of Christ’s third disciple meeting after his Resurrection. (Semi post script: Third meeting! John is doing that numerological thing again.)
John 6:51 KJV:
[51] I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
John 21:12 KJV:
[12] Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord.