21:1-3
We now come to the final chapter of John. As we saw, there seems to be a natural ending at the end of our chapter 20, and this has caused some to say that this was not written by John and was added later. Mind you, some of the same people will say that John the apostle did not write the gospel anyway! I will leave the technical arguments to those more qualified than I, see for instance Carson’s commentary. However, I will say something about how this chapter is a perfectly natural epilogue to the gospel. John’s gospel was written sometime after the death of Peter, and Peter’s denial of Jesus is reported in all the gospels. Some may have wondered how Peter ended up being some prominent in the church. Did he have any right to be so? The synoptic gospels were written either while Peter was still alive, or not that long after his death. So the primary purpose of this chapter is to explain Peter’s reinstatement, and it gives a more general lesson on repentance and restoration.
Jesus revealed Himself again to some of the disciples. The Sea of Tiberias is another name for Lake Galilee. We get a list of the disciples who were there, John is included, but again not named explicitly, he is one of the sons of Zebedee. Led by Peter, they set out to do some fishing.
21:4-6
Jesus stood on the shore, but they did not recognise Him. This may have been because the light wasn’t that good and they were too far away, though they could hear His voice. Jesus asked them if they had any fish, but their expedition had not been successful, so they had none. Jesus told them to cast their net on the right side, and then they would catch fish. They duly ended up with a vast haul of fish. This is reminiscent of an earlier incident of a miraculous catch, but it is not a rehash!
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