John 21:3Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Therefore Peter goes out with the others to fish. The others join him as he sets out for this. Through this also our Savior Jesus Christ orders what is profitable for us. For He once said to them, when He laid on them the yoke of teaching and called them to apostolic ministry: “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matt 4:19).

To assure them again, by a plain image, that what He had said would certainly be fulfilled, He persuades them clearly from their own familiar occupation. His promise would prove entirely true. The blessed disciples took up their craft, for they were fishermen. Yet they “caught nothing,” though they labored “all” the night. When morning had already come, and the light and rays of the sun began to spread, “Jesus stood on the shore.” But they did not know that it was He.

Then He asked whether they had anything in their nets that belonged to food. They said that they had caught nothing at all. Then He commanded them to cast the “net on the right side of the boat.” They say: Though through the whole night we have spent vain and useless toil, yet “at Your word” we will let down the nets. As soon as they did this, the weight of the fish caught exceeded the strength of those drawing the net.

Such is the narrative that the divine Evangelist has given us. We have just said that through an event quite evident and truly accomplished, the Savior assured the holy Apostles that, according to His word, they would be fishers of men. Therefore, explaining as far as we can the true meaning of what occurred as in a figure, we shall try to bear witness to the truth of the Savior’s words. By unfolding the details of the event as far as possible, we shall offer readers, I think, no small grounds for spiritual contemplation. For “give occasion to a wise man, and he will be wiser. Instruct a righteous man, and he will increase in receiving” (Prov 9:9).

Therefore, by the disciples’ fishing through the whole night, while they caught nothing and spent their labor in vain, I think this is indicated. We shall find scarcely anyone persuaded by the preaching of the ancient teachers and caught for the full accomplishment of God’s will. Or else we shall find very few. For a very small number is equal to nothing when taken from an immense multitude. And the human race is rightly presented as immense throughout the whole inhabited world.

What, then, was the difficulty and obstacle that made the labor of the ancients vain? What condemned their preaching to barrenness? It was night, and there was still darkness. A certain spiritual blindness and demonic deception lay upon the eyes of the mind, not permitting them to see the truly divine and true Light. For there was none who did good, according to the word of the Psalmist. There was not even one. All had turned aside, and all had become useless (Ps 13:1, 3; cf. Rom 3:12).

If Israel was in some manner caught through Moses, still it was on the level of those not caught at all. For Israel performed worship in shadows and figures and was guided by a law that brought nothing to perfection (Heb 7:19). Indeed, that we must regard figurative worship as quite useless, and even contrary to God, can easily be seen from this. He rejects bloody sacrifices and every kind of earthly and bodily offering. For He says: “Why do you bring Me frankincense from Sheba, and cinnamon from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, and your sacrifices have not pleased Me” (Jer 6:20).

We say this not in order to dishonor the first commandment given of old, nor from a desire to accuse the law. On the contrary, we wish to show our hearers that God, the Master of all, looks only to the beauty of the Gospel life. Therefore those caught for useless service in shadows and figures are placed as though on the level of those not yet caught, until the time of reformation should dawn (Heb 9:10). For Christ clearly said when He became man: “I am the truth” (John 14:6).

But if something else must be added to this, I shall not delay, for the sake of profit. Those who were called through Moses to instruction by the law despised even the law that had been given. As though loudly laughing at the holy commandment, they turned to teachings and commandments of men (Matt 15:9). They fell into so harsh and insensible a disposition that even the word of the holy prophets lost its force among them. Therefore the prophets cried out: “Lord, who has believed our report?” (Isa 53:1; cf. John 12:37; Rom 10:16). Jeremiah likewise says: “Woe is me, my mother, that you bore me a man of judgment and strife for the whole earth. I have not lent, nor has anyone lent to me. My strength has failed because of those who curse me” (Jer 15:10).

How, then, should disobedient and unbridled Israel not be counted on the level of those wholly uncaught, when it trampled underfoot even the law appointed through Moses? As for the multitude of the Gentiles, that they were then still uncaught and remained wholly outside the enclosure of divine teachings requires no proof from us. For darkness was upon their heart, and a diabolical night drove away the light of true knowledge of God.

Thus those who lived before the coming of Christ, having labored, so to speak, “through the whole night,” still had their spiritual net empty of fish.

Moreover, on that first occasion Jesus was not standing on the shore. He entered Simon’s boat and asked him to put out a little from the land. There they placed the fish they had caught into the boat. They did not draw the net to shore, as here. One event took place before the Lord’s Resurrection, and the other after the Resurrection. The first signified our calling by the Lord. The present event signifies our resurrection from the dead.

In the former episode, the nets are not cast to the right, lest people think He indicates only the good. Nor are they cast to the left, lest people think He indicates the evil. No, He commands them to cast the nets in any manner: “Let down your nets for a catch” (Luke 5:4). This is all He says, implying both the good and the evil. But now He says: “Cast the net on the right side of the boat” (John 21:6), implying those who will stand at the right hand, that is, the good.

Only those who are to rise to life, that is, to be found at the right hand, are caught in the net of the Christian name. They will stand on the shore, that is, at the consummation of the world, after the resurrection. Therefore they could not draw the net into the boat and unload the fish, as happened before. The Church keeps her own after the end of this life in peaceful rest, as though in the deep, until the net reaches the shore.

If the disciples had done this while Jesus was in the tomb, before He rose from the dead, we might have thought that they acted from despair. But now He had risen from the tomb. The scars of His wounds had been seen. He had breathed the Holy Spirit into them. Yet suddenly they became what they had been before: fishermen, not of men, but of fish.

To those troubled by this, one should answer that their apostleship did not forbid them to obtain food by the lawful use of their skills, provided they had no other means of livelihood. For blessed Paul did not use the authority that he undoubtedly had together with the other preachers of the Gospel, though they did use it. He went to war at his own expense, so that the Gentiles, to whom the name of Christ was strange, might not be offended by his teaching if he brought it not without cost. Though trained otherwise, he learned a craft he had never known before. Thus the hearer would not be burdened while the teacher labored with his hands.

How much more, then, could Peter, who had formerly been a fisherman, return to the work he knew, if at that time he had nothing from which to feed himself? But someone may ask: How did he have nothing, if the Lord gives the promise, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matt 6:33)? The answer is this: what the Lord promised, He also fulfilled. For who else gathered the fish that entered the nets? We must suppose that He brought them into the need that compelled them to go fishing precisely in order to show them the miracle.

For it is one thing to acquire sustenance through fishing, and another to acquire money through the profits of a publican. There are many occupations that can scarcely be performed without sins, or decisively cannot be so performed. Therefore, after conversion, the soul must by necessity not return to those occupations that entangle it in sin.

When the Evangelist John wrote his Gospel, he was about ninety years old. It was very possible that some Christians, recalling Jesus Christ’s words about His beloved disciple, thought that he really would not die. Therefore the Evangelist John explains with special care that the Lord’s words must be understood conditionally (21:22-23). Moreover, in the prediction to Peter of the destiny awaiting him as a preacher and confessor of Christ, the destiny of all Christ’s followers is also prefigured. It concerns their relation to the unbelieving world, among 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, at Jesus Christ’s command, returned from Jerusalem to Galilee. It was the third appearance among the appearances to many disciples: the first was 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 at the Sea of Galilee. He appears precisely during the apostles’ fishing and after the miraculous catch made at Christ’s word. All this had to remind Peter and his companions of the history of their call to follow Jesus, when it was promised that they would one day become fishers of men (Lk 5:1 and following). Just as the fishing figuratively indicated to the apostles their preaching labors, which would be successful with Christ’s help, so the meal Christ then prepared 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 been significant 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, around which he denied Christ.

They remembered how their nets were filled with a multitude of fish. John looked at the Man standing on the shore, recognized Jesus in Him, and immediately said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” Peter looks toward the shore and sees that it truly is He. Beside himself with joy, he seizes the first garment at hand, girds his naked body with it, and throws himself into the water to swim to shore as quickly as possible.

“They caught nothing that night.” Night is the more convenient time for fishing with a net. This fruitless fishing through the whole night had to remind Peter, James, and John of that similar night which, about three years earlier, preceded their being chosen by the Lord for apostolic ministry (Lk 5:5 and following).

The persons named by John the Theologian probably lived in the two cities just mentioned. As neighbors, they were always together. Nathanael alone was not from close by, and of him it is especially mentioned that he was from Cana of Galilee. Cana lay much farther south, on the parallel of Tiberias, and westward into the depth of Galilee.

But if those mentioned by the Evangelist “were together,” this does not mean that only these seven persons waited for the Lord in Galilee. On the contrary, not only does Matthew 28:16 indicate that all eleven Apostles went to Galilee at His command. One must also think that the appearance to more than five hundred brethren, of which the Apostle Paul speaks (1 Cor 15:6), took place in Galilee. After the feast of Unleavened Bread had ended, not only the Apostles, but many disciples went to Galilee. They went according to the word of the angel and of the Lord Himself to the myrrh-bearing women (Matt 28:5-7, 10; Mark 16:7).

We should also note that Matthew’s Gospel does not mention the Lord’s Ascension. It indicates the Lord’s appearance in Galilee and the content of His conversation with the disciples there. Namely, He sends them to preach and promises to be with believers until the end of the age (Matt 28:16-20). It is very possible that this was precisely the Lord’s appearance to the numerous assembly of brethren of which the Apostle Paul speaks.

The persons who were together, of whom the Evangelist John speaks, were Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, the sons of Zebedee, that is, John and James, and probably, by comparison with John 1:41 and 43-44, Peter’s brother Andrew and Philip of Bethsaida. Perhaps all these persons, through kinship, old acquaintance, and common trade, even lived together. They supported themselves by fishing and formed a friendly community.

All the other Apostles, and the many disciples of the Lord who had come to Galilee, likely dispersed to their homes for the time being. They did so until a special summons by the Lord’s command, devoting themselves meanwhile to their usual occupations. Yet one cannot fail to notice that Thomas, from the moment of his confession of faith, seems inseparable from the chief Apostles. We do not know reliably from what city he came. Nowhere is it indicated that he was related to Peter or to the sons of Zebedee. It seems to us that he remained constantly with Peter, fearing to be absent again when the Lord would gladden the disciples by another appearance.

Simon Peter appears as the head of the community formed on the Lake of Galilee. He first proposes going fishing, and all follow him. Peter’s primacy among equals was recognized from the beginning, as also later in the religious life of the Christian community (Acts 1:15; 2:14 and elsewhere). Chrysostom also indicates this when Peter asks the Lord about John’s future fate, below in verse twenty-one.

All those who lived together, and probably had a common meal and common occupation, seem to have owned the large boat that went with them into the lake for fishing. We note that Luke 5:2, 7, 11 indicates that Peter and the sons of Zebedee, though engaged in fishing together, previously had different boats. Compare Matt 4:18, 21.

Fishing everywhere and in all countries is done chiefly by night. Therefore we read both in Luke 5:5 and in John 21:3 that the Apostles who were fishermen worked at night. There is no need to suppose that the Apostles feared to work by day. In Galilee they had no one to fear.

These two events have, as we shall see below in verse six, a close connection. In both cases, by God’s special will, the fishing, which has deep symbolic meaning, was unsuccessful by night, but extraordinarily successful at the Lord’s word.