John 21:5Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He enters into conversation in a wholly human way, as though intending to buy something from them. And He says, “Children, have you any food?” “No,” the disciples answer, “we have none,” because they did not recognize Him.

The disciples did not yet know that this was Jesus Christ, though they ought to have recognized Him. For how could an ordinary man know that, by casting the net on the right side of the boat, they would catch fish? Jesus Christ gave the specific command to cast the net on the right side so that the catch would not seem accidental.

That “pedagogy” is the guidance of children is clear from the very word. Therefore one must watch over the children whom Scripture has in view and set a pedagogue over them. We are the children. Scripture, portraying the simplicity of faith, praises us in many ways and ingeniously calls us by various figurative names. Thus it is said in the Gospel: “Standing on the shore, the Lord called to the disciples, who happened to be fishing, ‘Children, have you any fish?’” He calls men in the position of disciples children. He sets before us childlike simplicity for imitation. Greek παιδαγωγία literally means the guidance of children; cf. Gal 3:24-25.

Then Jesus says to them, “Children!” O what humility, what love, what tenderness fills this address! He says to them, “Children, have you any food?” He asks not from ignorance, but providentially, as though opening the door to the miracle. For when they answered Him, “No”...

When the apostles returned to Galilee, which they had left for so long during the Lord’s final journey to Jerusalem, the Lord first appeared to them there on the Lake of Gennesaret. The circumstances recalled those of three years before. Then four of them, Peter and Andrew, James and John, had been called to apostolic ministry, leaving their home and their ordinary occupations. Peter, or more precisely Simon Peter, as he is mostly called in this account, went to the Lake of Gennesaret to fish. With him were the two sons of Zebedee, James and John, Thomas, Nathanael, and two other unnamed disciples. As on that former occasion, their fishing was unsuccessful. They caught nothing. Toward morning someone from the shore asked whether they had anything to eat.

The account of Jesus Christ’s appearance to the apostles at the Sea of Tiberias forms an addition in John’s Gospel, since immediately before this the Evangelist had concluded the history of Jesus Christ’s Resurrection. One cannot fail to see what this addition to the Gospel means. The appearance at the Sea of Tiberias, besides restoring Peter to apostolic dignity, had a special significance for the Evangelist John himself. During this appearance the Lord in part indicated his future destiny. By the Lord’s will, he was to outlive all the apostles. “If I will that he remain until I come,” Jesus Christ said to Peter, when Peter asked about John’s destiny. This conditional expression was already understood among Jesus Christ’s disciples to mean that this disciple would not die.

Simon said that he was going fishing, and all followed him. They entered the boat, put out from shore, cast the nets, and worked the whole night, but caught nothing. In the morning, as they were nearing the shore, they saw a Man standing there. He addressed them with these words: “Children, have you any food?” They answered Him, “No.” He said to them: “Cast the net on the right side of the boat. And you will find some.” They obeyed, cast the nets, and when they began to draw them in, they could not pull them out because of the multitude of fish caught in them. Then Peter, James, and John remembered how three years earlier, on the same lake, at Jesus’ command, they had cast the nets after an unsuccessful night of fishing (Lk 5:1-9).

At early dawn, in the dim gloom, a man appeared on the shore, whom they did not recognize. He asked them whether they had caught anything. “No,” came the despondent answer. “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” They cast it, and could scarcely draw the net because of the multitude of fish. This event with irresistible force revived in them the memory of the past. “It is the Lord,” John whispers to Peter. Immediately this fervent-hearted apostle, throwing on his fisherman’s tunic, cast himself into the sea. He swam across the space separating him from Jesus Christ and, soaking wet, fell at His feet. The others followed, dragging the terribly strained yet unbroken net with one hundred fifty large fish.

“Have you any food?” More precisely, “Do you have anything edible?” As is clear from what follows, the questioner had fish specifically in mind: whether they had any fish.

Amid their labors on the sea at dawn, the disciples of the Lord Jesus see on the shore a certain man whom they do not recognize. Yet He calls them “My children,” παιδία. According to Chrysostom, Homily 87, p. 534, this Man appears to them as though wishing to buy their catch. Therefore they treat Him as an ordinary man. But the gentle voice, the name given to the disciples, “children,” and above all, perhaps, the command given to them to cast the net again, likely arouse John’s attention. His memory is carried back to the beginning of the Lord’s preaching, when Simon Peter and Andrew, and he with his brother, were called by the Lord (Lk 5:4-11; cf. Mt 4:18-21).