Since this is that time of year for major league baseball to be getting under way, I want to begin with a story New York Yankees Hall-of-Famer Mickey Mantle once told on himself. It was about a game in which he struck out three times in a row. He says, “When I got back to the clubhouse, I just sat down on my stool and held my head in my hands, like I was going to start crying. I heard somebody come up to me, and it was little Timmy Berra, Yogi’s boy, standing there next to me. He tapped me on the knee, nice and soft, and I figured he was going to say something nice to me--you know, like, ‘You keep hanging in there,’ or something like that. But all he did was look at me, and then he said in his little kid’s voice, ‘You stink!’” (1)
Out of the mouths of babes . . . that’s not the kind of encouragement you hope for at a moment like that, is it? “You Stink!” I want you to keep that story in mind as we look at our lesson today from John’s Gospel.
The disciples of Jesus are demoralized. They’re ready to quit. That might surprise us. After all, this is not long after Christ’s resurrection. You would think they would be exhilarated. But remember the disciples had been through a lot in the past couple of weeks: the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday; then his betrayal by Judas, one of their own trusted friends; then their own near arrests, their abandonment of Christ after his capture and Peter’s denial, as well as the tormenting sight of the crucifixion. Then, just when their morale was at its lowest, there were the events on that first Easter Sunday--the resurrection, and the subsequent appearances of the risen Lord-- including Easter Sunday night when he appeared to them behind locked doors.
Their heads were reeling from it all. These were events that human beings had never before experienced. Even worse, these events had exposed their weakness--Peter with his denials, Thomas with his doubts, the others with their fear and abandonment. Even if Christ were alive, how could he ever count on them again? They had failed him just when he needed them the most. That was it--that was why their heads were hanging. It was not that they doubted Christ. It was that they doubted themselves.
Do you know what I’m talking about? Have you ever let someone else down? Have you dreaded seeing them afterward--not because they had done you wrong, but because you had failed them. At a time like that, it might seem easier to let go of the relationship than to bear the shame of seeing them again.
And so the disciples, seven of them at least--Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel, James, John and two other unnamed disciples--decide to take a timeout . . . a timeout at the Sea of Tiberias.
After Christ’s resurrection an angel of the Lord had promised the disciples that Jesus would meet with them in Galilee (Matthew 28:7). The Sea of Tiberias is another name for the Sea of Galilee. Galilee was their home. That is where we often retreat when we are uncertain. There they were then, back where it all began, by the sea.
“I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told the other six, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” This is significant. Peter seemingly had failed in the work Christ called him to do, be a fisher of men. Now it made sense for him to go back to what he knew best and that was fishing for fish. It was what he was good at. This being a fisher-of-men business seemed too difficult for him, and besides he didn’t know if he was still worthy of that call. He needed a timeout. Perhaps having denied Jesus, Peter thought that he had forfeited the privilege of being a witness to Christ’s resurrection. “I am going back to that which is safe” is what Peter was saying.
I don’t know about you, but I understand Peter’s thoughts and actions. I understand that sometimes when you are unsure, the default reaction is to go to what you already know rather than simply trusting God. Apparently, the others were thinking the same thing, for as soon as Peter said, “I’m going fishing,” they all agreed. Not one dissenting voice remained, even Thomas who just a short time before had fallen at the feet of the risen Lord and declared, “My Lord and my God.”
They went fishing . . . and that night they caught absolutely nothing. These expert fishermen went all night without a catch. Maybe the Lord was telling them something. No matter how good you are at something or how much you think it is for you, if that is not God’s will for your life, it will not prosper and you will find yourself toiling and toiling and nothing will be working. Let it go . . . and seek to find out what God’s real purpose for you is.
So they caught nothing for the entire night. But morning came. And Jesus showed up, just like he had--behind closed doors--on Easter Sunday night. But they did not recognize him; perhaps because of the distance or the lack of light. Sometimes we too fail to see that Jesus is right there in the midst of our failures. He is right there when all our efforts bring naught. And it might be that we are so caught up in the failure that it keeps us from seeing him. It might be that we are too distracted by the cares of our own lives. That is why he said, “Cast your cares upon me; I care for you.”
Let’s pause here for a few moments and reflect on the disciples’ situation. Could it be that failure is a necessary part of a believer’s spiritual growth?
One of the myths nurtured by many immature believers is that following Christ should see us move from victory to victory--that failure means that God is not blessing our lives. What an absurd notion! Ask anybody who’s ever accomplished anything significant where they learned their greatest lessons. From their victories? Of course not! To a person, they will say it was from their defeats.
There was an article in Fast Company magazine several years ago titled “The Thrill of Defeat.” The article was about Pfizer pharmaceutical company, which spends eight billion dollars a year researching and developing new drugs. The most amazing statistic about this company according to this article is that 96 percent of its efforts in the laboratory end in failure. Most researchers never work on a winning drug their entire career.
Nancy Hutson, for example, spent fifteen years in the Pfizer lab working on thirty-five drugs. Not one of them made it to the shelf of a pharmacy. Hutson is now the director of the laboratory at Pfizer. She oversees all of the efforts of the lab researchers in Research and Development. She said, “We have to help researchers understand that only a tiny minority of them--over their entire careers--will ever touch a winning drug. We need our employees to realize that being faithful and focused on our projects in the midst of seemingly insurmountable failure is as important as almost everything that we do.” Did you catch those words about being faithful and focused?
Does it work at Pfizer? Well, something does. Those thousands of failures have led to some spectacular successes. Pfizer is now the largest pharmaceutical company in the world. (2)
So, you taught a Sunday school class and it didn’t grow like you hoped it would. You invited a few friends to church and none of them showed up. You prayed and prayed for a miracle in your life and so far you can’t tell anything is happening. Can you feel Christ putting his hand on your shoulder and telling you to stay focused and faithful--and not give up? Life is not about going from victory to victory. Life is about learning and growing as the Holy Spirit works in our life. Failure is simply part of the process.
This is not to say that failure does not hurt. Of course, it hurts. And the greater the crown you are seeking, the more it hurts when you fail.
I read recently about a man named Sam Mayo who was at one time a popular comedian in music halls in Great Britain. But then his comedy fell out of favor and he was forced into retirement.
After retiring, it’s said that Sam Mayo would stand outside of music halls listening to the applause given to other performers and tears would run down his cheeks. (3)
We read that Simon Peter wept bitterly after the cock crowed and he remembered Christ’s words that he would deny him three times. Failure always hurts.
But let me ask you this: Do you think Simon Peter could have been as effective in his preaching--and remember he became a powerful preacher on the Day of Pentecost--but do you think it would have happened if he had not experienced the grace of Christ after he had denied Christ? He wept when it happened, but he did not stay frozen in his shame. And neither should we.
I don’t care what kind of failure you have experienced in your life. A business failure, the failure of your marriage, even a moral failure--Christ wants to help you redeem that failure, to help you learn from that failure, and to use that failure to grow into the kind of man or woman God created you to be.
Remember, you and I will have failures, but we will never be a failure until we give up. The question is not whether we will have failures. Sooner or later, everyone fails at something. The only question is, how will we handle those failures, with fatalism or faith?
In his book, Mastering the Seven Decisions that Determine Personal Success, Andy Andrews tells something about our first president, George Washington, that you may not know.
In 1754, as a young major in the Virginia militia, Washington was ordered to lead 350 raw recruits through the wilderness to a fort where the present-day city of Pittsburgh now stands. This fort was occupied by the French. Washington’s militia camped at a spot some forty miles from the French fort and erected a fort of its own named Fort Necessity. When this militia sought to engage the enemy, they encountered seven hundred French soldiers and their Indian allies. They were outnumbered more than two-to-one. Washington and his troops were driven back to Fort Necessity.
Unfortunately the location of the fort made it impossible to defend because it was surrounded by hills that were the perfect hiding place from which the French and Indian fighters could attack. To make it worse, many of Washington’s men got drunk. In nine short hours, with thirty dead, seventy wounded, and many more deserting, the battle was over. Defeated, Washington gave up his sword and signed an article of surrender.
George Washington, the future “father of our country,” lost his first battle, his first fort, and his first command in one fell swoop. As he limped back to Virginia to his beloved Mount Vernon, he made no excuses. But he also did not give up. Instead, he learned from the Native Americans how to conduct warfare suited to the terrain. It made him a better soldier and leader. (4) He learned from his mistakes. Nobody’s a failure until they quit trying.
Besides, failure is where we learn that God is with us. If you never try anything important in this world, you never learn that there is Someone close by willing to catch you when you fall.
Pastor Lloyd John Ogilvie once told about a friend of his as a youth, who was a circus performer. This friend described his experience of learning to work as a trapeze artist. He claimed that, once you know that the net below will catch you, you stop worrying about falling. You actually learn to fall successfully! What that means is, you can concentrate on catching the trapeze swinging toward you, and not on falling, because repeated falls in the past have convinced you that the net is strong and reliable when you do fall . . . The result of falling and being caught by the net allows for confidence and daring on the trapeze. You fall less, but each fall makes you able to risk more. (5)
That is one of the crucial benefits of the life of faith. The more faith you have, the less you worry about failing. How do you get that kind of faith? By failing and finding God’s arms holding you up. By discovering that God’s grace is sufficient for you.
Simon Peter discovered that during this Timeout at Tiberius. Do you remember how today’s story ends? The risen Christ and the disciples are seated around a fire--a fire much like the one around which Simon Peter denied Jesus three times. Jesus turns to Peter and calls him by name: “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”
What does he mean by, “more than these”? We’re not sure, but Peter answers, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”
A third time, once for each denial, Jesus asks, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”
Then he finally got what Jesus was saying. “Peter, I know this timeout was because you felt unworthy. I know you felt that, because you denied me three times, you are not qualified for the ministry to which I called you. But I am calling you out and commissioning you three times so that you know that I still have need for you to feed my sheep. I have applied my grace to your life and I have forgiven you of your past. I love you, Peter, and I need you just as I did before to fish for men.”
And friends, that is Christ’s message to you and me this day, regardless of how many times we have failed in our lives. Christ still needs us to be instruments of his grace and love. Will you help feed Christ’s sheep? Will you help bring this world into a knowledge of Christ’s love? Will you?
1. Bathroom Readers’ Institute, Uncle John’s Funniest Ever Bathroom Reader (Kindle Edition).
2. Bill Breen, “The Thrill of Defeat,” Fast Company, June 2004, 76. 4. Breen, 77. Contributed. Source unknown.
3. Hector Gray, An Actor Looks Back, p. 22. Cited in David Bruce, The Coolest People in Comedy: 250 Anecdotes (Kindle Edition).
4. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2008).
5. Cited in John Maxwell, Attitude 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know (Kindle Edition).