Come and Dine

Come and Dine. The disciples received an invitation to dinner! When they first reached the resurrected Jesus, it seemed as though they were dumbstruck.

9. As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread.

10. Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught.

11. Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken.

12. Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord.

13. Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise.

14. This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead.

John 21:9-14, KJV

Come and Dine

The disciples received an invitation to dinner! When they first reached Jesus, it seemed as though they were dumbstruck. No one dared ask Jesus who He was, because they already knew, but it seemed as though they could not think of anything to say.

Jesus quickly eased their discomfort when He said, "Come and dine." This was something very familiar to them; many times they had sat around a campfire with the Lord.

Why do you suppose they felt this discomfort? We are not really told, but when you think about it, they had never really understood, before His resurrection, that Jesus really was God. Now they were sitting before a man, whom they knew to be not only a man, but also the Son of God!

For Jesus, however, nothing had changed; He loved them as He had always loved them, and desired their companionship.

Do we treat the Lord in the same manner? When we come before our Lord in prayer, do we think of it as a stiff, formal time? Have you ever thought that our Lord loves to fellowship with us even as we fellowship with Him. Let us not hold God at an arm's distance because we are in the presence of a Holy God.

We are, indeed, in the presence of a Holy God, but this God loves us and understands us for who we are. We should treat Him as we would our best friend. When we pray, we should take some time to just speak with Him as we would a friend. We should talk about our day, with its excitements and disappointments, as we unburden ourselves to Him, for He walks by our side every day, our perfect Lord and our perfect Friend!

Next: Regret - verses 15-19