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Jesus Cooks 'Em Breakfast

¹ Later on, Jesus appeared once again to his cowboys by the Sea of Galilee. ² It happened like this. Pete, Tom, Nate, James, and John, and two other cowboys were together. ³ Pete said, "I'm going fishin'," and the others said they wanted to go too. So, they all jumped in a boat, but they didn't catch anything all night long.

⁴ Early the next morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the cowboys couldn't tell who it was.

⁵ Jesus hollered out to them, "Hey, amigos. Did y'all catch anything?"

"Nope," they answered.

⁶ Jesus hollered back, "Cast your net on the right side of the boat and I bet you'll catch something." When they did, their nets started to break because of all the fish.

⁷ Then the cowboy who Jesus loved said to Pete, "Hey, it's the Lord!" Pete barely registered the words before he threw his clothes on and jumped out of the boat and swam to shore. ⁸ The others hauled the fish in and headed back to shore. ⁹ When they got there, they found breakfast was waiting. Jesus had cooked them some biscuits and fish.

¹⁰ Jesus said, "Bring some of the fish over here." ¹¹ Pete climbed back into the boat and pulled the massive net of fish ashore. There were 153 large fish in the net, but it wasn't torn. ¹² Jesus said to all the cowboys, "Come get y'all some grub." None of the cowboys asked who he was because they knew it was the Lord. ¹³ Jesus handed them all some biscuits and some fish. ¹⁴ This was the third time that Jesus had appeared to his cowboys after coming back from the grave.

Jesus Makes It Right with Pete

¹⁵ When they'd finished eating, Jesus asked Pete, "Do you love me more than the rest of the cowboys do?"

"Absolutely, Lord," he said. "You know that."

Jesus said, "Feed my cattle."

¹⁶ Again, Jesus asked Pete, "Do you love me?"

He answered, "Yes, Lord. You know that I do."

Jesus said, "Take care of my cattle."

¹⁷ Then a third time Jesus asked, "Pete, do you love me?"

Pete's feelings were hurt because Jesus kept asking him the same question over and over as if Pete didn't love him. Pete said, "Lord, you know all things. So, you know that I do love you."

Jesus said, "Feed my cattle."

¹⁸ "Let me tell you something Pete," Jesus said. "When you were young, you got to make your own choices and do what you wanted. But there will come a day when you are old that someone else will stretch out your hands, dress you, and lead you somewhere you do not want to go." ¹⁹ Jesus was telling him about the way he would die and bring honor to God. Then he said, "Come with me, my friend."

²⁰ Pete turned and saw the cowboy who Jesus loved was walking up. (This is the same cowboy who was sitting next to Jesus that last night and had asked him who the double-crosser was.) ²¹ When Pete saw him, he asked, "What about this cowboy? What will happen to him, Lord?"

²² Jesus said, "If I want to keep him alive until the day I return, it is none of your business. You just follow me and don't worry about anything else." ²³ Because Jesus said this, rumors spread that this particular cowboy would never die. But Jesus never said that. He only said, "If I want to keep him alive until the day I return, it is none of your business."

²⁴ This is the cowboy who was an eyewitness and wrote everything down. We know that what he said was true.

²⁵ Jesus did a lot more things as well. If every single thing were written down, I'm not sure the whole world could contain the books it would take to document them all.