Peter walked away from everything to follow Jesus and became an important disciple of a Rabbi – a big deal in Jewish society. Not good enough in Hebrew School, he had returned to the family business – fishing. Then he got a second chance, bigger than he ever dreamed - called by The Messiah. But the last weeks have been an emotional rollercoaster, for them all, from the dizzy heights of Palm Sunday, where maybe they half expected Jesus to be crowned King, to the utter depths of despair with Jesus death on the cross. Then came the resurrection. All the disciples, need a break; they are all from Northern Israel, the only one from the South, had been Judas Iscariot. Jesus and an Angel, ordered them to go home – to Galilee.

Back home, Peter decides to go fishing. He is carrying a load of guilt about his 3 time denial of Jesus, even though Jesus predicted it and he is one of these people that needs to be doing something, and fishing is comfortingly familiar. What he has maybe not understood is that with each denial he placed a curse on his life. Now nothing for him is going right and though the disciples are professional fishermen, they catch nothing. It is a picture of someone outside of God’s will; Jesus had said “Without me you can do… nothing!”

After trying all night, in the early morning as they head into shore, a man appears on the beach, he calls to them, “How are you doing boys?” The original language phasing indicates he already knows they haven’t caught anything. Embarrassed, they admit their failure. The man calls, "throw the net over the other side of the boat", and bells go off in John’s memory, he immediately knows who it is on the beach. Then we see things suddenly go right. A haul of 153 large fish, that's some catch, yet the net did not break! This was all ‘deja vous’ for Peter, Andrew, James and John. Then Jesus, over breakfast asks Peter 3 times, "Peter do you love me?" Why? It seems cruel, and maybe Peter didn't understand at the time, but what Jesus is doing here is breaking the curses Peter has placed on himself, by his denials.

Have you denied Christ, or unwittingly spoken curses over yourself? You need to ask his forgiveness and unsay them! For many right now, anti-Semitism is the one to be careful about (Genesis 12:3). It is right to feel compassion and sympathy for Palestinian civilians, but if you curse Israel, you bring a curse from God on yourself. Take care not to curse Israel!