NOTES for Joh 21:12-13

Why do the disciples not dare ask Him anything? What is this: shock at an unexpected miracle, at the unexpected Resurrection of the Teacher, compared with which the miraculous catch is a mere trifle? Perhaps that too, because they truly had not expected to see Him risen.

But there was something else. The disciples remembered perfectly well how they had all scattered then in Gethsemane. They remembered how they had all been completely convinced that everything was over, and had remained so until the very meeting with the risen Teacher. And even now they still did not really understand what was happening or what to expect next.

It was not only that there in Gethsemane almost all of them had been afraid and run away. The main issue was that all of them, without exception, had failed precisely as disciples: they had never understood the Teacher when He spoke to them about His death and His Resurrection. And now, after meeting the Risen One, this was completely obvious to all of them. There was good reason to be embarrassed. And, in essence, there was nothing to ask about: what can you ask when you understand nothing at all? All that remains is to look at the Teacher in confusion and wait for what will happen next, for what He will say and do.

And the apostles wait. They do not yet know that they will have to wait until Pentecost. They simply wait, making no plans in advance and making no attempt to imagine how events will unfold. For the first time in all their time with the Teacher, they tried to understand His words and actions, not their own interpretations of those words and actions. Jesus finally became for them the real Teacher. With a capital letter. Not only because of His divinity, but also because they had come to relate to Him in the right way. That is how life in Christ began for the apostles.