Three times

After John 21:1-19 and John 18: 15-27

Three times he’d denied him.

Three times he’d said 

he didn’t know him.

Three times he’s asked 

the question.

Three times he’s given

the command.

Do you love me?

(I am not a disciple

he said to the servant girl.)

Feed my lambs.

Do you love me?

(I am not his disciple

he said to the gathered crowd.)

Tend my sheep.

Do you love me?

(I was not in the garden with him

he said to the priest’s servant.)

Feed my sheep.

And finally a prophecy:

you will go where

you do not desire.

Follow me.

Did the rooster crow 

again?

Photograph by Michael Olson via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Hothead

After John 21:1-19

Ever the hothead, ever impulsive,

he jumps in the water to swim

to shore, swim to the man

who tells them to fish when 

they’ve caught nothing, and

then everything.

He drags himself on to the shore,

the others following in the boat,

to find all in readiness,

all prepared: the charcoal fire

glowing, fish grilling.

The man says to add the fish

they’ve caught. He hauls

the fish from the boat,

dragging the net to shore.

The man takes bread 

and shares it.

The man takes fish 

and shares it.

Photograph by Marcus Lofvenberg via Unsplash. Used with permission.

On the shore

After John 21:1-19

They’re back where they started,

back to what they know, the familiar,

the routine of fishermen, 

back to where the light began,

back before the light began,

doing what they know to do:

fish.

And on the shore, a man asks

if they have fish, if they have a catch.

When they say no, he gives them

a strange command, to cast on the right,

as if some landlubber knows how to fish,

right?

They cast the net, to prove him wrong.

They cast the net and pull,

but strain to haul the laden net,

filled with its multitudes of fish. And

they look at the man on the shore.

What they could not do on their own,

they did after he spoke, after

they listened.

Photograph by Tim Motivv via Unsplash. Used with permission.