Have you gotten used to it yet? Being a failure? Wait, am I not supposed to say that? Is it not OK for me to say that about you? Why not?
After all, you say it to yourself more than anyone else, don’t you? Where would you like to start? How about relationships? Single? You can try to convince yourself that it’s because you’re picky or have high standards or that there are too many jerks in the world, but the whole reason you try to convince yourself of that in the first place is to counter the much louder voice in the back of your mind contending that you’re single because you’re not good enough and you’re a failure when it comes to relationships. Married? The same voice calls you a failure as a spouse when compared to that other wife or husband. Would you prefer to talk about your job? Why are you still stuck at the same job or haven’t advanced at all? Try to convince yourself it’s because you like it or that it’s good enough to pay the bills, but the reason you have to convince yourself of that is to counter the louder voice inside your head that is constantly murmuring what a failure you are. Would you like to talk about how you rate as a Christian? That might be the loudest voice of all: “Failure.”
Failure, or more accurately, our fear of failure, is crippling. Have you ever stopped to think about how many absolutely amazing advancements, how much progress, and how many good things have never happened simply because people with great ideas and the ability to back them up were afraid of failure? How many times have we let past failures predetermine future failures and give up? And how many times have we legitimately been crushed by failure?
I don’t know that they were crushed by it. Perhaps they were used to it and realized it went hand-in-hand with the profession of fishing, but the disciples who made a living by it had just experienced it again. John tells us, “It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. ‘I’m going out to fish,’ Simon Peter told them, and they said, ‘We’ll go with you.’ So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing” (v.1b-3). Again, it not an uncommon experience as fisherman to come up empty-handed. But any way you look at it, they failed at catching anything all night.
While this definition of insanity has repeatedly been misattributed to Albert Einstein, you’ve likely heard someone share it: the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and expecting different results. The point of the expression is to state the foolishness of continuing to take the same actions or make the same choices that haven’t worked, but expecting that eventually, you’ll get different results. The intent is to encourage a person to stop wasting time doing what isn’t working and try something else. Change it up. If doing the same thing over isn’t netting you any result, then do something different.
So how do you suppose it sounded to the disciples to hear a voice from the shoreline engage them: “‘Friends, haven’t you any fish?’ ‘No,’ they answered. He said, ‘Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some’” (v.5-6). Basically then, what Jesus was saying to them was, “You know that thing you’ve been doing all night that hasn’t worked yet? Do it again and this time it will work.” Remember that they didn’t know this was Jesus speaking to them, so it would have made perfect sense for them to respond by saying, “Thanks for the advice, but we’ve been at it all night and haven’t caught anything, so we’re gonna call it a day.”
But they didn’t. Perhaps they were compelled by the fact that they had nothing to lose – after all, what’s the worst that could happen? Their empty nets would remain empty? Or maybe they reasoned that the man from the shore had seen evidence of a school of fish on the other side of the boat. Or, maybe they recalled a previous miraculous experience when Jesus had told them to do something similar and the haul of fish nearly sunk not one, but two boats (cf. Luke 5)!
Whatever it was that compelled them to follow the advice, the results were far different from the experience they had had all night: “When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish” (v.6). Where they had failed, Jesus blessed them with success. Throw out whatever definition of insanity you have – Jesus changed the rules.
Doing the same things over and over, spiritually speaking, is not insanity at all. It is in fact the recipe for spiritual growth. And when we don’t tap into it, we don’t grow. Or, when we tap out of it too soon, we miss out on the benefits.
Jesus’ parable of the sower and the seed illustrates this. The new believer who is overjoyed by the good news of the gospel suddenly shifts the focus to the cares and concerns of the world and away from the Word, and what happens? Shallow roots. Weeds. Growth is stunted because the new believer stopped doing the same thing – feeding that newfound faith with the Word.
We pray… once. Twice. Nothing happens, so we stop praying for that thing. We commit to worship for a couple of weeks. Nothing happens, so we fall back into old routines of not worshipping. We give a little bit more in our offerings, but don’t see any return on my “investment,” so we resort to giving what we were previously. I do the devotional thing for a time, but it doesn’t immediately fix all of my problems, so I go back to neglecting it.
If there is one area of life in which that definition of insanity does not apply, it is in the realm of spiritual things. Our problem is not doing the same thing over and over and not getting any results; our problem is a lack of committing long-term to doing the same things over and over. Or, we give up doing the same thing before we ever see the results. We quit too soon. In that regard, in these spiritual applications, in our faith life, let’s fess up: we truly are failures. Yes, in that regard we are failures.
No, actually we’re not. The Resurrection changed that. We were failures, but Jesus’ victory over sin means our sin no longer counts against us as failures. But in order for that to all take place, Jesus had to first appear as a failure.
There was not a single person witnessing the Crucifixion on Good Friday who would have come to any other conclusion than that Jesus had failed. Some, certainly his disciples and followers, must have put the best construction on it and concluded that his failure was no fault of his own, but the fault of a corrupt trial system and government that ensured Jesus would not get a fair shot. But still, there Jesus was, hanging on the cross, a failure.
To others, the cross was seen as the exclamation point of Jesus’ failure. Those harboring hatred and animosity toward Jesus, who had maliciously plotted his demise, were undoubtedly delighted to claim responsibility for Jesus’ failure – that was their goal all along!
It was not only earthly opponents rejoicing in what appeared to be Jesus’ failure, but also the hoards of hell, the demons, the evil angels, collaborating to bring down the Son of Man and Son of God. They viewed Good Friday as their crowning achievement, their revenge on the God who had cast them out of heaven for their rebellion. The failure fixed to the cross was to them the view of victory.
How right they were! The cross was the symbol of victory! The death he died was the sacrifice necessary to cement certain victory! Yes, everything had gone according to Satan’s plan.
But remember that Satan is not omniscient. He had come up woefully short in his estimation of God’s almighty power and eternal plan. Satan did not even know that he and his plans were merely putty in the hands of the Designer of the universe and every living thing, and that just as he had shaped everything out of nothing, so also had the infinite God shaped his purposes out of the devil’s deplorably defiant act of rebellion.
Jesus hadn’t failed. Jesus wasn’t a failure. Not once during his lifetime, and not even in his death! Rather death meant victory! In crucifying Christ, in the ultimate act of irony, Satan was responsible for offering up the very thing sacrifice that would be his undoing. By hammering nails into Jesus on the cross, Satan effectively hammered the nails in his own coffin.
This is all true because Jesus is gone from the grave. This is all true because the tomb is empty. This is all true because Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead! For that reason, seemingly insignificant accounts like the one before us this morning are so significant. With each resurrection appearance, Jesus rubbed his victory in Satan’s face. He turned the tables on Satan and made it abundantly clear that it was not Jesus, but the father of lies who had failed. Satan had failed. Satan is a failure.
Do you remember to remind him of that when he whispers words of failure in your ears? Do you remind him of that in the thick of the battle when he presses his hardest against you in the heat of temptation? Do you remind him even then that he has failed, that he is a failure, and that in Jesus Christ and the power of his resurrection you are a victor who refuses to be his victim? Do you remind him that even in the moments when your sin appears to hand the victory trophy over to him, he still has no right to it because grace and forgiveness flow from the tomb with such a force that not even his successful temptations can withstand it?
Brothers and sisters in Christ, Easter Sunday means that grace wins! Forgiveness wins! Jesus has won – and his victory frees us to live in the supreme confidence that we are victorious over failure. Now then, dear friends, do just this one thing: live like it!
This wasn’t the first miraculous catch of fish for the disciples. The disciples had previously had an experience with Jesus nearly swamping their boats with a huge haul of fish.
But the outcome this time was different. Peter previously was wrought with fear at his realization of who Jesus was in that former experience, pleading that the Lord depart from his presence, for he was a miserable sinner. Now we see Peter behave quite differently! He doesn’t shy away from the Savior in fear, but rather jumps out of the boat in an effort to get to him as quickly as he possibly can. “Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water.” (v.7). He can’t get to his risen Savior soon enough! And notice, even though John is very specific about how abundant their catch of fish was, the disciples are hardly distracted by the fish because they’re so focused on Jesus!
What accounts for the totally different reactions from the disciples in these otherwise somewhat similar miraculous events? The Resurrection. Jesus lives, and the impact, the difference it makes, is shown in how changed their reactions and their lives are.
The Resurrection has really changed your life, too. It turned failures into followers. It took us from failure to faithful. So be unafraid to do the same thing over and over and over – to put your faith into practice again and again, because the result will not be failure, but fruit – fruit in your own life and fruit that the living Jesus will use to build up his church.