When webs don’t hold, Jesus throws a net

Sermon on John 21:1-19

Dear Saints!

When trapeze artists perform highly dangerous acts in the circus, they aren’t advised to do so without a net. That nothing serious can happen. Apart from the embarrassment of failing to perform. If you fall, you fall into the net.

When things are going badly, you are fortunate to have other people. A family. Parents. siblings, dear friends. Your church. Your »social network«, often carefully woven throughout your life. Yes, you might fall, it can happen. You might fall into sorrow, sadness, sickness, unhappiness, maybe even despair. But you don't crash when you have a social net of people surrounding you. If you fall, you fall into the net. This mesh of strings. 

Nets protect us from falling. Especially when we thought of them as a structured web and then it turns out like this messy net where suddenly the one friend you thought you could rely on, doesn’t respond or is totally off, while that neighbor you only knew from saying “Hi” in the mornings, suddenly totally relates to you and knows what you might need.

Peter thought he had fallen. He hadn't made it. He had denied Jesus. That night by the charcoal fire in the High Priest's courtyard. He had said three times: I don't know "him" at all! He ran away. He had been a coward. He didn't last. He had failed.

He felt like he had cut through everything that connected him to Jesus. He thinks to himself: “I have torn the web that holds me. The web that has held me and my Lord together so wonderfully all this time. And now I've fallen deeper than I ever thought. Denying Jesus." And he went out and wept bitterly. All was lost.

Then, the great surprise. Christ is risen. Everything was fine again. Mary Magdalene was the first to see him. And then he, Peter. He was allowed to see him before the other guys. But still he wasn't happy. He had failed. And didn't know if Jesus would ever forgive him that. Maybe he had just come back for judgement day? 

Again, they were sitting together by a charcoal fire. Peter and Jesus and the other friends. On a beautiful morning just after Easter. And after the meal together, this question suddenly came up. "Simon, do you love me?" Three times. Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” The same question three times. Sadness arises. Peter becomes teary-eyed. He thinks, “Jesus doesn't believe me. Jesus lost all faith in me, and rightly so. I am the one who broke up with Jesus, who tore the web apart.” And Peter answered Jesus, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” 

Wait, what did he just say? “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Peter said: Lord, I love you! And that was the truth and nothing but the truth. Peter himself confirmed that everything was fine. That the net wasn't torn. Just the web had turned out to be a net. But it still held him. Otherwise he wouldn't have been able to say: "You know that I love you."

At that moment, Jesus thinks to himself: “You see, Peter, it is possible. The love is there. You don't have to think you fell out of my loving net. I held you all the time! You have your love. All is well"

That’s the moment when Peter realizes how he was caught. Caught in the net woven from love's yarn. Because love is the strongest material there is. Love can weave networks that hold where nothing else can.

Nets and networks that can also hold us. Because that's what we hear today. It is the love of Jesus that kept Peter. And it is Jesus' love that also carries us. Jesus makes this clear to Peter, and he also tells us: if you fall, you will fall into my net of love. And nowhere else. Because there is nowhere else.

And then Jesus gives Peter three more commands: "Feed my lambs" - "Tend my sheep" - "Feed my sheep". In other words: “Peter, you have fallen into my net of love. I hold you. But now you also have to carry the others – with your love. You can now extend the love network. As part of my love net, which will now also become yours.”

The Love Net of Faith. It is stronger than any other net. Stronger than all family, social or state networks. Sometimes it’s even stronger than a congregational network. 

The task is the same, only much bigger: to catch. No more and no less. Catch! It catches us. So that even during the worst times, we are not alone. If we fall, we fall into the net. Into Jesus' love. And into the love that others show us, who are with us - in Jesus’ name.

Dear Saints! Our life with God is never a life without a safety net. Yes, we will fall. Sometimes very deep. But we fall into the net. Always. We fall into the net that Jesus weaves for us using people who are there for us. And we fall into the web that is himself. With all his strength and with all his love.

And when eventually fall one last time, when we fall into death - then God will long have stretched his love net there, too. Her network of love and life. Filled with everyone who had to go before us. And that’s where we will go one day. Falling into the softest network ever.

God’s love.

If we fall, we will fall in the net. Today and tomorrow. In joy and sorrow. In life and in death. Today and eternity. Amen.