Application GEMs of GOD’S GRACE IN ACTION
Let God Expressed Meekly/Mightily in you sparkle brightly with insights from Cobbey Crisler & others as inspired by The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“Sacrament”
for June 27- July 10, 2022
(Cobbey’s insights are shared with the blessing of Janet Crisler janetcrisler7@gmail.com)
by Warren Huff, CedarS Executive Director Emeritus, warren@cedarscamps.org
EXPERIENCE “GROWTH in GRACE”!
Grace was CedarS one-word metaphysical theme for 2021! We love how “growth in grace” is a perfect partner to our one-word metaphysical theme for 2022! (citation S3, 4:3-5) One way to think about grace is as a deep sense of God’s unconditional love. Grace is not something we have to earn or deserve. Grace – affording abundant joy, loving-kindness, mercy, and gratitude – is a gift, freely received and freely given!
Here are citations on grace, some in this week’s lesson, that we have loved to study and apply:
“Give us grace for to-day; feed the famished affections” (SH p. 17, citation S20)
“For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17)
“Grace and Truth are potent beyond all other means and methods.” (SH p. 67)
“God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work” (II Corinthians 9:8, citation B7)
“Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” (Colossians 4:6)
“The miracle of grace is no miracle to Love.” (SH 494:15, citation S27)
“But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, long suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.” (Psalm 86:15)
“What we most need is the prayer of fervent desire for growth in grace, expressed in patience, meekness, love, and good deeds.” (cit. S17, SH p. 4:3-5)
We invite you to explore many more references to grace (plus more to gracious):
- 159 references in the Bible to grace
- 73 references in the writings of Mary Baker Eddy
- 93 references in the Christian Science Hymnal
- over 25,000 references in JSH Online
We have seen the simplicity of this theme result in healing for campers, staff, cabins, families, countries, and the world. With many issues facing the world today, there seem to be no viable human solutions, and yet, we have grace – and grace always wins!
BE EAGERLY RECEPTIVE TO CHRIST’S LIVING WATER—LIKE THE WOMAN AT THE WELL IN SAMARIA.
Cobbey Crisler on John 4:5+ (cit. B21, cit. S27, 234:4 “giving living water to the thirsty”)
[Cobbey:] “John 4.6, Jacob’s well is here in Samaria. It’s now concealed in a partially completed church.
[Warren: “I Am He,” Episode 8 of Season 1 of “The Chosen,” at https://thechosen.link/1Y1R7 starts with a reenactment of Jacob’s sons digging the well at Samaria and ends with Jesus’s remarkable encounter with the Samaritan woman at the end and some believable backstory in between.]
[Cobbey again:] “You cannot see the mountain to which the woman of Samaria was pointing in the story. It has been measured and it’s quite clear. Dr. Bull was the one who did the excavations at Telaras. He was the first scholar to announce that he feels he has discovered the Samaritan temple ruins on the top of Mount Gerazim which could be seen in Jesus time from the wellhead.
So, he Jesus, rests. It’s about the noon hour…”He opens the conversation with the woman.”
John 4:8, “the disciples have gone to the nearby city,” which is probably Neapolis. It had been corrupted in Arabic as “Nablus,” which you may see in the news because that’s a hotbed of Palestinian unrest.
John 4:9, So, the woman of Samaria says, “How come you’re talking to me?”
A woman would naturally say that because she would not expect to be talking to him…
John 4:16. The woman, not comprehending thoroughly, but nevertheless bold enough to continue asking, finally gets the practicality of Jesus’ message and says, “That’s a great idea. Give me this living water, and 1 won’t take another step. Never will I have to come up with these heavy jugs and fill them with water.”
Remember, there are not too many conversations that are recorded between Jesus and anyone so this one really stands out. …
John 4:17 He says call thy husbands…He’s testing again…
What is he after in this Samaritan woman (and also in) … a Roman centurion…a ruler of the synagogue? …
What is he looking for? Receptivity. That is the universal access. It means we all have the same access if we’d only use it. Whose fault is it if we aren’t using it? It’s ours. So, it has nothing to do with status, culture, sex, or whatever. He’s not really saying that womanhood is the best way to get to God. Or childhood, or any of those. Wherever we find receptivity it counts.
“So, ” the woman says, hedging a bit, “I don’t have a husband.”
John 4:18, “Whereupon Jesus said, ‘How right you are. As a matter of fact, you’ve had five husbands, and the one you’re living with right now can’t exactly be called your husband ‘” Boy, that has a nice twentieth century ring to it
John 4:19. All the woman can say in response to that is, “Sir, I perceive that you’re a prophet.” The woman is really beautiful. Jesus wouldn’t spend all this time with her if he didn’t see behind all this label and this stereotyped thing. There was a receptivity here that he wasn’t running into regularly. He was after that. He was after womanhood as a type to replace this femaleness as a stereotype. He continued to probe in order to do this.
John 4:20. The woman said, “Our fathers worshiped in this mountain.” Boy, did that have a meaning. She’s pointing to the Samaritan temple, and guess who had destroyed it? The Jews. The Maccabean rulers had destroyed the Samaritan temple which was built to resemble the Jerusalem temple. It’s occupied territory. It’s a little difficult to dig in an area that Jordan still claims but Israel occupies.
It was destroyed by the Jews, so you can see the irony behind what the woman said, “Our fathers worshiped … “It’s past. It’s through. The Greek word that is used there is well in the past, “all wiped out.” We worshiped in this mountain, but the implication, guess who stopped us, or ruined the temple? Your fathers. We have a divisive thing. We, the Samaritans, worshiped here. You, the Jews, destroyed it. That’s the same thing that’s going on today in the same location.
John 4:21, “Jesus said, Woman.” this is his general address to womanhood, “Believe me. the hour cometh, ” still somewhat ahead, “when you won’t worry about geography in worshiping God. ··
John 4:23, ”The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. “Look at the definition of worship. “Worship is spiritual,” not structural, not geographical, not ritualistic. Why? Because worship of God can only properly be done by partaking of God’s own nature.
John 4:24 tells us that “God is Spirit. Therefore, worshiping Spirit can only be done spiritually.” There’s no other way to do it. How basic. By the way, when you see “a Spirit” in there. It shouldn’t be there.
Listen to what God says about it. Notice the strong tenor of his words. To translate “God is a Spirit” is the most gross perversion of the meaning. “A Spirit” implies one of a class of “pneumata,” the Greek word for it. There is no trace, in the fourth gospel, of the vulgar conception of a multitude of spirits. “God is Spirit.” Mathematically one can only derive from Spirit included in it. Namely, spirituality is the derivation. Worship must be that.
Notice what is done as this woman’s thought. Women weren’t supposed to discuss the Scriptures. There was a first century rabbi, Eleazar, who said, “To teach a woman Scripture was like teaching her lasciviousness.” That’s some extreme. That was the kind of thought that was at some rabbinical extremes in the first century, not necessarily the general Jewish view, but Eleazar is considered quite a great rabbi.
Jesus is discussing intellectual problems of Scripture with a woman. This is unheard of!
John 4:25 “That woman suddenly comes to him and says, I know That Messiah is coming.” How about that for recognition! “I know that the Messiah is coming which is called Christ.” … he will tell us all … he said, “I that speak unto thee am he”
John 4:27, ‘”When the disciples come back, their only problem is that he’s talking with the woman. ”
John 4:28, “The woman leaves her water pot. “That’s what she’d come for, but she went away with living water. “She ran into the city”
John 4:29 and SH 85:12, cit. S6), “She said to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did. It’s got to be the Messiah. ”
John 4:30, “The men came out,” reluctantly, because they didn’t want to look like they were coming out because a woman suggested it.
Do you remember when the women disciples told the men disciples that Jesus was risen? The men thought they were idle tales!
John 4:31, “In the meantime his disciples asked Jesus to eat the groceries they had bought.”
In John 4:34, “Jesus announces his meat is to do God’s will.” Remember that. That is what his food is, literally, in Greek. So, when he breaks bread and distributes it to his disciples later, you know what his definition of food is. It “is to do God’s will.” That’s the nourishment. “And to finish his work.”
“John, The Beloved Disciple,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
ELEVATE THE RACE & ALL YOU DO! MAKE ADAPTATIONS and RECEIVE DIVINE BESTOWALS! [Warren & Geith Plimmer, CS on Science & Health p. 12:31 (citation S5)
I’ll always remember something that Geith Plimmer, a Christian Science Lecturer living in Great Britain, said about part of citation S17; “Love is impartial and universal in its adaptations and bestowals.” (SH 13:2-3) Geith commented that “one will be ready to receive divine bestowals only when ready to make divinely-directed adaptations.” Humility and love are the keys to open up a willingness to let “Thy will be done” and to make right changes and appropriate adaptations to humanly-willful or outlined plans.
We are blessed as students of the Bible to know that no mistakes can really be made when we love God with all our hearts and put all we do in his hands. As Saint Paul declares (PPT-Romans 8:28) “And we know that ALL things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Rom. 8:28, caps & emphasis added)
There was a time in CedarS past when it looked like a big mistake was made by CedarS to be maintaining a property in west St. Louis County and operating an after school and day care unsustainable program there when camp was not operating. It was in an old, high-maintenance stone house built in 1818 on 8-acres that adjoined Queeny Park and was bought during a high inflation period where interest rates could not he secured for more than 6 months and they had jumped to 20%. We were spending unsustainable funds to own and maintain that property and the anticipated demand was high on some days and very low on most other days. To make a long and detailed story shorter, our Board prayed with several ideas and adaptations to make this program and property sustainable and fitting with Mary Baker Eddy’s guidance in the Church Manual (PPT Man. 77:) “God’s Requirement. Sect. 5. God requires wisdom, economy, and brotherly love to characterize all the proceedings of the members of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist.” (Man. 77:18)
As we prayed about it with the perspective of the wisdom that sees that past through wisdom’s eyes, it was a blessing in disguise as Desiree Goyette wrote in her solo “Let it Go.” What enables us to have the “grace to go forward wherever he guide thee” and gladly obey the call of his word” (that was from Hymn which was CedarS Hymn last year as it was for TMC and Principia.) Another comfort that gave us the grace, strength and courage to sell the house was thinking of the conversation between Jacob and the angel he wrestled with. Jacob’s provision for letting the angel go became ours for letting the property go (that we had registered as an historic landmark) And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. …
And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
(Gen. 32:26, 28)
LIFT LABELS OFF OF MARTHA!
BE RECEPTIVE, BURDEN-FREE, LIKE MARY!
Cobbey Crisler on Luke 10:38-42, citation B9
[CC:] “In the familiar story of his visit with Mary and Martha, let us remember that we’re talking about Jesus’ again dealing with a state of mind.
Where is womanhood? In her thoughts about herself? How limiting on woman is woman’s own thought? Is it stereotyped? Is it free? Does it have dominion like Genesis 1 indicates woman has? Directly from God, not through man, not via man, but directly from God? Dominion-womanhood, as dominion-manhood?
[W: Statistics show women have shown more dominion over CoVid-19 than men. Young more immune than old… But, we are “all-in” for lifting off ALL lies, stereo-types & labels!]
On the sixth day of creation we don’t have a complete creation. God does not rest until woman has been given her divinely appointed place. God doesn’t rest, and He’s the original. Creation is incomplete until woman, alongside man, are complementary to each other and united under one God.
Martha chooses a stereotype here. Please don’t leave her there. No one would want to be labeled all their human life for one mistake. Jesus did not leave her there with that label. He lifted her out of the label. We have kept it stuck to her. As proof that he lifted Martha out of that label, it is only to Martha in the Gospel of John (11:25) that he makes the comment, “I am the resurrection, and the life.” We know Jesus never makes idle comments, and we know that he never deals with a subject unless he sees the ingredients of receptivity. When we realize that it is only to Martha that he makes that statement, it’s a different Martha. It’s one who has been willing to change her concept, one who has dealt with the stereotype.
We’re told in Verse 41 of Chapter 10, “Martha, you’re careful,” The Greek means “distracted mentally,” and troubled, “hustling and bustling” or “concerned about many things.” But woman is not just a housekeeper. That’s a stereotype.
Mary, Martha’s sister, has just locked into place at Jesus’ feet. Jesus is discussing higher spiritual thoughts which shows woman is called, not by Jesus, but by God, “The Son can do nothing of himself” (John 5:19). Women are called to intellectual and spiritual research with just as much right to be there as men. That’s what Jesus says in Verse 42, “is that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” That good part cannot be subtracted from womanhood if God created it as an integral part of womanhood.”]
“Luke, the Researcher,” a talk by B. Cobbey Crisler
IN EVERYTHING CONCEDE THAT ALL ABILITY COMES FROM GOD, NOT YOU!
PAUSE TO GET UP WATERSKIING, AS IF YOU WERE GETTING UP TO TESTIFY.
Mary Baker Eddy has given CedarS a favorite met for water-skiing. In citation S26 she says: “Beholding the infinite tasks of Truth, we pause, — wait on God. Then we push onward, until boundless thought walks enraptured and conception unconfined is winged to reach the divine glory.” (cit. S26/323:9)
After saying “Hit it!” for the ski boat to start pulling you, seems natural for most beginners to lean forward right away, as if to get up “on their own.” But, this always causes quick nose-dives. A better method is to PAUSE, waiting to acknowledge the boat, or really God, as the true power of the event, able to pull us through it, God precedes and PRE-SERVES us — and we express such dominion that we almost feel able to walk on the water. (A successful pausing posture for skiers to mimic is that of a testifier getting halfway up out of their seat and pausing for a few seconds before proceeding, because another testifier got up at the same time.)
In like manner, when we realize that life is about God, about Love, and not about us (as physical beings) or because of us (as sexual beings) we are free to merely reflect, instead of originate, the “incontrovertible” perfection of man AS A SPIRITUAL BEING, as the “image, reflection, of God, . . neither inverted” (‘reversed in position, order, or relationship’) “nor subverted,” (‘overturned from the foundation: RUINED: perverted or corrupted by an undermining of morals, allegiance, or faith’) “but upright and Godlike.” (S&H 200:19, with Merriam Webster’s definitions in parenthesis)
From a Warren Huff Met originally Posted: 4/27/2003
SING DIVINE AFFIRMATIONS TO HELP OVERCOME ALL CHALLENGES!
Cobbey Crisler on Matthew 26, like Mark 14:1-45, citation B11 and nearby verses
[Cobbey:] Mark 14:1Matthew 26: (Verse 18). “Passover comes. Jesus knows what that’s going to mean.”
(Verse 24). He, again using Scripture says, “As it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! ” It did not have to be Judas. But Judas elected because greed in his thought completely overpowered any other right element. He betrayed his Master for gold.
(Verse 26). “We find the Last Supper.”
(Mark 14:26/Matt. 26: 30). ”The last thing Jesus does before he goes out into the Mount of Olives is to sing a hymn.”
I suggest that you very quietly at home take Psalm 113 all the way through 118. Those are the hymns still sung today by Jews at Passover. These were undoubtedly the Psalms from which that hymn would have been taken. I think that every hair on your head will stand on end and you will be moved very deeply to read those psalms and determine what probably was being sung by Jesus, among which is a modern hymn, “This is the day the Lord hath made.” Just think when he sang this.
Look at the verses that face the subject of death. It’s very moving indeed. Psalm 118 and 116 specifically. Connect it with that event. Do it privately and within yourselves. Because it’s a very precious moment of studying the Scriptures.
(Verse 31). Jesus quotes Scripture, again, Zechariah 13:7, about “the shepherd being smitten, and the sheep scattered.”
BONUS from Verses 36-45 on Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane (where I went in January 2020 on a Principia Lifelong Learning Trip led by our Bible professor son, Dr. Barry Huff)
“His Gethsemane hour he faces.” You have to read every gospel account of Gethsemane to appreciate it. The oil press that forced out of Jesus, according to Luke, sweat that looked like drops of blood pouring on the ground.
Jesus was fighting the Adam-myth of man’s origin, where the curse on Adam was, that from the sweat of his brow he would survive. Here Jesus was overcoming that claim on man of perspiration and relying on man’s salvation through inspiration,
(Verse 50). Jesus’ first words to Judas. Could you have said that to Judas? “Friend, wherefore art thou come?”
(Verse 53). He says to Peter who chopped off the ear of the High Priest’s servant, “Don’t you know that I could pray to God and immediately be saved?”
(Verse 54). “But how shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be?”
What was Jesus using as his guide going right through the crucifixion? Everything he found in the Scriptures, or he wouldn’t do it.”
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master: A Tax Collector’s Report,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
FIND HOPE TODAY in CHURCH FOR ALL from a POURING OUT OF THE SPIRIT!
Cobbey Crisler on Acts 2:17+ (partly in citation B14, Acts 2:22-32)
[Cobbey:] “And, the prophecy we read about is about “pouring out the Spirit of God on all flesh.” Please note that Acts 2, verse 17, included “not only sons, but daughters, shall prophesy.” (See below)
Acts 2:17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
And this free, uninhibited, and still disciplined, access to the one Spirit by all nations, peoples, sexes, social levels, economic status, characterizes Christianity from the very beginning – not necessarily in the member’s thought, but that’s what the Holy Ghost is communicating, whether the members believe it or hear it, even today.
The separation into denominationalism was not the Holy Spirit’s idea. The embracing of universal humanity was. And here, we find even the ability to prophecy, both sexes, and not necessarily limited to nationality.
Now, in Acts 2, verse 22, Peter begins his lecture in earnest, and his sermon includes a definite documentation that “Jesus is the Messiah of scripture” and not just the Messiah who is the king and political leader but “the one who would be forced to meet every obstacle the world put in his path and overcome every one of them, certainly a way-shower to whom all humanity could relate.”
Here he says in Acts 2, Verse 23 that “Jesus was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.” Now, that’s just another way of saying what? Where do you find the “determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God”? (See below) In the scriptures, specifically – prophecy.
Acts 2:23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:
Acts 2:32 (cit. B14) This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
…
Now, remember this is Peter talking, and it was Peter, not too long ago, who had said none of this was going to happen to Jesus, right? So, he hadn’t even seen these Biblical passages himself. He was the one that said, “I go a-fishing.”
John 21:3 Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a-fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing.
He didn’t have time for anything else, even searching the scriptures – at that time. But, now, look. What happened in that 40-day period? And now, 50-day period? Something brought Peter back to the scriptures. And, it’s the Gospel of Luke that suggests who did it; who was it? Jesus, himself – that took his disciples on that walk-through scriptural prophecy.
Now, look what kind of students they become, these fishermen.
… [These verses show] you the intricacy that fishermen have suddenly become capable of in the interpretation of scripture, something that was totally designed, reserved, for the Rabbi, not for fishermen. They’re going into a passage, however, that they had heard Jesus go through himself.
… And Peter says the very first words Jesus said in his public ministry, according to at least one gospel, and that is the word “repent.” And that word “repent” which turns most of us off in this room, and probably most of the world off, in its original is an exciting concept and absolute a pre-requisite before we can even unite with the church that the Book of Acts is talking about.
“Repent” in Greek, coming from the – well the noun is “metanoia” m-e-t-a-n-o-i-a, metanoia, meaning to change your concept about things. Change your mind about things. Change you concept about things.
Now, that is the call of the church; it was the call of Jesus to his first listeners. Change your concept; that’s all that’s needed to get totally different results. The Christ summons humanity to change its concept it’s been adhering to all along – the atrophy. Because the Holy Ghost is moving through these changed concepts, and separating the old out from the new.
And when this happens, all this scriptural exegesis, the walk to Emmaus and the changing of concept, verse 41 shows that “three thousand new members joined the church.” (See below, Paraphrased)
Acts 2:41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
Now we talk about what is needed to get members in our church. The ingredients better be there; it’s the Holy Ghost pattern. Peter didn’t invent all that, and it was the result of the church praying “with one accord” to come out with the Holy Ghost. There’s no obstacle to the Holy Ghost.
Getting our church up to the highest possible platform with nothing standing between it and the Holy Ghost – and that’s moving — both in thought and action.
Look what occurs as a result of it. In Acts 2, verse 43: “Many wonders and signs are now done by all of the apostles.”
They’re healing everywhere! Not just understanding the Bible, but healing, but it looks like our comprehension of the Bible is essential to it, and both come from the Holy Ghost – both prophecy and understanding the scriptures, the key to the scriptures comes from the Holy Ghost, and no lesser source.
They, in verse 46, again with a familiar phrase, do what? “With one accord in the temple…one accord.” (See below)
Acts 2:46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
That’s the secret! But instead we opt for the easier alternative. If it isn’t working out “in one accord,” we leave early. (See above) (Laughter)
But, sticking it out on that high level, knowing that nothing can interfere between you and the Holy Ghost, you, collectively — that movement occurs and things happen that we never dreamed were possible.
And even Peter had to reach back into prophecy to explain what was going on because God had notified his people that this thing was possible collectively. And Acts 2, verse 47 ends: “The Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. “
“AFTER THE MASTER, WHAT?” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
DIVINELY LOVE & ESTEEM ALL AS YOU “CAST YOUR NET ON THE RIGHT SIDE” (toward the Decapolis & the rest of the Gentile world – a new take we got from our Principia Holy Lands Tour guide ( a Palestinian Christian) when at this Morning Meal site in January 2020) [plus Cobbey Crisler on John 21:1-15/citation B17,
plus Mary Baker Eddy’s spiritual sense of “the last spiritual breakfast with the disciples” (cit. S24, 34:29-14)
[Cobbey:] “John 21, the last chapter of John, is considered by some scholars to be a later addition, but still, very possibly, by the same author.
“John 21:1. We’re told that Jesus appears at the Sea of Tiberias, which is Galilee.
“John 21:2, “Already assembled there were seven disciples, all who had left the profession of fishing, – we thought: Peter; Thomas, Nathaniel, the sons of Zebedee, unnamed here, James and John, and two other of his disciples.”
“John 21:3. They apparently had nothing to do. Discipleship returns to the fishing boat. “Peter,” with his fingers almost audibly drumming against the side of his boat, “says I have an idea. I’m going fishing. Nobody else had any better suggestion. “So, they all go fishing. They spent that entire night fruitlessly. The very fishes avoided them. “Isn’t it interesting that the Anchor Bible makes this comment on the disciples’ profession, “It is notable that never in the gospels do the disciples catch a fish without Jesus help.”
“But notice the contrast between Verse 3 and Verse 4
John 21:3, ”That night they caught nothing.”
“John 21:4″But, when the morning as now come, Jesus stood on the shore.” What patience Jesus had with discipleship! Waiting for them to realize the importance of carrying on his work. But, once again, without that realization, “they did not even recognize Jesus humanly.”
“John 21:5. Jesus asked the main important question. You’ve spent the entire night out there. “Children, do you have any results? Do you have any meat? No is their answer:
“Now it is obvious when one is fishing – using a net that there’s very little difference between the right side and the left side. The factor then brought out in John 21:6 just be the obedience to Jesus’ word, the concept that he has exhibited throughout in his approach to economics and supply. “Cast the net he says, “on the right: side of the ship, and ye shall find. ” They are obedient. They do exactly what Jesus requests of them. Now, instantly, they find their net is filled with fishes. They could have saved themselves that entire night.
“Then, John 21:7 refers once again to ”the disciple whom Jesus loved. He recognizes Jesus. It is the Lord, he says.” He must have recognized. that sign of dominion. over all, that mastery that he introduced even into the profession of fishing but was attempting to elevate them from profession to practice of Christianity. What had happened to his invitation to them, and expectation of them, to become fishers of men?
“Edgar Lee Masters (1869-1950), U.S. poet and novelist, says this about it the impetuous Peter, “O Peter, gnarled. branch of the vine.” Peter throws his fisher’s coat around him and plunges into the sea. We must remember that the sea of Galilee has a shoreline that drops off quickly. So, he probably had to swim part of the way. Traditionally, sailors and fishermen. aren’t the best swimmers. But, ignoring that, just as Peter had burst into the tomb to be there first, he casts himself into the sea.
“John 21:8. ”While the other disciples bring the ship ashore, it says they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits, that’s about a hundred yards. dragging the net with fishes.”
“John 21:9. Here’s all that time they could have spared by giving priority to the lessons Jesus had already taught them. Jesus hadn’t toiled all night. He didn’t even have to use the fish that they brought in. “For when they arrived there “was a charcoal fire there.” In fact, the Greek word is anthrakian which is the root of our word anthracite. “And fish. already there; laid thereon– and bread.” Toast and fish all ready.
“John 21:10. But Jesus wanted them to participate in this, “and said, bring of the fish which ye have now caught.”
“John 21:11. Simon Peter, who was already on shore, goes to the net personally, and pulls it to shore. Who but a fisherman would remember this detail? ”There were one hundred fifty-three fishes in that net. Someone counted. It might be just the sign of the authenticity of authorship here by an eye-witness. “And still. the net was not broken.” Remember, back in Luke 5:6, at another incident, the net broke.
“John 21: 12. “Jesus invitation is “Come and dine.” Now, they know who he is.
[Bonus verses beyond citation B17:] “John 21:13. “Jesus,” in his characteristic gesture, “took bread, and gave them, and fish likewise.” This was indeed a breakfast, but how different from that last supper! This breakfast was celebrating his victory over death. Not looking forward to tragedy, death, and lack of comprehension by the disciples, the dawn was in the disciples thought as well as over the sea of Galilee on that special morning.
Now we engage in a dialogue between Jesus and Peter. The dialogue as printed in the King James Version (KJV), seems rather dull and repetitive indeed. In the original Greek however, there is a depth of meaning.
“John 21:15, “Jesus says to Peter, Do you love me more than these?” It’s obvious that Peter is being tested. We may ask, tested for what? That becomes clearer later in the story.
…
BONUS word study for the Greek words of philia and agape, both translated LOVE here in the KJV:
“Another word which we find repeated in the Greek New Testament, is philia, a word that conveys brotherly love. It still has a sense of class consciousness about it. It has the compassion and the sympathy, such as organizations like the Peace Corps show. But there is sometimes a condescending quality in the thinking of those who are expressing love at the philia level. Almost like patting the head of the one you are helping. As if implicitly we were saying, you’re down there and I’m up here, and I’m going to try to help you.
“The Greeks had a higher sense of love than that. And of course, taken out of classical Greek, it has a renewed and fuller meaning in concept in the New Testament. That word is agape. Agape, according to one commentator and lexicographer, conveys the following, “To desire good for the one you esteem. The concept of divine love.”
If I should to choose to love you at the level of agape, look what is required of me. First, I must esteem you. That’s not patting you on the head. That’s eye-to-eye respect and esteem. Can one really have love anywhere without that quality of respect? I must esteem you. But that, too, could be a passive sense of love, without that other part of the definition which this one commentator had provided.
“To desire good for one you esteem. I must be actively employed in desiring for you good or I am not operating at the level of agape.
“What word do you think Jesus uses when he says to Peter, “Do you love me?” ”Agapao?” he says. But Peter responds in the original text, “Yes, Lord you know that I love thee.” But he uses the word “phileo.” Maybe that explains Jesus’ repetition.”
“Book of John, A Walk with the Beloved Disciple,” B. Cobbey Crisler**
ENJOY AN EXCELLENT BONUS YouTube VIDEO PORTAYAL OF VERSES in JOHN 21 FROM CITATION B17, INCLUDING VERSE 25 AT John Chapter 21 – Bing video
