Watching his wife, Katherine, as she planned the planting of bulbs in her garden, E.B, White reflected upon the moment:
“There was something comical yet touching in her bedraggled appearance...the small hunched-over figure, her studied absorption in the implausible notion that there would be yet another spring, oblivious to the ending of her own days, which she knew perfectly well was at hand, sitting there with her detailed chart under those dark skies in dying October, calmly plotting the resurrection.”
Like the disciples we have returned to our routines and rituals, however, we gather this Third Sunday of Easter wanting to grow in experiencing resurrection.
Years ago, only a few days after the Oklahoma City bombing, I found myself studying this very same text. It had been a week filled with agony and grief. It seemed impossible to retrieve resurrection. How could anyone embrace resurrection while seeking to make sense of such loss in this harsh world?
Seven of the disciples have returned to work at the Sea of Tiberias. John identifies them. They need to work things through. The events in their lives have been overwhelming. Their world has been shaken. The disciples are baffled and confused, numb and hollow. They have gone back to the familiar, but with little success. The emptiness in their nets mirrors the void in their hearts. In the death of Christ, the disciples have met with despair. His resurrection has yet to dispel the darkness. They are back at their old trade, going through the motions. Instead of throwing the net to harvest the catch, imagine them barely lugging it up and over the rim of the boat to drop it into the lake. There is no explaining why they are back at it. It must be for lack of anywhere else to go. We can thank God for normal routines; for somewhere to go when there is nowhere else to turn. The disciples have resigned themselves to do what they were doing before Jesus had come into their lives.
But they have nothing positive to show for it and are filled with resignation and defeat. They fish all through the night with no success. I thought only my dad could fish all night without catching anything and still be ready to fish some more.
Then, Jesus appears to them and yells out, “Caught anything?” Which translates: “How are you doing with all of this?” The disciples are not doing well in more ways than one. Their nets are as barren when Jesus calls out to them.
In my first pastorate, I remember one afternoon when Billy Pat, the county sheriff, one of our church leaders, pulled up to me on the street of all places and asked, “You know what’s wrong with you?” I was not so sure what brought that up. “What’s wrong with you is you just don’t know what kind of people really live in this world.” The disciples were clear about the kind of people who had taken Christ’s life. Jesus comes to them and says, “Throw the net off the right side of the boat and see what happens.” They did and caught so many fish they were not strong enough to pull them in.
We, too, know emptiness. Our nets are bare. We need Jesus to show us a sign.
Hear Him call in the emptiness of it all. See Him point to the other side and encourage us to trust in hope rather than despair. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, resurrection brings hope that one day God’s will shall indeed be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10).
In the face of our loss there is grief work to do. New life does not just happen. It happens when we choose hope over despair. Wayne Oates said it well: “We don’t just go through grief; we grow through grief.” We begin our grief work by accepting the reality of our loss. To choose resurrection we must first acknowledge the emptiness of our nets.
Jesus motions to the other side, to hope rather than despair, to love rather than hate. We know the enervating anger that leaves life sterile. We face such cruel violence and can identify with the disciples. We must pray for God to let our hearts mend from our hatred for those who are to blame for the monstrous evil in this world. We must pray for even the enemies of everything we hold dear. Unless we pray for our enemies, we will become like them.
We know that anger is a dog that won’t hunt, but we cannot let it go. Nets filled with anger have no room for anything else. Swelled with animosity we feel empty. Frederick Buechner in his book, Wishful Thinking, says that of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is the most fun. “To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back - in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.”
Jesus walks an alternate path of love over hate, peace over fear. Christ has faith that one day the lamb and the wolf will lie down together (Isaiah 11).
He walks with us and does not abandon us to our own resources. Christ encourages us to choose life over death, light over darkness. Follow his lead. Toss your hat into the ring. Believe that the poor will be filled with good things (Luke 1:53); that all humankind shall see God’s deliverance (Luke 2:6). The resurrected Lord has met the seven disciples.
Jesus calls them by name. They know it is the Lord. We know the fullness of the resurrected Christ when He calls our name. Through faith we recognize His voice. From out of the darkness, even now He speaks.
Let us end where we began with Katherine White. Writing about her, Robert Raines noted: “Katherine was a member of the resurrection conspiracy, the company of those who plant seeds of hope under dark skies of grief and oppression, going about their living and dying until, no one knows how or when or where, the tender shoots of Easter appear, and a piece of creation is healed.”
After a hard day’s night, Christ came to the disciples. He blessed them by taking bread and giving it to them. From that moment on they had stories to tell whenever they gathered at the table; stories of how Christ pointed them in the direction of resurrection.
We come to this table around the narratives of our lives believing Christ comes to meet us, calls out our names, points us in the right direction, and even now, is plotting resurrection for us!
Prayer: Oh, Lord, come! Our nets are empty. Our hearts are sore. Point us toward hope. Warm our hearts with love. We choose life in Christ and pray in His name. Amen.