It was an unexpected visitation. The audience least expected their August Visitor at such a time and place. Meanwhile, the Visitor was not a stranger to his audience, there is a Master-apprentice relationship between them. Three and a half years earlier, these apprentices had pledged their total allegiance to their Master. They had left all to follow him. They had followed their Master everywhere He went and wherever He sent them. These apprentices had cast all their hopes for life on their Master. They loved the Master wholly and the Master also had expressed His love in an amazing way to them. But suddenly, prominent men among them just turned back from their life-long commitment to pursue another ambition different from the Master’s. They never expected to see their Master again. But now the Master decided to visit them, and the visitation was dramatic and spectacular.
This is no fiction. It is a real life story. Jesus was the Master and His disciples were the apprentices. He had called them, taught them, and trained them to fulfill the purpose of their calling. But one day they turned back from their life assignment to go after what to eat. It was a huge betrayal and disappointment to their Master. But the Master decided to seek after His erring servants. When He came, He met them at the sea, looking for fish.
“Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No” John 21:5.
CHILDREN, have ye any meat?
When Jesus came to His erring disciples, He called them children. “Children” or “lads” was an affectionate greeting, not a term of condescension or disdain. No matter their betrayal, disappointment and falling away, they remained God’s Children. He addresses them as children to reinforce the validity of their sonship in God. NOTE: faults and failures don’t invalidate the fact of your sonship in Christ. Even when the prodigal son, by reason of guilt, felt he had lost his right to sonship, the father still addressed him as “this my son”. NOTE: Parents and leaders should not aggravate further the pain of an already guilty and discouraged children by hurting words. We ought to be like our Heavenly Father Who is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance”
Children, HAVE YE ANY MEAT?
While Jesus’s appearance to His disciples was born out of great love and affection aimed at their restoration to the grace from whence they had fallen, it was also aimed at confronting the disappointing manner in which they had acted to their Master. It was for the meat that perishes that they abandoned their calling and purpose. It was for the mundane meat that they turned around again to the things they had left behind. It was for the meat that will not last that they turned from preaching the saving Gospel to fishing business. It was for the meat that perishes that they betrayed the Master they all have sworn their allegiance to. It was for the sake of the meat that they forgot the command of their Master which says, “Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed” (John 6:27). In another place the Master had also given them this express command, “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?” (Mathew 6:25). In fact, the Holy Ghost, through the mouth of Apostle Paul, later spoke on this kind of meat the disciples of Christ were passionate about in this regard: “Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them” (1Cor. 6:13).
Sad enough, it was for the sake of this same meat that many Christians, including Christian ministers have reduced the Cross of Christ to the perishables. They now preach “health and wealth” gospel in order to put food on their tables. It for the meat that perishes that many give false and fake prophesies today; speaking when the Lord has not spoken. “For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple (Romans 16:18). “Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things…enemies of the cross of Christ” (Phil. 3:19, 18b).
So I see Christ’s question to His disciple as an indirect question to pierce, prime and pull their hearts to the foolishness of their wrongdoing. Jesus seems to be asking, “Children, since you abandon your life’s purpose and calling in pursuit of the meat that perishes, have ye now any meat? What has now become of your life since you decided to look for what to eat at the expense of what to become? What have you gained in turning around to the things you left behind? Children, have ye any meat?”
SOMEONE NEEDS BE ASKED “Have you any meat?”
Have you any meat? Since you abandoned the calling and purpose of God for your life in pursuit of career, business and money, have you found satisfaction and fulfilment? Since you left the person you should have married because of pride, money and material possession, what has now become of your life? Since you eloped from the hands God had ordained for your discipleship and training in life, has your life got better? Since you replaced the true Gospel of grace for utility gospel, what fruits have you gotten? What has your life produced since you stopped following Jesus? Children, have you any meat?
“THEY ANSWERED HIM, NO”
“Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? THEY ANSWERED HIM, NO”
Even if the disciples of Christ had caught fishes, the true answer would still be “No”. Ask me why? Earlier in their walk with Him, Jesus had declared to them that He had a meat which they knew nothing about and because He actually wanted them to know what this meat was, He told them clearly, that His meat is to do the will of the Father that sent Him and to finish. So when He came asking them, “Children, have ye any meat? They answered Him, No”. Saying “No” is the same thing as saying “No-thing”. NOTE: Spending your time and energy on any dream, vision and project OUTSIDE the will and plan of God for your life is to be busy doing nothing! Forget about results, result can be fake and deceptive. NOTE: The fruits and results of any labour outside the circumference of the perfect will of God for your life is a false and deceptive fruit. Such fruit is meant to deceive and encourage you to keep going in the wrong direction until your life is eventually wasted on frivolity and vanity! Then it would be too late to repent. As at the time of Christ’s appearance to His disciples, they had veered off the path of the will of their Master. Hence, they could not have produced the kind of meat He wanted. “They answered Him, No”
Please, pause and say “Amen”.
May the Lord interrupt and intercept your journey in the wrong direction! May the Lord be merciful to you as not to allow you succeed in the wrong direction!
WHAT IS THE MEAT OF YOUR LIFE?
My dear reader, thank you for reading thus far! But the Lord wants me to ask you the same question today, “Have you any meat?” What is the meat of your life? What are you consumed with and what is consuming your life? What are you passionate about? Have you any meat? What are you busy doing? Where are you throwing the weight of your life? What are you devoted to? Hope what you are doing is GOD’S PERFECT WILL for your life. Hope what you call ministry, vision and pursuit is not a mirage that will amount to NO-thing on the day of reckoning! What will your answer be when the Master appears to call you to account for the deeds done in the body? Jesus says, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish it” Jesus’ meat should also be the meat of your life. To be busy and committed outside His will for your life is to have “NO” as an answer when He comes! If some part of your life is already wasted, this is the time to arise and cry unto God for the mercy of restoration.
“Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do (rededicate yourself to) the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. Rev 2: 5.
May your life count in the things that count for time and eternity.
Thanks for reading!