I cannot remember ever having fish for breakfast. However, I have toyed with the idea of getting my church together one Easter season and having the mother of all fish fries on the Saturday following Good Friday. What a delightful fellowship that would be.

Actually I can remember the delicious feasts of yesteryear with frog leg breakfasts. My dad has always been an outdoorsman, and he would occasionally wade the nearby creeks in search of these prizes. All night he would work/play. Then, Mom would rise about 8 AM on a Saturday morn, and we would enjoy a family fellowship breakfast of eggs, fresh “tarpon-head” biscuits, frog legs, home grown tomatoes, enough gravy to take a bath in, home made blackberry jelly, real butter, and usually some surprise dish to top it all off. Hello cholesterol!

I am also reminded of another breakfast fellowship when fish was served. Jesus gives a special invitation to some of His favored disciples:

John 21:12 Jesus said to them, Come, break fast.

OFTEN we speak of the Last Sup­per, rarely of the first breakfast. (It is a little humorous that most Christians celebrate the Last Supper closer to breakfast than supper!) As Christians we believe that Jesus is with us in the sacramental breaking of bread, if we do it in remembrance of Him. I wonder if we are as conscious that he is also with us in the times we eat to satisfy our hunger and replenish our bodies in strength. Do we see Him present at both meals?

Do you picture Him as the Unseen Guest at the table of your home as well as at the communion desk in your church? The symbolism and the sacramental emblems of both are in the Bible. Isn’t it significant that at the close of His life he offers His Body and His Blood in sacrament, and in the close of this Gospel, He offers the nourishment of fish and loaves to begin anew? Isn’t it ripe with meaning that he says to his followers, “Come and dine!”?

“Come and break your fast” are the words of the Savior who unfailingly gives us our daily bread. There are twenty-one chapters in the Gospel of John, and John reminds us that they are all written that we might believe the Jesus is the Son of God. The disciple whom Jesus loved says that, by believing, we will all have life – life more abundant and everlasting.

Yet, with all this Divinity, Jesus could not be seen any more human than at the closing words of this great book. Like my mom preparing a breakfast for her family, Jesus is standing on the lake shore, building a camp-fire and cook­ing the fish. With motherly eyes, He sees the tired and wearied men. They had fished all night and had caught no fishes! They are wearied by a night of fruitless toil. Isn’t it amazing that in John’s effort to expose the Deity of Christ, he reveals His Humanity!

We do not have many pictures of this first breakfast. However, would it not make for a beautiful painting? I will do my best with my feeble words to give you a glimpse of what I see. I set my imaginary brush to my imaginary canvas and I glimpse a little group that are gathered around a campfire. It is at the edge of dawn and the darkness of the night is being slowly overtaken by the rising of a new day. The colors are still grey but gaining intensity by the moment. The sands of Genessaret are before us, and in the midst of the dawn Jesus is standing tending the fish for the meal.

The disciples are there as they were in the Last Supper, but there are not quite as many. Of course, Judas Iscariot is not there; there are also four others who are missing. That leaves seven present. Look at Peter who is dripping wet; he could not wait for the slow boat to bring him to Jesus. Observe John, who is the first to recognize Jesus. Behold Thomas whose doubts are gone forever, finally, there is James, Nathaniel and two others. What a motley group, and yet they are family, they are the church at the first breakfast!

These disciples are gathered around the Jesus-made campfire, and over yonder by the sea is their boat. If I were paining this picture, I would show it half dragged out of the water resting on the sand with an abundant catch of fish, testifying to a recent miracle catch. Smack dab in the center of this outdoor scene is Jesus standing in all the glory of the resurrection!

I love outdoor scenes. In my home I have several paintings by different artists who I have been blessed to pastor over the years, and each is a beautiful outdoor landscape. I think God’s world is so beautiful. The first call to the church is outdoors.

Matthew 16:18 … I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

The church does not have gates or walls; the whole world is our mission field.

Jesus said He would go with us to the end of our world, if we will go! Thank God for the forests and the fields, for the plains and the hills, for the valleys and the peaks, for the grasses and the trees, for the rocks and the rivers, for the lakes and the seas, for the scents and the savor of each flower and for the beauty of the rising and setting sun! Thank God, Jesus is with us through it all!

A new day is dawning on this little group. The anxious waves breaking in the dewy morning; the distant hills kissing the pinkish sky; disciples defeated by foiled plans, and in the midst is Jesus beckoning like a newly lit candle in the dark, “Come and Dine.”

They had fished and caught no fishes because they were without Jesus. Now with Him their boat and bellies can fill. Such is the message of the First Breakfast.

The first breakfast is a meal prepared by Christ Himself. My mental picture grows ever in focus with this revelation. The seven reach the spot and everything is ready. A breakfast of champions is prepared, and bread and fish are just waiting. It is time to come and dine. They do not have to ask; He knows they were hungry even before they ask! He anticipates their needs and He is ready.

Picture the defeat and the victory of this breakfast. Before the campfire stood seven defeated men! All these guests have lost their vision. Out of their sight is the dream of the King and the kingdom and of the returning glory to Israel. Great is the fall of their expectations that led them to follow Jesus. Their Jesus is dead; their dream is dead; the darkness of midnight has led Peter to retort, “I am going fishing!”

It seems past time to get back to his life’s work. Remember is it is Peter who earlier exclaims “Lord, we have left all to follow thee." What a collapse! They have come back to this! They have descended from apostleship to less than adequate fisherman. It is even worse; this pristine scene is stained crimson-red with the deepest form of sin –cursing and betrayal, desertion and denial, forsaking and fleeing the Lamb of God in His darkest hour!

Peter has denied his Lord. How could he ever hold high his head? Our painting is one with seven deserters on a boat with no fish, stumbling through the darkness of the night. The best in the bunch may have been John whose best effort was to follow Jesus afar off because of fear. What a pitiful portrait these miserable disciples make!

To add to this dreariness I am reminded of my own failures and follies. I see the stain of my own sin on this canvas. What can He do with such men; what can he do with a defeated wretch like me? I hear Him speak, “Come and break your fast!”

This gang of wretched examples stands as a backdrop to a far greater light. His name is Jesus, and His love radiates over this group like a mother hen spreads her wings over her beloved chicks. He is the victor hosting a victor’s party and invites the disciples to see the sun of a new day. He is risen and he is on his way to the ascension. This is what I picture!

At the last supper He is pictured as approaching Gethsemane, Golgotha, the Cross and the grave. At this first feast He is pictured as risen and ready for the ascension. At the Last Supper he says, “Remember”. At this breakfast he says, “Come and dine” and “Go and Feed my sheep.” At the last supper he is getting them ready for his leaving; at the first breakfast they witness His returning. These men are de­feated, but their Leader is not. I paint this on my canvas; a new day is dawning for Christ's disciples.

Jesus chooses to start this new campaign by the lake. He is feeding the seven but thinking of the world. He speaks to all them and to us when He asks Peter, “Do you love me?” I cannot imagine how horrible it is for Peter to hear these words. His head must drop. The special meal is over and the time of reckoning has arrived. The rooster has crowed and the tears have been shed and the fishing has failed and now the rod of chastisement has striped the heart of the future leaders of this new church. The Bible does not say the manner of Peter’s answer, but it was surely a stutter and a whisper. Jesus repeats the request again and again. He closes with the words, “Feed my sheep.”

This is the message of the first breakfast. In the Last Supper Jesus said: “Remember me." In the first breakfast He said: “Feed my sheep." He wants us to remember Him that we may feed His sheep. He would have us love Him that we may bring the lost world back to Him Who loved it and died for it. He wants us to come and dine that we may go and feed others.