What Now? – John 21

Two weeks after Easter,
people were already back
to ordinary things.

Back to work,
back to home,
back to the places
that felt familiar enough
to hold their confusion.

Jesus was risen.
That much was clear.
Eternal life was theirs.
But what did that mean
on a Monday,
or in grief,
or when your body hurt,
or when someone you loved
died too soon?

The disciples went fishing.
Of course they did.
Fishing was the thing
they knew how to do.
The thing that had once made sense.
They fished all night
and caught nothing.

It is hard not to love
how honest the Bible is
about disappointment.
Even after Easter,
there are empty nets.

Then Jesus appeared on the shore,
and everything changed
without becoming less ordinary.
A voice from land.
A net thrown again.
A sudden weight of fish.
Someone saying,
That is the Lord.

Peter did not pause
to look composed.
He threw on his cloak
and ran to him.

Jesus had breakfast waiting.
Bread. Fish. Fire.
The risen Lord cooking
for tired people.

I love that he did not begin
with a lecture
or a grand display.
He fed them first.
He was still teaching them,
just by standing there
beside a charcoal fire,
showing them that eternal life
does not float above hunger
but meets us in it.

Then came the walk on the beach,
and the old wound opened again.
Do you love me?
Do you love me?
Do you love me?

Three times,
for the three denials.
Not to crush Peter
but to restore him.
Not to put him on probation
but to tell him
that forgiveness can go deeper
than failure.

Feed my sheep.
That is what startles me most.
Jesus did not only forgive Peter.
He trusted him with something real.

Follow me, he said.

Not because the road would be easy.
Not because Peter would understand it.
Not because resurrection
meant life would now go smoothly.
But because the risen Lord
still gives purpose
to people who love him.

That is what Easter means now:
the risen Jesus
meets us in empty places,
feeds us in our need,
forgives us in our failure,
gives us work worth doing,
and leads us toward the new creation.

Who would not give their life
to a Lord like this?

Original message by Joel Mailei,
The Bridge Church Macquarie Park NSW
19 April 2026