When therefore they went out on the land, they see a fire of coals there, and fish laid on it, and bread.
The disciples come ashore from a night of empty nets and find a fire already lit, with food cooking on it. Nobody in the boat had prepared it, so who did — and what was He saying by it?
The disciples had gone back to fishing, and the night produced nothing.
The disciples have already found that their own efforts to supply their needs are fruitless; now, having come to land, they find they are needless. For look — there is a fire already kindled to warm them, and fish and bread to feed them. And not only is food provided, there is an invitation to share the meal. They meet no word of rebuke for turning back, but a word of love that says, "Come and have breakfast."
Someone had thought ahead about what these men would need.
Who had kindled the fire and prepared the meal? … Who, then, had thought of their need, and would supply it, but the Lord? A fire to cook with, fish laid on it, and bread; nothing had been forgotten that could meet their needs. All was provided, and provided by the Lord.
Rising from the dead had not ended His service to them.
He had said to them in those former happy days, "I am among you as the one who serves." What an amazing word! It surely meant that He thought of their needs and cared for them constantly … And here again, in resurrection life, He had considered them and provided for their needs. They were cold. He knew it, and had lit a fire. They were hungry. He knew it, and had prepared fish and bread for their breakfast … Yes, He was their servant still. His love, which went far beyond anything they imagined, could not rest until their need was met. Those hands, now carrying the nail wounds in their palms, were as ready to serve as ever.
One detail on that beach had a history for Peter.
A striking thing on that shore — that fire of coals! The only other place we find it in the Gospels is that other well-remembered scene in the high priest's palace. How that fire must have spoken to Simon Peter! But the Lord says nothing. Their food is ready there, and He simply says, "Come and have breakfast"; and Peter eats with his Lord in the presence, so to speak, of his sin. Face to face with it, he is with his Lord as he had always been. No more than that? No — nearer than ever, surely.
The same fire carries a warning about the company Peter had kept.
I have no doubt that fire of coals spoke to Peter's conscience. It must have brought back to his memory the fire of coals in the high priest's hall, when he denied the Lord. He was warming himself then at the world's fire, and of course he got his fingers burned. And if you and I are on friendly terms with the world, sorrow and distress must follow.
These were men who had turned back to their old work.
When the weary fishermen reached the shore that morning they found "a charcoal fire in place, and fish laid out on it, and bread." A breakfast provided by God for disobedient disciples! … The Saviour spoke no word of reproof to Peter or his companions until He had first refreshed them with His generous provision. Oh, the gulf that separates this gracious One from even the best of His people!
The fire and the food were ready before a single disciple stepped ashore.
The Lord had worked before them and without them, though He would give them fellowship in the fruits of the activity of His grace. … The grace of God will work in a far more varied and vigorous way than people think. And while He is pleased to use His people, it is good for them at that very moment to learn that He can, and does, work independently.
Even the fish they carried up the beach had only one source.
The Lord had said, "Bring some of the fish that you have just caught." The truth was that they had worked all night and caught nothing. So the fish they hauled ashore were His. At His word they cast the net; in that spot these fish were found. They could only bring to the morning meal what He Himself had given them out of the sea.
- Prepared without them — their night's work produced nothing, and the breakfast on the beach showed the effort was never needed.
- Prepared by Him — no one else could have lit that fire; the meal names the Host before He speaks.
- Prepared for conscience — the charcoal fire recalled the one Peter denied Christ beside. He ate with his Lord face to face with his own failure, and nearer than ever.
- Prepared before the probing — no word of reproof comes until the men are warmed and fed. Grace moves first, correction second.
- Prepared to be shared — He already had fish, yet asked for theirs. His servants get a real part in a work that was His from the start.
Jesus says to them, Bring of the fishes which ye have now taken.
The risen Jesus stands on the shore at dawn. A fire is already burning, with fish and bread on it. Then He asks the seven men in the boat for some of what they have just pulled from the water. Why ask for fish from men who had caught nothing all night, when breakfast is already cooking?
The men had nothing to show for the whole night. What filled the net came from a word spoken by someone they did not yet recognise. That changes who owns the catch.
The Lord had said, "Bring some of the fish that you have just caught." The truth was they had toiled all night and had caught nothing. The fish, therefore, that they hauled ashore were His. At His word, they cast the net, and in that spot they found these fish. They could only bring to the morning banquet what He Himself had given them out of the sea.
He lacks nothing. Yet He words His call in a way that hands the credit back to the men who dragged the net.
His own resources are endless. Yet He stoops to acknowledge what His blessing produced through their own toil, saying, "Bring some of the fish that you have just caught."
His call opens something shared. Two things stand together here: He needs no help, and He still wants His people inside His work.
While He is pleased to use His people, it is good for them at that very time to learn that He can, and does, work on His own. Yet the Lord would have His own enter into the fellowship of what He has done, as well as enjoy their own work.
They had gone back to fishing, and they had failed at it. What waits for them on the beach is warmth, food, and a welcome.
The disciples have already found that their own efforts to supply their needs come to nothing. Now, having come to land, they find those efforts were not even needed. For look — there is a fire already lit to warm them, and fish and bread to feed them. And not only is food provided, there is an invitation to share the meal. They meet no word of rebuke for turning back, but a word of love that says, "Come and have breakfast."
Commentators differ here. Some read the meal as coming only from what the Lord had prepared. The men feed on His work, not on their own success.
Here another point comes out: the disciples themselves had nothing to eat. Labour does not feed; it makes you hungry. Even fruitful labour, a miraculous catch of fish, left the disciples hungry... The meal was not prepared with fish taken from their net, but provided by the Lord Himself, who handed it out to them. They fed on the result of Christ's work, what He alone had done for them.
Others take His words at face value. They see a table where both sides give, each eating what the other brought.
In communion with their risen Lord, these seven men ate the food He brought out of His secret storehouse. And He ate the fruit of the work in which He had guided their hands. He first knocked; they opened the door; He entered; they had supper with Him, and He with them.
The net does not tear this time. The meal is ready before the catch arrives. Some read these details as a picture of a great gathering of the nations.
Now He sets forth Himself for their millennial work of bringing to Him from the sea of the nations... Here there is no breaking of the nets, no sinking of the boats. The net comes to land full of large fish, as fits the picture of that vast ingathering... Grace uses some to bring in the nations on a great scale. They learn that the Lord has done a work before them. He invites them to share the communion of His love in that work, which He had kept hidden until then. Eating, here as elsewhere, is the well-known picture of it. They ate the fish on the shore before what they had just caught on a larger scale.
- His word — the night's work produced nothing. The catch came only after He told them where to cast. The fish they carry up the beach were His before they were theirs.
- His credit — His resources are endless, yet He calls the fish theirs. He honours the toil that only His blessing made fruitful.
- His welcome — men who had drifted back to their old trade meet no rebuke, only a fire, a meal, and an invitation.
- His table — commentators differ on whose fish were eaten. Either way, the meal draws the workers into fellowship with work He had already done without them.
- His harvest — the net holds and the catch is huge. Some read this as a picture of a coming gathering from the nations, which He brings in and shares with His own.
Simon Peter went up and drew the net to the land full of great fishes, a hundred and fifty-three; and though there were so many, the net was not rent.
The risen Lord has cooked breakfast on the shore, and He asks the fishermen to bring some of their own catch. John records the moment with unusual care: a counted haul, and a net that held. Commentators read it both as a lesson for service now and as a picture of a gathering still to come.
The Lord already had fish cooking. He still asked for some of theirs.
Yet the Lord wants His own to share in what He has done, as well as enjoy their own work.
Peter had already thrown himself into the water to reach Jesus, leaving the others to row in with the load. That choice helped them more than it left them behind.
He has truly left everything for Christ. He has a double privilege. He is the first disciple to reach the Lord, and that also puts him in a position to help his brothers even more effectively than if he had stayed with them. All the advantage of firm footing on the shore is Peter's as he now draws the net to land, full of great fish. Don't those who come straight from the Lord's presence to help other loved ones always prove to be the most effective helpers of their hard-working brothers?
In Luke 5 a similar catch tore the nets and the boats began to sink. This time nothing tore, and writers see the difference as deliberate.
When the gospel catch was pictured (Luke 5:6), the net broke. But here, because the Lord was there, the net did not break. The gospel net gathered fish, and it still does; but as a whole the net broke, and they began to sink. Here they haul them in, and the Spirit of God notes that the whole thing is complete. The fish gathered out of the sea are the nations; but the Jewish remnant is already on the shore.
Fishermen selling a catch would round the number off — to dozens, or to scores of twenty. These men did not.
They knew how many were caught. It was not a rough figure in round numbers, like twelve or thirteen dozen, or seven or eight score. They counted them exactly, to a single fish — one hundred and fifty-three.
In one parable the net gathers fish of every kind, and they have to be sorted. Here there is nothing to throw away.
The parable in Matthew 13:47 shows us that right up to the close of the age the net holds both good and bad fish... The great catch in Luke 5:4-9 pictures service now. There the nets break, and the boats they put the fish into start to sink. None of that appears here. Here the days of the kingdom are set out, when the Lord is with His own on earth. Many great fish are named, but none bad. The account says plainly that the net was not torn. There is no thought of the boat sinking, and they dragged the net along instead of filling the boat.
One writer links the haul to Peter's preaching at Pentecost. He also passes on a suggestion about the number without claiming it as fact, and finds in the unbroken net a lesson about power for service.
At His word to bring some of the fish they had caught, Peter, full of strong love for the Lord, draws the net to land. It is a hint of the great blessing through his preaching later on the day of Pentecost, when about 3000 were converted (Acts 2:41). Some have said that the 153 great fish here match the actual number of nations existing at that time, which would be interesting if it could be verified. Unlike Luke 5:6, the net did not break, despite the great catch. It speaks of the power of God seen in Christ raised from the dead. That power is available to His disciples by the indwelling Spirit of God, so that they can keep up their testimony without breaking down.
Another writer reads the scene as a picture of what is still future.
So it will be when a great multitude is brought in (see Revelation 7) from the nations (pictured in the sea, Revelation 17:15). They will respond to the gospel call and enter the Millennium. This also will be a consequence of the death of the Son of God.
- Helper. Peter reached the Lord first, and firm ground on the shore let him help the others more than if he had stayed in the boat.
- Fellowship. He had food ready and still asked for theirs, so that His own would share in what He had done as well as enjoy their own work.
- Unbroken. In Luke 5 the net tore and the boats began to sink; here, with the Lord present, nothing gives way.
- Counted. They counted the haul to a single fish — all great ones, not one bad among them.
- Reach. Writers read the fish as the nations, gathered out of the sea. Commentators differ over whether 153 is itself a count of the nations.
Jesus says to them, Come [and] dine. But none of the disciples dared inquire of him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord.
Peter and six others have gone back to fishing. They caught nothing all night, and then, at a stranger's word, pulled in a net full of fish. Now the risen Jesus calls them to a breakfast He has already made. They all know who He is, yet not one of them dares to say so.
Everything on that beach was ready before the disciples arrived. So who had laid it on? No one in the boats had a hand in it.
Now they were all on shore, and a sight met them that must have astonished them. There was a fire of coals, and fish laid on it, and bread. Who had kindled the fire and prepared the meal? … Who, then, had thought of their need and would supply it, but the Lord? Nothing had been forgotten that could meet their wants. All was provided, and provided by the Lord. He, too, as the host, invited them to eat and break their fast after their night on the lake. It was a morning meal, not an evening one.
He met them as He always had. He had thought about every part of their condition that morning.
They were cold. He knew it and had lit a fire. They were hungry. He knew it and had prepared fish and bread for their breakfast. They were awed at His presence, and perhaps ashamed at being caught at their old trade. He had called them away from that trade to follow Him fully. He knew it, so with gracious words He invited them to come near. And not only that: He took the bread and the fish and gave it to them. Yes, He was their servant still. His love, which went beyond all their thoughts, could not rest until their need was met.
Everything He had just done had already answered the question they held back — "Who are you?"
Who could it be but He? Who else could command the fish of the sea as He had done? The power of the Creator was His. And who else would have known their needs and provided for them so well, and spoken to them so graciously as He had done? The grace of the Lord was His. They could doubt no more. The way He showed Himself to them convinced them that He was the Lord who does not change.
Their silence was not indifference:
I think they would have liked to ask. At the same time they did not want to.
The fire of coals on the beach reached back to the night Peter denied his Master.
A striking thing on the shore there, that fire of coals! We find it only one other time in the Gospels: that well-remembered scene in the high priest's palace. How that fire must have spoken to Simon Peter! But the Lord says nothing. Their food is prepared there, and He simply says, "Come and dine." Peter dines with his Lord in the presence, so to speak, of his sin. Face to face with it, he is with his Lord as he had always been. No more than that? No — nearer than ever, with a deeper, tenderer gladness. He knows Him better and is fully known. Distance is impossible again!
Note: older translations read "Come and dine"; the ESV has "Come and have breakfast."
The order matters. Only when the meal is over does the Lord touch Peter's failure.
He sits with Peter, He dines with Peter. First his Lord makes Peter's spirit sure of full, free fellowship of heart with the One he loves. Only then does He turn to Peter's conscience and bring his ways back to his memory.
Some read this scene as a picture of a future harvest, and as a lesson to the men who had gone back to their nets.
Seen as a picture, we may find here disciples going out and bringing in a great harvest from the sea of nations, under the Lord's direction. That harvest will mark the opening of the millennial age. It was surely meant, too, as a lesson to Peter and the rest: going back to their ordinary work was unnecessary, even though He had blessed it. He had already prepared their food with His own hand. … The disciples knew it was their risen Lord. They knew Him not by the sight of their eyes, but by His actions, which no one else could have done.
- Recognised — They knew Him not by looking, but by what He did. Only He could command the fish and think of their hunger.
- Provided — The fire, the fish and the bread were all His before they landed. After an empty night, He gave them a meal they had no hand in making.
- Served — The risen Lord takes the host's place and hands them the food Himself, still the One who serves His own.
- Restored — The fire of coals recalls the night Peter denied Him. Yet he dines with his Lord, nearer than before, not further away.
- Sent — The meal comes first. Only then does the Lord turn to Peter's conscience, and to the harvest still waiting.
Jesus comes and takes the bread and gives it to them, and the fish in like manner.
The disciples had fished all night and caught nothing, and on shore they found a fire, fish and bread already waiting. The risen Christ handed them the food Himself — so had death and resurrection changed the way He treats His own?
The disciples brought nothing to this meal.
A fire to cook on, fish laid on it, and bread — nothing had been forgotten that could meet their needs. Everything was provided, and provided by the Lord. As the host He invited them to share it and break their fast after their night on the lake, for it was a morning meal, not an evening one. He Himself handed out to them both the fish and the bread. He prepared the meal, and He presided at it. The Lord of men and angels provided for people of no account among the great ones of the earth — humble fishermen from Galilee.
Even the fish they had just caught were not their own.
The Lord had said, "Bring some of the fish that you have just caught." The truth was that they had worked all night and caught nothing. So the fish they hauled ashore were His. At His word they cast the net; in that spot these fish were found. They could only bring to the morning banquet what He Himself had given them out of the sea.
Resurrection glory did not lift Him above waiting on tired men.
And more than that, the risen Lord of glory waits on His weary, disheartened disciples. As in the days of His flesh He was among them as One who served, so in the days of His resurrection glory He still serves His poor failing disciples. So we read, "Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish." Nothing that concerns His own is beneath His tender care and consideration.
That morning meal points forward to a greater one.
These sharers in the meal are the guests of the One who serves them during that never-to-be-forgotten meal. The meal is itself a foretaste of the joys of the coming feast. Then our Lord will make those servants whom He finds "watching" sit down to eat, and He will tie up His robe, come forward, and serve them.
Peter had last stood by a fire of coals while denying his Master. Here is another one — and no word about it.
A striking thing on the shore there, that fire of coals! The only other place we find it in the Gospels is in that other well-remembered scene in the high priest's palace. How that fire must have spoken to Simon Peter! But the Lord says nothing. He has their food ready there, and He simply says, "Come and have breakfast." Peter eats with his Lord in the presence, so to speak, of his sin. Face to face with it, he is with his Lord as he had always been. No more than that? No, nearer than ever!
The order matters. The searching question about love comes only after the meal.
He sits with Peter, He dines with Peter. First the Lord makes Peter's heart sure of full, free fellowship with the One he loves. Only then does He turn to Peter's conscience and remind him of his ways. Once Jesus calmed the sea before He rebuked the disciples. Now He gives Peter an unbroken net full of fish and dines with him before He asks, "Do you love me?"
The invitation (older translations render it "Come and dine") sets the tone of the whole meal.
"Jesus then comes, and takes bread, and gives them, and fish likewise." He is the Master of the feast. He is the Host. With His own particular grace He makes them eat. He puts all His guests completely at ease. Christ's way of meeting the soul is always perfect in tenderness and careful consideration. There is nothing lacking in it.
Commentators differ on how far this scene pictures things to come. One reading takes the unbroken net and the waiting fire as a preview of a coming day.
Here there is no breaking of the nets, no sinking of the boats. The net is drawn to land full of great fish, as suits the picture of that vast ingathering... And it has a bearing on that new day for the earth, that they found a fire of coals already there, and fish on it and bread. Those whom grace uses to bring in the nations on a great scale learn that the Lord has done a work before them. He invites them to enter into the fellowship of His love in that work, hidden until then. Eating, here as elsewhere, is the well-known figure of it.
- Need. A whole night of work produced nothing. They could not meet their own needs.
- Provision. The fire, the fish and the bread were all on the shore before they arrived — He prepared the meal and presided at it.
- Service. The One who served them before the cross serves them after it; nothing concerning His own is beneath His care.
- Restoration. Peter eats beside a fire of coals, face to face with his failure, and is nearer than ever. The question about love comes only afterwards.
- Prospect. This breakfast is a foretaste: He will yet tie up His robe, come forward, and serve those He finds watching.