TIBERIAS
John 21:1-14
Just after my A levels I was able to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Our visit to the Sea of Tiberias stands out for me as a time of grace. In what was a fairly packed itinerary, there was suddenly time to sit and watch the water. It was a relief after the noise and heat of Jerusalem.
When the disciples decide to go fishing they are going back to the thing that they know best. They’ll either catch something or they won’t. I imagine that there was a certain relief in knowing this. But this turns out to be no ordinary fishing trip. First of all, the disciples take fishing advice from a stranger and then he cooks for them.
With his invitation of breakfast Jesus has made another space for intimacy with his closest followers. I like to imagine that they linger over this breakfast and perhaps watch as the morning light catches the water. There is such healing in doing something normal with friends.
Commentators draw our attention to the detail of the charcoal fire. It was round a charcoal fire, in the high priest’s palace, that Peter stood after the arrest of Jesus. It’s here that he denies Jesus three times. And now on the beach at Tiberias it’s by a charcoal fire that Peter is given the chance to reverse that denial. Jesus will ask him three times if he loves him. Those moments by the fire are some of the most poignant in John’s Gospel for me.
Picture yourself at Tiberias.
What do you notice? How do you feel?