Breakfast Buddies

I remember trout fishing in the mountain streams of eastern Arizona as a child. I think I caught a few, despite being an active squirt, noisy and wiggly. Mostly I scared away fish others were wishing to hook. I remember us cooking the rainbow trout, wrapped in foil with garlic and butter in the coals of the fire. Even having to pick out tiny bones did not spoil the magic of it. Those meals were delicious.

I bet you have tales of fishing. Think about one of them now...the rest of this can wait.

Jesus taught and healed all about the region of Galilee. So we know he ate fish. At least five of his picks for apostles were fishermen. When he fed multitudes on the hillside with bread and fish, do you imagine that he too had his fill with the rest of them?

There are only two stories I can think of telling of Jesus eating fish. We take note of them in the Easter season because remarkably, they are scenes of Jesus physically eating with his disciples after his resurrection.

Yes, in post-resurrection experiences recorded in Luke and John, Jesus took a meal of fish with his friends. In John’s account, there is bread as well. I am sure that all altar guild workers the world over are glad the feast we keep as a sacred sacrament is based on the Last Supper event with bread and wine, not on these other encounters. But look at how eucharistic the story from John is in its structure:

When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish that you have just caught." So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, "Who are you?" because they knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. –John 21:9-13

This experience together includes the important theme of one’s recognition of the risen Christ. Brilliant priest and writer, Cynthia Bourgeault, elevates this theme in her book Wisdom Jesus (2008, Shambhala Publications, Boulder CO) She gets us thinking of how after the resurrection, Jesus is quite physically real, and yet different than we are used to. She says (p. 127):

As we look at these resurrection appearances, we can see at once there is something a bit strange about them. Jesus is back, and he is indisputably in the flesh, but it is not exactly the same flesh he left the world in.

He is not immediately recognized by Mary Magdalene by the tomb: she presumes he is the gardener. He’s not recognized by disciples heading for Emmaus when they meet up with him on the road. Even in John’s fishing story, they recognize him not by his looks but by the Jesus-like full net of fish and his gently commanding way with them. Bourgeault also highlights that Jesus is one place one moment then gone. He is inexplicably among the disciples in the upper room; the doors were locked, so that was not his means of entry.

All that mystery is compounded by the physicality of this oddly spiritual body of the risen Jesus. After Thomas, disbelieved his friends’ reports of how Jesus visited them, Jesus appears to him in their midst and invites Thomas to see and touch his physical wounds. And there is the matter of the fish. In Luke’s account, it is all about Jesus revealing his actuality and presence.

Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence. –Luke 24:39-43

Ghosts and hallucinations do not share your food with you. I know Christians who have said that the resurrection is real to them and they are believing Christians because of the broiled fish. And the message of the true and actual resurrection has absolute, critical implications for you and me.

Jesus was raised, and because of that you will forever know resurrection life. The disciples spread the message as is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. When they preached the Resurrection of Jesus, it’s impact was that they preached also “that in Jesus there is the resurrection of the dead.” (Acts 4:2)

I don’t know if I will ever go fishing again, but if I do, I bet I will remember that youngster by the cool stream in Greer, Arizona. I hope I also remember that bite of charcoal-broiled fish, taken by Jesus. Eating it, he shares with his followers down through the ages that he was raised, he lives. He lives in us all. Always!