Try it my way

John 21:1-19 The Baptism of Otto William Weis

May 4, 2025

Alleluia! Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Somehow, things that you do get harder and more complicated and more frustrating when you have the sensation of being watched. When I was learning to drive, when I had my learner’s permit, my dad and I had a system after the first few drives - I drove, and he silently held on unless it was an emergency. My mom, however, could not be bound to any rules, and I found the gasps, presses of the imaginary brake pedal, and the free advice a bit much to handle. Maybe you have similar experiences about learning to drive. There’s also my annual “first day at the driving range” with my golf clubs. If you’ve golfed with me, you know that I’m not very good, but I like to ride in the cart and tell the jokes. But that first day at the driving range, as often as not, I get the feeling that someone is standing 10 feet away, watching me. Then I hear, “Hey, can I give you some advice?” At that point, I may as well go home. I start to feel self-conscious and the best thing I can do is just hit the ball, let alone hit it well. Maybe you struggle with someone watching you at your hobbies, or at work, or when you do chores at home. Sometimes, I hear people talk about how much they love it when they get free advice about how to load the dishwasher or how to arrange the dishes in the cupboard or how to fold the laundry. If you try that at home, just don’t tell anyone that I suggested it. Take all the credit for yourself.

The seven disciples in the fishing boat were being watched. Then, they got free advice - “Hey, you guys catch anything?” “No....” “Try throwing your net on the other side of the boat!” Fishing is another one of those hobbies where people love being given free advice, right? [pause] But the disciples take the free advice and throw the net on the other side, and then catch so many fish they can’t lift the net back into the boat. Peter jumps overboard and swims to Jesus on the shore, because that’s who the advice giver was, while the other six guys sailed for shore pulling the net through the water.

Then, after Jesus serves them breakfast, the Lord asks Peter if Peter loves Him. Peter says yes, and Jesus tells Peter to feed his sheep. He asks him a second time, and then a third. When Jesus asks Him the third time, Peter was grieved. Three times, Jesus asked Peter if Peter loved Him. After all, Jesus had looked at Peter when Jesus was on trial when Peter denied knowing Jesus, not once or twice, but three times, before the rooster crowed. Once for each of the three times Peter denied Jesus, Jesus asked Peter about his love for Jesus.

While you’re not Peter, you know what it feels like feel guilt and shame when your wrongdoing, your hurtfulness, and your sinfulness is known. When someone that you’ve hurt confronts you with the pain you’ve caused, you know how bad that feels. And then there’s the days when you know your sin and you know what God says about the sin you committed, and you feel awful. Maybe it upsets your stomach, or perhaps you can’t sleep or focus on anything else, or maybe you’re just overcome with the sense that you are a failure as a Christian. God calls you to holiness. You knew what you were supposed to do, and you did what you weren’t supposed to. What kind of a Christian does that? What kind of a Christian are you? You feel watched, seen, and found out as a failure.

How can God still love you? He has seen you in the middle of your sin, and there is no hiding your sinfulness from the all-knowing God. Your problems don’t have to do with the way you load the dishwasher or the hitch in your golf swing or the way you make left turns too fast. No, your problems center around the fact that you are a sinner who cannot live up to God’s expectations. So often, when we gather for church, there are hurting, guilty souls in these pews, wondering if the God who knows them still loves them even when He knows all their sins.To make matters worse, it’s not only that you don’t live up to God’s expectations, but that you cannot. As a sinner, you can’t get it right. You can’t keep God’s commands perfectly.

That’s the reality, not just for you, but for little Otto this morning. That good looking guy was born as a sinner, known by God as one who couldn’t live a holy, perfect life. No matter how cute Otto is, he is a sinner. How can God love sinners, be it Otto or you? Out of His love. God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but has eternal life. So, Jesus Christ came into the flesh to die and rise again for sinners, sinners like Otto and sinners like you.

But wait! Otto is a sinner, but not like you. At least, that’s what your guilt and shame want to tell you. Your conscience, along with your shame and embarrassment and guilt and doubt, would like you to think that you are the worst sinner that ever lived. Your sin-broken feelings try to convince you that you are the worst sinner ever and that there is no way that God still loves you or that God forgives you. You imagine and fear that you are outside of God’s love because of your intense, awful, severe sinfulness.

Yet, even if you were the worst sinner in all of human history, Jesus Christ came into the flesh for you. Jesus Christ went to the cross for you. There is no one in all human history and no one who will be born for whom Jesus Christ did not die and rise again. While not everyone believes that, that doesn’t change the once-for-all truth that Jesus died for all people. If you think that Jesus doesn’t love you, remember this: there is no human being now or ever that Jesus didn’t die and rise for.

Peter denied Jesus three times, and Jesus forgave Him and called Peter to continue following Jesus. If Jesus were a strict disciplinarian, He could have told Peter that Peter had his chance and blew it and there were no second chances and no forgiveness for such an extreme betrayal. But that would be completely contrary to God’s nature. God is love, and in His love, the Son of God has come with forgiveness and mercy for poor, miserable sinners.

Have you betrayed God? Have you denied Him? Have you abandoned Him? Do you carry shame and guilt for your sinfulness that eats away at you? Do you have those moments when you think that God is watching you, and you self-consciously confess that once again you have fallen short of God’s holy expectations? Do you feel trapped in a pattern of sin that you can’t seem to get out of? If so, then jump overboard! Not into the Sea of Galilee’s cold, fishy waters, but into the water of baptism. Jesus stepped into the Jordan River and into His own baptism so that your baptism would mean something. In the waters of Baptism, Jesus has placed His own death and resurrection as a gift for the baptized. Along with Jesus’ death and resurrection comes life, forgiveness, and salvation. In those baptismal waters, the forgiveness of Jesus is in the water. That means something to the baptized. Today, that means something to Otto because Jesus declared His love for cute Otto. When you were baptized, the Lord Jesus declared His love for you. You cannot out-sin the grace of God. Your shame can’t chase away God’s love. When you fear that you have done something so bad that Jesus can’t forgive you or that Jesus will have nothing more to do for you, remember that you are baptized and flee to the presence of Jesus. He is with you always, to the very end of the age. He loves you more than you can ever know or imagine. His death and His resurrection are for you. He invites you, not merely to a fish breakfast, but to the everlasting feast of the resurrection because your sins are forgiven and your guilt and shame are covered. Believe in Jesus, your risen Lord who loves you. Amen.