The importance of broiled fish! A reflection on Luke 24:36b-48 and Acts 3:1-19 (April 2021).

Now here’s a question for you – ‘How do you like your fish cooked?’

The options include battered and deep-fried; roast or baked; pan-fried; poached. Or, how about broiled?

We heard in the Gospel reading from Luke that the disciples gave Jesus a piece of ‘broiled’ fish to eat so that Jesus could prove to them that he was ‘real’ and not a ghost; this was when he appeared to them following his death and resurrection. When I read this, I realised that I didn’t actually know what ‘broiled’ meant. So, I went to the font of all knowledge – Google – which told me that broiling is ‘cooking by exposure to direct radiant heat, either on a grill over live coals, or below a gas burner or electric coil’.

The first of these options is all that would have been available back in the first century AD, and is basically what, today, we would call barbequing – cooking over charcoal. Perhaps this is how Jesus liked his fish cooked – ‘on the barbie’. This is also supported by another account of the disciples encountering the risen Christ that’s described in John’s Gospel: in this case it was by the Sea of Tiberius, where Jesus was cooking fish for them over a charcoal fire for breakfast.

But I think there’s a more significant aspect to this than Jesus’ food preferences. We’re told the main reason why Jesus asked for something to eat was to prove to the disciples that he was ‘real’ – that it was actually him as fully human flesh and blood. Afterall, only a ‘real’ person – not a ghost – could eat ‘real’ food. So why didn’t Luke just tell us that Jesus ‘ate some food’; or even that he ‘ate some fish’? Why did Luke specifically state that ‘They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence’?

Well, perhaps Luke gave this specific detail because he was keen to show the reality of Jesus’ appearance – that it did truly happen – and this finer point of detail helps to emphasise this.

And why did Luke feel this was necessary? Could it be because, for us humans, the hardest part of faith is actually realising (that is, feeling) the truth of what we say we believe? To understand this we just have to look at the disciples: they’d lived with Jesus day-in and day-out for three years; they’d witnessed all his miracles, heard all his teaching, been given privileged additional insights. And yet, when faced with the risen Christ, Luke tells us that they were ‘startled, terrified, disbelieving and wondering’.

So, if it was difficult for the disciples, how much more so for us, to ‘accept the reality’ or ‘realise the truth’ that God is real and that Jesus is the real personification of God.

Indeed, this theme goes right back to Moses, when he asked how God should be identified to the Israelites, God replied simply, “I AM”! Perhaps what God meant by this was that, “If you really want to know what is really real, then ‘I AM’”. Indeed, God is more real than anything else, because He is the source of everything that we consider real. What Moses, what the disciples, and what we must realise is that God is more real than anything else.

Let’s think about that word ‘realise’ – ‘real’ with ‘ise’ on the end. It’s dictionary definition is to ‘become fully aware of something as a fact; to understand clearly’.

So, most of the reading we heard from Luke’s Gospel is about Jesus helping the disciples to realise that he, and therefore that God his Father, are real. The enormous consequences of this realisation are stated very simply and briefly by Jesus at the very end of the passage we heard read: ‘that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed...to all nations’.

Why are so few words devoted to matters of such massive spiritual importance as repentance and forgiveness of sins? Well, perhaps it’s because that once we fully realise that God is truly real, and that Christ is really God’s Son, our repentance and the forgiveness of our sins naturally follow.

So let’s think more about these consequences – repentance and forgiveness of sins.

We tend to think of the word ‘repentance’ as meaning ‘being sorry for the sins we have committed’ – the wrong we have done. This is clearly an aspect of its use, but what the word ‘repentance’ literally means is ‘to change one’s mind’ and ‘change direction’. So, perhaps we should think that what Jesus meant here is that when someone fully accepts the reality of God and the message of the Gospel, they will naturally ‘change their mind and the direction’ of how they think and behave, and what’s truly important in life; and this includes saying sorry for previous sins. Thus, another word we can apply in place of ‘repentance’ is that we ‘rethink’ what matters in life in accordance with God’s wishes.

Then following our realisation of God’s presence with us and rethinking how we live our lives, there naturally follows the forgiveness of sins. So let’s now think through the consequences of our sins being forgiven: this means our guilt is removed, a weight is lifted from our shoulders; we have a fresh start, a clean slate. In other words, we are renewed!

We’ve all heard of the ‘Three Rs’ of education: reading, writing and ‘rithmatic. This was, apparently introduced in the early 1800s. More recently, the same alliterative principle has been applied in other areas: for example the ‘Three Rs’ of sustainability are ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’.

So, what I’d like to propose to you, based on the risen Christ’s encounter with his disciples that we’ve been thinking about here, are the ‘Three Rs’ of growth in Christian Faith: realise, rethink, renew.

Realise that God is real and present with us; that the Gospel is true.

Rethink our lives in line with God’s wishes and Christ’s message.

Renew our lives and faith by accepting God’s forgiveness.

What we heard in the reading from Acts was Peter applying these ‘Three Rs’ in passing on the message he had received directly from Jesus.

The reaction of those who witnessed Peter’s miraculous healing of the lame man was very similar to the reaction of the disciples some weeks earlier when confronted with the risen Christ: we’re told that they were ‘utterly astonished, wondering, staring’.

Now that he had the people’s attention, Peter (as did Jesus previously) used most of what he said to encourage the people to realise that the Gospel is true – that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the real, living God. Again, this is the most difficult part to get his listeners to believe. Peter then says in just one sentence, “Repent, therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out.” In other words, for those who fully realise the truth of the Gospel, rethinking and renewing their lives follows naturally.

These ‘Three Rs’ apply just as much to us as they did to the disciples who met the risen Christ, and the Jews in the temple who witnessed the miraculous healing. But it’s always a ‘work in progress’ because it’s intrinsic to human nature that we are faltering and fickle. Indeed, our commitment needs to be renewed daily. But we can take courage from the words of John Keble in the hymn we’ll be singing shortly:

New every morning is the love

Our waking and uprising prove.....

New mercies, each returning day,

Hover around us while we pray;

New perils past, new sins forgiven,

New thoughts of God, new hopes of Heaven.

I’d therefore like to finish with a short prayer and I suggest that you aim to pray this (or something similar) once each day during the coming week:

Loving God,

I realise that You are present here with me today and always.

Help me to rethink my life according to Your will.

I am thankful that You renew me today by Your forgiveness and saving grace.

Amen