Come and Eat Breakfast

While searching for a passage to go over at Bible study this week (it was my week to lead), I ran across John 21. If you have never read this section of John (somehow I don't think I ever had paid much attention to it) you should.

Jesus has recently been resurrected and appeared to both Mary Magdalene and the disciples, including the famous dinner we're all familiar with when Jesus showed the disciples his crucifixion wounds. Now, in this chapter, Jesus reappears again, and the disciples are out fishing in the Sea of Tiberias not far from the shore.

Of course the disciples are astounded to see him again. Peter is in fact so excited that he jumps out of the boat and starts swimming toward shore. Jesus instructs the disciples, who have had no luck fishing that day, to cast their nets yet again; the net comes up filled to the brim with fish.

What struck me was what Jesus said to them when they reached shore:

"Come and eat breakfast."

This is only the 2nd time the disciples have seen Jesus since his death. More importantly, we know that Peter and Jesus still have not had a chance to discuss the fact that only days before, Peter had denied him three times. If I were Peter, and I knew that I had denied the Son of God, I would be pretty nervous about meeting him again and having the chance to actually talk one-on-one with him. But Jesus' first words to Peter are not "Peter, I'm really angry with you, you let me down." There is no smugness, there's no "I told you you'd do it." There's no mention of it whatsoever.

Jesus just says, "Come and eat breakfast."

You think about that.