Friends: It wasn’t until Jesus’s end that the disciples knew their ministry was just beginning, or that their lives – all our lives – were renewed.  Blessings, Bob

(P.S. – Indy friend Steve Bickel passed away quietly last Wednesday 20 years after a bicycle accident in September 2006 broke his neck, fractured his skull, and left him conversantly alert but bedridden. A former preacher and real estate executive with Marsh grocery stores, Steve even in his situation was a cheerful rock of faith, was a delight to visit, and became a good friend. Prayers go out to Jean and the family who will celebrate his life Wednesday, April 8, at Flanner and Buchanan on Carmel Drive, Carmel, Indiana. Visitation is 10-noon, the service is at noon.)

--- --- ---

Spirituality Column #1012

April 7, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Life on the Beach

By Bob Walters

“…those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.” – Isaiah 40:31.

On the cross Jesus says, “It is finished.” That is our signal to get started.

These first few days after Easter annually put my mind on that beach with Peter and the disciples, who recognized the risen Lord but were afraid to say anything of His identity.

All the disciples but Peter and John – “the disciple Jesus loved” – had bailed on Jesus after his arrest. Peter, shortly thereafter and egregiously, denied knowing Jesus three times.

Only John witnessed their Lord on the cross.

As Jesus finished His earthly ministry at Calvary in obedience, love, glory, and death, the new ministry of the disciples – of the new covenant of life in Christ – began. Jesus truly died a human death, and in His blood and resurrection was our eternal life.

At the cross, the faith of everyone was strained. Imagine: a Roman executioner was the only human to recognize Jesus – in His death – as the Son of God. It would take His resurrection to convince those who previously believed all Jesus had told them.

Even John and the few women at the cross, knowing Jesus was dead, did not track what Jesus had said hours earlier: that He was going away for a little while but would return. All were stunned to discover an empty tomb, then later see the resurrected Lord in a locked room, encounter Him in a public meeting, and now, here on a beach.

On this beach, a stunning scene in John 21, Jesus was cooking a breakfast of fish for the disciples, fish He had instructed them how to catch. It is the third time the disciples saw the resurrected Jesus, and apparently the only time they were alone with Him. As a note of symmetry, Jesus at the beginning of His ministry three years earlier also instructed a bountiful catch, telling them they would be fishers of men.

Now at the end with another bountiful catch, Jesus begins their new day of service by symbolically providing breakfast. In His resurrected presence, their doubts will end and their new mission begin. It was a new beginning to their new life with Christ.

What was not understood at the foot of the cross could now begin to take shape.

Jesus pulled Peter aside and addressing him as Simon – which Jesus always did when Peter had a new beginning – thrice queried if Peter loved Him, each time instructing him to “feed my sheep.” Instead of a harsh rebuke for denying Him three times, Jesus forgave Peter three times. Love was the key and Peter’s work was laid out.

In time the world would realize that Jesus was more than what the disciples had understood Him to be on earth: their Lord, Son of God.  In His resurrection, they would soon learn he was God the Savior, restoring mankind’s eternal relationship with God.

Try to imagine the relief, confusion, awe, and likely fear that settled over not just that beach breakfast but over all who witnessed the newly risen King. It was already a heavenly story to be told, and now became a heavenly mission for humanity. This was a renewal for all the world, and with faith in Christ something entirely new under the sun.

God was now personal. His love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness by the Spirit was visited upon the human heart through the door Jesus unlocked. Jesus elevated our hope not only from momentary to permanent, but from permanent to eternal.

Jesus would be – and is – with us always in realms we can’t define but that deliver the exciting promise that death is overturned and life is renewed forever.

I doubt the disciples grasped this Godly purpose on the beach, or understood what lay ahead. But they would have known their work was far from finished.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is on spring break and likes the beach analogy.