“Breakfast is Ready!”  I find myself saying this day in and day out.  It was no different this Monday, the day after Easter.  A three week Spring Break for the kids was finally over (yep, you heard that right, three weeks!), and we were all back to the daily grind.  I scrambled eggs for the kids and called them to come eat, then it was the rush of bags packed, teeth brushed, shoes on before rushing out to catch the bus.

So when I was finally able to sit with my Bible after the older girls were sent off to school, Sweet Boy was watching TV… because let’s be honest, that is how I get my quite time in these days and I’m okay with that… and Joy Baby was sleeping, I had to chuckle a bit when I read the words in John 21 when the Resurrected Jesus appears to some disciples on the seashore as they were fishing.

It was Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, the Zebedee brothers and two more disciples who had gone back to their own daily grind… the work of fishing.   Now mind you, they had already seen the Resurrected Jesus (twice!) and yet they found themselves going back to the thing they knew.

Isn’t that how it can go for us… we have these High Holy Day celebrations where we dress up in our best, we experience glorious worship, we cook special meals, we celebrate with special traditions and hopefully we have time to think on the significance of the day.  But then Monday comes and we are back to our daily grind… the things we know day in and day out.  That is how it was for Peter.  He had experienced the resurrected Christ, but he wasn’t quite sure what to do with that, so he went back to what he knew.  He fished.  And he got some other disciples to go fishing with him.

They fished all night in fact but caught nothing. As day began to break, probably tired from their night’s work with nothing to show from it, they heard some guy they didn’t recognize yell at them from the shore, “Throw your nets off the right side and see what happens.”

They did it and all of a sudden they found their net tugging with so many fish they couldn’t pull it in.  Now this triggered something in John’s mind… he had seen this before… and he calls out “It’s the Lord!”

Impulsively Peter jumps overboard and swims to shore leaving the others to haul in the heavy catch.  They meet up with Jesus who is on the seashore with a camp fire ready to go for those fish they just caught.

And this is the part I love, the part that had me chuckling to myself…

Jesus said, “Breakfast is ready.” Not one of the disciples dared ask, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Master.  Jesus then took the bread and gave it to them. He did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus had shown himself alive to the disciples since being raised from the dead. John 21:12-13 The Message

“Breakfast is ready.”  Here the Resurrected Jesus is standing before them and what does Jesus do?  He cooks them breakfast!  He hollers out, just like I do everyday, for people to come and eat.  Jesus joins his disciples in the everyday endeavors of their lives.

It immediately made me think of the contrast of my Easter Sunday to my Monday morning… from my Sunday best to eggs on a plate and me yelling “Breakfast is ready!” to my own crew of disciples.   And yes, while Sunday Worship was glorious as I sat holding my Joy Baby who slept on me during a service filled with music and praise and God’s Word read and proclaimed, and you could just sense God’s Spirit in the room as the choir sang the Gospel Hallelujah Chorus and as we gathered for communion at the Lord’s table.

Yes, you can sense the presence of the Resurrected Jesus in those places… but what about when Monday comes?  This passage that greeted me Monday morning of Eastertide, it reminds me that the Resurrected Jesus, he is here in the everyday too.  And not just here… but he is in it!  He is in the cooking of eggs and the washing up of dishes, he is in the eating at the table you can never seem to keep clean and in the cleaning of the floor you have swept for the third time that day.

For me I could suddenly see the Resurrected Jesus, I could sense Him just as powerfully, there in the caring for Joy Baby in her exersaucer and Sweet Boy in his pj’s as he played with Batman and Superman who showed up in his Easter basket and in the cleaning up of the frying pan those eggs had been cooked in, I could sense Him here in these things just as much as I did in worship that Sunday Easter morning the day before.

The Resurrected Jesus is in the daily work you call your own, in the small and simple things that make up this life you live.

One reflection on this scene had this to say, “After the resurrection, Jesus had breakfast again with his friends and showed them the importance of the small, ordinary things of life.”

I love that John decided that of the three post-Resurrection appearings of Jesus to record, this would be one he would choose, Jesus calling out “Breakfast is ready!”  Such an ordinary thing.  Making breakfast and calling his own to eat with him.

Jesus, He finds His disciples… don’t miss that, He goes and finds them… in their everyday spaces, at their work, in their homes, at breakfast, and into these spaces He brings His resurrected life and power!  And just as he did it that morning along the Sea of Tiberias where his disciples were working, the Resurrected Jesus finds us too, in our everyday spaces, in our homes and workplace, as we gather around for an everyday meal or as we enter in our time on our timesheet.  The Resurrected Jesus shows up there in the everyday, just as He shows up at the empty tomb Easter morning in our churches.

And it was in the everyday ordinary that the disciples understood who Jesus was in His extraordinary post-resurrection existence.  Eating breakfast over a fire, something they had done with Jesus many times before, having Jesus take a piece of bread and hand it to them, it is in these everyday actions that “they knew it was the Lord.”  As they felt the fire and broke bread with Him, they saw more fully than they did before the One who just did the extraordinary… the One who rose from the dead!

So the next time you yell out, “Breakfast is ready!” keep your eyes open for the Resurrected Jesus who brings His resurrection power and presence right there in the midst of the small, ordinary things of your life.

Lord Jesus, help us to see you in the small, in the ordinary, in the everyday spaces that is our life. Amen