When you watch a kid’s soccer team, it looks very disorganized. Every kid wants to get the ball and score a goal. So you end up with a lot of kid trying to do the same thing, and the aim of the team doesn’t work out that well. But a professional soccer team is made of people who know their position and their task, and together they are far more likely to get the job done.
John 21
is a fascinating chapter. The risen Jesus enables his disciples to miraculously catch a large number of fish. He shows them that the task ahead of them is too big for them, but he will help them. It is a task they are in together. Jesus reinstates Peter, showing him mercy and not the justice he deserved. Jesus knows our weaknesses and failings. What he asks of us is that we love him.
And it is clear that Jesus has different plans and tasks for Peter and John. Peter is told to be a shepherd, a pastor, and told his life would end with crucifixion. But John’s life ended much later than Peter’s, and involved writing the gospel of John among other things. What is God’s road ahead for you? We cannot be sure most of the time. What we can be sure of is that it involves following Jesus wherever he has put us.