3/23/08 - Easter Sunday - John 21:5

"CHILDREN"
- A humbling title
- A reassuring title

The joy and the happiness that Christians have on Easter Sunday is unlike any other happiness in this life. Because today we celebrate our Savior rising from the dead! That means our salvation is secured! That means our resurrection from the grave is guaranteed because of his! The joy and the happiness that brings is incomparable to any other happiness we can experience on this earth. Nothing, no matter how good it may be, even comes close to the knowledge that our eternal life in heaven is now a fact. Nothing is as miraculous, nothing is as permanent, and nothing is as far reaching into every aspect of our lives than the empty tomb on Easter morning. What a great day to be alive! What a great day to be able to gather together with fellow Christians and praise the Lord for breaking the chains of death and proving that he was and is and remains true God.
And the joy of Christ’s resurrection is exactly why he appeared to so many people after he rose from the dead: to prove to them that it really was true. Christ’s resurrection from the grave was such a spectacular and miraculous event that he knew people would have a hard time believing it. And so he appeared to his followers so that they could see for themselves, so they could hear him and talk to him and touch him. He appeared in the flesh so that they could experience that unparalleled joy of knowing that their Savior was again and forever alive. When Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene, she was so excited she wanted to hang on to Jesus and never let him go. When he appeared to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, they were so thrilled when he finally revealed himself to them that they ran all the way back to Jerusalem in the dark to tell the rest of the disciples. And when he appeared to his disciples inside a locked room on two different occasions, the Bible tells us that they were overcome with “joy and amazement” (Luke 24:41). The joy that Jesus’ rising from the dead brought to his disciples, and the joy that he still brings to us today, is almost indescribable.
But although joy is a natural result of Christ’s resurrection, it is not the reason Jesus appeared to his disciples the third time on the Sea of Galilee. As we get to the last chapter of the book of John, Jesus appears to his disciples as they are fishing. Peter, James, and John, Thomas and Nathanael, and two other disciples had been fishing on the lake all night long, but they hadn’t caught a thing. Jesus then appeared to them on the shore, but it wasn’t to bring them joy this time. They had already seen Jesus alive - twice - and so they were already filled with the happiness that his resurrection brings. Jesus appeared to his disciples this time for a completely different reason. And that reason is very clear from the name with which he addresses them. While they were still out on the boat and he was standing on the shore, “Jesus called out to them, ‘Children, haven’t you any fish?’” Isn’t that an interesting name Jesus called them? Jesus called grown men, children! If you look in your NIV translation you’ll see that it says, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” But that’s not the word Jesus actually used. He called them children, little children. “Children, haven’t you any fish?”
Now the disciples didn’t realize right away that it was the Lord. But they soon found out it was their Savior after he blessed them with a miraculous catch of fish. And when they figured out it was Jesus, and as they were traveling towards him, and when they got to shore, and I’m sure well after that incident, the name that he had called them must have stuck in their minds! “Children? Did he just call us little kids? Why would he do that? We’re his chosen disciples! We have been training under him for three years! He wants us to be the leaders of the Christian church and continue to spread the Word after he is gone! We aren’t children at all! Why would he call us that?” But of course Jesus had a good reason. Jesus called them children because he wanted to remind them of something. They may have been his chosen disciples. They may have been the leaders who were going to go out into all the world and spread the Good News to all creation. They may have even been older than he was, humanly speaking. But Jesus wanted to remind them that they still could do nothing by themselves. They were still dependant children. And they always would be. It was a fitting title he gave them that morning. It was a humbling title. And it’s a title he gives to us for the very same reasons.
You are a child. The Lord calls you a child and the Lord treats you like a child. And that’s a tough thing to stomach for us because nobody, not even a child, likes to be treated like a child! We want to do things by ourselves. We like to be independent. We want the respect we think we deserve. We want to handle our own problems, think up our own solutions, and be the person we want to be. But Jesus reminds us today: we are still children. We can’t do one single thing on our own. And I’ve got to tell you: it hurts my pride to be called a child. After all that we can do and after all that we’ve learned and after all that we’ve experienced over the years, doesn’t it hurt a little bit to still be called a child by the Lord?
“Give me a little more credit than that, Lord!” we’re tempted to say. “I’m not completely helpless; I’m capable to take care of myself. I’m not completely in the dark; I’ve got a few years under my belt. I’m not completely dependant; I can do quite a few things on my own.” But Jesus is saying, “No, you are completely helpless. You are completely in the dark. You are completely dependant - on me. You cannot do anything without me. You are a little child.”
The disciples were reminded of that fact on the Sea of Galilee. Because half of those men were professional fishermen by trade. And they had just spent hours on that lake from dusk till dawn without catching one single fish! And so Jesus appears to them on the shore and knowingly, knowingly calls out, “Children, haven’t you any fish?” “Children, have you forgotten already? Children, don’t you know any better? Children, you can’t do anything without me.” Even professional fishermen could not catch a single fish without the Lord. And we can’t do a thing without the Lord either. We couldn’t roll out of bed this morning without the Lord, we couldn’t take a breath, our hearts couldn’t even produce one single pump of blood without the Lord. We are totally dependant on him. We can’t do anything by ourselves. We are children. Little children who are completely incapable of taking care of ourselves. And how arrogant it is when we think otherwise! How hurtful it is to the Lord when we think we can actually accomplish something on our own, as if we knew what we were doing and we were completely in control! We are children, but what disobedient and defiant children we are! We take the glory away from our risen Lord and try to hoard some for ourselves because of the things that we think we do or build or fix or accomplish in this life on our own. How could we ever forget that our Lord who came back to life is still in charge of ours? But do we forget about him. We do forget about a day like today and go about our every day lives without the Lord ever crossing our minds.
We are weak, dependant, helpless children. But that’s a good thing. It’s actually a good thing we are in that position. It’s a good thing the Lord calls us children and treats us like children because that means his resurrection worked! If he hadn’t risen from the dead we would not share that close relationship with him. We wouldn’t share any relationship with him at all! We are his children because of the resurrection.
And that fact never dawned on the disciples until Jesus appeared to them on the Sea of Galilee. Because Jesus had never called his disciples children before. He had used children as examples for them to follow. He had welcomed little children to be near him in the presence of his disciples. But this is the one and only time Jesus addresses his chosen followers with that title. And after that initial shock of the name wore off, after they swallowed their pride a little bit, they probably began to understand how comforting that name really was. Because this was not just a humbling title, it was a reassuring title. Because he was going away. He was going to leave this earth and send them out into the world on their own. But they weren’t really going to be alone. Because they were still his children! He was still going to watch out for them and protect them and be with them. In fact, Jesus said to them before he ascended into heaven, “Surely, I will be with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Jesus would not let his dear children down and he made sure they knew that simply be the name he calls them. And he will not let his dear children down now. You will forever be in the palms of his hands. You will not have to go through anything, you will not have to experience anything, you will not have to do anything on your own. Jesus will be right there. He will lead you through. And he will always treat you like you are the only child he has ever had.
And that’s why we’re here on a day like today. We are here celebrating Easter Sunday because Jesus treated us like his children. If he didn’t treat us like his dear children he wouldn’t have done what he had done! He wouldn’t have bothered coming to this earth encased in a human body. He wouldn’t have faced the temptations and the challenges of this life. He wouldn’t have allowed himself to be betrayed and arrested and mocked and beaten and scourged and crucified. He wouldn’t have put up with the taunts and the accusations. He wouldn’t have subjected himself to death. And so he never would have needed to rise from the dead either. But he knew that we, his children, needed him to do that. He knew that a perfect life on this earth, a substitute death in our place, and a miraculous rising from the dead was the only way we could be saved. And so he did it. He loved us like children and put his own life up as the ransom price. And today, the freedom that he earned for us by that sacrifice on the cross is now secure because of the emptiness of the tomb. Our Lord lives! He has conquered the sting of death, he has destroyed the power of the devil, and he has separated us from the penalty of our sins. We are children of the living Lord. We will always be children of the living Lord. And there is nothing better to be than that. And there’s no better day than today to praise our Lord for everything he has done to make it happen.
Amen.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” - 1 Peter 1:3