John 21:13Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Here it is not said that He ate with them, but Luke says that He ate with them (Lk 24:30). We cannot explain how He ate, for this happened in an extraordinary manner. It was not because His nature needed food, but it was an act of condescension, to prove the Resurrection. The Evangelist says, "This was now the third time He appeared." By this he shows that He did not remain with them continually, nor as before. Understand this, if you wish, also in a contemplative sense. The command, "Come and dine," hints that the saints, after their labors, receive rest, abundance, and delight. For everything then done and spoken was full of mystery. For example, that Mary took Him for the gardener seems simple, yet there is something hidden in it. He truly was the true worker of the garden, in the garden of the tomb as in Paradise. He was restoring the female race, and turning from deception and unbelief her who had deceived the first gardener, Adam. For Mary's conversion and the teaching concerning the Resurrection indicate that the female race is converted and raised up to perfection.

The ninth was when He appeared to the disciples as they reclined at supper; see Mk 16:14. The tenth was when He was no longer seen on earth, for He ascended in a cloud into heaven; see Mk 16:19 and Lk 24:50-51.

“The third time” refers not to the number of appearances, but to the days. In other words, the first day includes all His appearances on the day of the Resurrection. The second day comprises the events eight days later, when Thomas saw Him and believed.

Now the third day is the day on which they catch fish. And so on, up to the day of His Ascension.

Observe also that here it is said what they ate for dinner. We shall say something sweet and saving about this meal, if He deigns to make us participants in it.

Earlier it was said that, when these disciples came out onto the land, they saw coals laid there, and a fish lying on them, and bread; compare Jn 21:9. This should not be understood to mean that the bread also lay on the coals.

Rather, “they saw” should be supplied. If we repeat this verb where it must be understood, the whole sentence may be spoken thus: “They saw coals laid there, and a fish lying on them; and they saw bread.”

Or even thus: “They saw coals laid there, and a fish lying on them; they saw also bread.” At the Lord’s command they brought some of the fish they themselves had caught.

Although the narrator does not state that they did this, he does not pass over in silence that the Lord commanded it. For he says, “Bring some of the fish which you have now caught” (Jn 21:10). Since He commanded this, who would believe that they did not do it?

So the Lord prepared a meal for His seven disciples. It was, of course, from the fish they had seen lying on the coals, with some of those they had caught added to it, and from the bread which the narrative says they saw.

The roasted fish is Christ who suffered. Augustine uses a play on words here: Piscis assus, Christus est passus. He is also the bread which came down from heaven (Jn 6:41). The Church is incorporated into Him, so as to share eternal blessedness.

For this reason it was said, “Bring some of the fish which you have now caught.” Thus all of us who nourish such hope may know that, through this sevenfold number of disciples, which in this passage prefigures our communion, we share in this mystery and this blessedness.

This is the Lord’s meal with His disciples. With this John ended his Gospel, although I am convinced that much else could have been said about Christ, with great attention to great matters.

Here the catch of one hundred fifty-three fish prefigures the Church as she will be when she consists only of the good. Through this meal, those who believe this, hope for it, and love it are shown their participation in such blessedness.

Toward morning someone from the shore asked whether they had anything edible, not bread, but what is added to bread at table, here fish. The disciples answered, "No." Then the One standing on the shore advised them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat and promised success. The success was extraordinary. Seven men could not draw in the nets because of the multitude of fish. Later they counted twenty-two large fish for each brother, except one. This success in fishing probably reminded John of their former miraculous catch. He guessed that the Lord Himself was on the shore and immediately told the others of this thought. As soon as Simon Peter heard it, he threw himself into the water, so as to draw nearer to Jesus more quickly, or so that He might not withdraw from them. The others also arrived there at once. On the shore, it was no longer they who offered Him refreshment or a meal from their catch, but He Himself. He distributes bread and fish to them. If the fishing foretold to the disciples the action of their preaching, then the drawing of the catch to the feet of Jesus was a foreshadowing. It showed how their action in this ministry must end, and what successes they were to expect. The meal of Jesus signified the reward from Him in His kingdom, or the supper in the kingdom of heaven. Thus this supper recalled the Last Supper in Jerusalem before the Passion. But it also had a further special relation to those events.

Already among the disciples of Jesus Christ this conditional expression was understood to mean that this disciple would not die. When the Evangelist John wrote his Gospel, and at that time he was about ninety years old, it could well be that some Christians remembered those words of Jesus Christ about His beloved disciple and thought he truly would not die. Therefore the Evangelist John explains with particular care that those words of the Lord must be understood conditionally (21:22-23). Moreover, in the prediction to Peter of the destiny awaiting him as preacher and confessor of Christ, the destiny of all Christ's followers is also foreshadowed. It shows their relation to the unbelieving world, in the midst of which the Gospel of the kingdom of God will be preached. The time of this appearance cannot be precisely determined. In general, it belongs to the time when the apostles, by the command of Jesus Christ, returned from Jerusalem to Galilee. It was the third appearance among the appearances to many disciples, the first being 20:19 and the second 20:26. The purpose of this appearance was the restoration of the Apostle Peter, who had denied Christ three times, to his apostolic dignity. Therefore the Risen One appears not just anywhere, but precisely on the Sea of Galilee. He appears precisely while the apostles are fishing, and after a miraculous catch at Christ's word. All this was meant to remind Peter and his companions of the history of their calling to follow Jesus. Then they had been promised that one day they would become fishers of men (Lk 5:1ff.). As the fishing figuratively pointed the apostles to their preaching labors, which would succeed with Christ's help, so the meal afterward arranged by Christ could point its participants to the enjoyment of the blessings of eternal life. This would be their reward for faithful and zealous service to the Gospel. It may also have had significance that the Lord prepared this meal by means of fire. This fire was to remind Peter of the fire in the high priest's courtyard, near which he had denied Christ.

Having acknowledged his sin and, immediately after the fall, wept over it with bitter tears, the apostle no longer dared set his love above the love of the other disciples. He did not even dare compare it with theirs, but simply and humbly answered, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You." In response to this humble confession the Lord said to the apostle, "Feed My lambs." According to the explanation of Basil the Great, He called those newly born in the faith "lambs."

Yet toward His disciples after the Resurrection, the Lord showed a special fatherly mercy. He not only stood as a Father before their table more than once, when He appeared to them together. He also ate food with them, according to the testimony of the Evangelist Luke; see Lk 24:43.

He did this to signify communion with them in the flesh, as also in the spirit.

The Evangelist’s indication is very remarkable: the disciples did not dare ask Him, “Who art Thou?” since they knew that He was the Lord.

There can be no doubt that the human body which clothed the Lord, and was raised with Him to the throne of the Holy Trinity, became still more majestic and illumined after His words: “I ascend to My Father” (Jn 20:17).

Thus the disciples knew that this was the Lord. Yet with a certain reverent trembling they sometimes asked themselves whether He was the One to whom they had grown so accustomed.

Was He the One who allowed simple dealings with Himself, as equal with equal? Was He the One who loved and taught them, and who endured insults and death?

The question, “Who art Thou?” which the disciples did not dare to utter, did not mean that they doubted that this was the Lord Jesus, risen from the dead. John clearly indicates this in verse 12.

The unspoken question had a deeper and more important meaning. It was like the question Jacob put to the mysterious wrestler, who answered him: “Why do you ask My name? It is wonderful.” And He blessed him there; see Gen 32:29.

Nothing more was explained to Jacob. But the Apostles had already received the explanation of the mysteries of God in the final discourse. At times reverent perplexity still came upon them, yet they did not utter the question that rose to their lips.

This was because the Holy Spirit reminded them and explained to them what the Lord had spoken before. “He,” said the Lord, “will glorify Me, for He will take what is Mine and declare it to you” (Jn 16:14).

In verse 14 the Evangelist adds that this was the third time the Lord appeared to the disciples after He had risen from the dead. Clearly the Evangelist is speaking only of the Lord’s appearances to the disciples gathered together, that is, to the representatives of Christ’s Church as Church.

Therefore this number does not include the Lord’s appearances to Mary Magdalene and the myrrh-bearing women, to Peter, to James, and to the disciples going to Emmaus. These were appearances to individual persons, not to the Church.

Thus we clearly understand that the Lord appeared to the assembly of the Apostles on the day of His Resurrection. Then He appeared seven days later, together with Thomas. This appearance on the Lake of Galilee, to many disciples together, was the third.

For this reason it was the first appearance after the disciples had gone from Jerusalem to Galilee. After this appearance on the Lake of Galilee, the Lord’s appearance in Galilee to more than five hundred brethren must have taken place, of which the Apostle Paul speaks (1 Cor 15:6).

It may be supposed that during the Lord’s conversation with Peter, John, and the other disciples by the lake, He commanded them to inform all the other disciples of the place where they would see Him.

Pious tradition indicated that the gathering of the disciples took place where the Lord delivered the Sermon on the Mount concerning the Beatitudes. This is Mount Hattin, near Capernaum; compare the expression “to the mountain” in Mt 28:16.

That the appearance to the five hundred disciples should be understood in Mt 28:16-17 seems evident from the fact that some doubted. This word, of course, could no longer refer to any of the Apostles, who had seen the Lord.

It probably refers to some of the many disciples to whom the Lord appeared, most likely after the events on the Lake of Galilee and the restoration of Peter in all the rights of the foremost Apostle.

Here the Lord probably spoke repeatedly with the Apostles and disciples about the Kingdom of God; see Acts 1:4. After this He commanded them to go to Jerusalem.

There He ascended from the mountain called Olivet, near Bethany; see Lk 24:50 and Acts 1:4, 9-12.