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Author: Stephen Weller
780 words, 4 minutes read time

All Night, No Fish!

Scripture: John 21:1-6

With the previous lesson we covered a short section in which Thomas has the opportunity to meet the resurrected Jesus and come to the point of belief. With this lesson we begin a section in which Jesus meets with seven of his disciples by the Sea of Tiberias.

^{Jn 21:1} After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. ² Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. ³ Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

“After this” would refer to the weeklong festival of Unleavened Bread that is now past and the disciples, in response to the instruction from the women, have left Jerusalem and returned to Galilee. During this time of reflection about all that has happened, Peter said to the other disciples that were with him that he was going fishing at the Sea of Tiberias, which is another name for the Sea of Galilee.

The disciples that were together at the time were “Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples.” The sons of Zebedee are named in Matthew 4:21 as James and John. It is reported in Luke 5:10 that they were partners with Simon in fishing prior to being called by Jesus to follow him and be fishers of men. The final two of the seven that went fishing that night were not named.

The seven went out and got into the boat and fished all night but they caught nothing, and just as day was breaking they noticed someone standing on the shore.

^{Jn 21:4} Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. ⁵ Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” ⁶ He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So, they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish.

The one standing on the shore was Jesus but it was not clear to the disciples yet that it was he. Maybe they were too far away or maybe it was still too dark to recognize him, but Jesus breaks the silence and calls out to them and asks them if they caught any fish, to which they responded with a “No.” Jesus then tells them something which at first might sound rather strange to the disciples. He tells them to cast the net on the right side of the boat, not the left side, and there you will find some fish. Does that imply that there were no fish on the left side of the boat? Their reaction to the instruction is not recorded but in obedience they cast the net and immediately it fills up with fish to the point that they were not able to haul it into the boat.

Much earlier in the relationship between Jesus and the disciples, Jesus gets into Simon’s boat and had Simon put the boat out a little from the land. He then sat down and taught the people from the boat (Luke 5:1 – 3). 4 “And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking” (Luke 4:4 – 6 ESV).

Do you suppose that earlier event came to mind and then they suddenly recognized that the man on the shore was Jesus? We will find out in the next lesson.

Conclusion

At this time there were seven disciples together who decide to go fishing and fished all night and caught nothing. At daybreak a person standing on the shore instructs them to cast the net one more time from the right side of the boat and they would catch some fish. They do as instructed and caught so many fish that they could not haul the net in. What happens next will be covered in the next lesson.