FRONT-PORCH GOSPEL: ‘It is the Lord’ gives us life’s greatest philosophy

Good week. Welcome to the “Front Porch.”

Near morning, John writes as he begins his narrative in the twenty-first chapter of John – a shadowy figure appears on the shore of the sea where seven of the Lord’s disciples have fished all night.

The unidentified figure calls out to those seven men working some hundred yards from shore: “Children, do you have anything to eat?” which we interpret as, “Have you fellas caught anything tonight for breakfast?”

They all answer that they had not caught a thing, and we can imagine that it is with a tone of frustration.

I cannot help but think that there is a hint of symbolism there regarding the state of our lives sometimes.

We have all seen life’s nights when we endured all-night fishing trips without catching anything.

You understand.

Just a note, while we’re here: Be assured that during those barren periods, the One who often works in mysterious ways will always come walking on the shore within shouting distance of our little boats.

I say, “mysterious” and we remember the apostle’s great exclamation that, “eye has not seen nor ear heard what the Lord has done for us” – or, in this case, what He is about to do for these seven men.

The shadowy figure on the shore hollers back for them to cast the net on the other side of the boat. And when they obey Him, they draw a netful of fish, full to the brim. Amazingly, it does not break, even though it is too heavy for seven men to pull it into the boat.

They immediately head to shore sluggishly pulling exactly one-hundred and fifty-three fish to shore – a number John includes in his narrative, for reasons that are probably grander than we could ever imagine.

In all His greatness and “bigness,” God is still a God of precision and a God of little things. John, for his part, may have just been adding up just how great the miracle is that his Lord has just performed.

At first, the disciples do not recognize the Lord as he calls out to them in the twilight of the morning – except for one.

Were we to guess which disciple guessed who that mysterious man is, we would likely first think of Peter – normally the most perceptive disciple in the group – but it is not Peter this time.

Perhaps his spiritual mind is still cloudy from his abject failure there in Caiphas’ hall only a few days before. It was the lowest hour of Peter’s life, and it takes some time to recover from those hours.

The one who recognizes the Lord is the writer of this gospel. It is John, “the disciple whom Jesus loved.”

When John realizes who is standing there on the shore of that blessed sea, he hollers out something powerful and classic to the rest of his fisherman friends, and to us: “It is the Lord!” he exclaims.

Ah, what an astute observation!

But it’s more than that. It is a philosophy by which to live.

It is the vantage point from which every Christian and every man of faith learns to look at life, the more the further down the road we go.

The others’ blind eyes suddenly are opened to the great truth, and they all make their way to shore to see the Master, with Peter’s efforts surpassing them all.

He dives into the water with a child’s eager enthusiasm. He swims to his Lord so he can beat them all, just as he had beaten John on that resurrection morning into the tomb of our Lord, though he was slower of foot. He figures he can swim to shore faster than six men can row a boat with fishing gear and lugging a cab of one-hundred and fifty-three fish. We have to admire Peter’s quick thinking and his enthusiasm, as always, even though his wit sometimes gets him into a bit of trouble.

John’s declaration, “It is the Lord,” grabs our attention.

It is in that statement that we can build a case to answer the question of the ages, “Just how big IS God?”

We’re anxious to examine this scene and others to find out how big God is.

Oh, I know – even if all the stories and accounts of our Lord’s life could be told and we could write all of them in great detail, “the world could not hold the books that should be written.”

A great lesson comes to us here, and it will go with us all through the narrative of this journey – if you and I are not seeing the Lord in everything, then our God is not nearly, nearly big enough to us.

Carry that powerful thought with you as you go about. We are so glad that our good friend John, that great disciple, just in a passing moment, lays down a very practical, real way to look at the world. To Peter, he says: “It is the Lord!”

And we say, in everything it is the Lord.

Coach Steven Bowen, a long-time Red Oak teacher and coach, now enjoys his time as a full-time writer and preacher of the gospel. In addition to his evangelistic travels, he works and writes for the Church of Christ of Red Oak at Uhl Road and Ovilla. Their worship times are 10 a.m. Sundays and 7:30 pm. Wednesdays. Email coachbowen1984@gmail.com or call or text (972) 824-5197.