Jesus, after never being reported to eat fish in his lifetime and telling His disciples to leave their nets and be fishers of men alive when He first revealed sin to Simon (Peter), then appears after His own death.
This time instead of leaving the nets, the fish are brought in weighing nothing in the net. The above video highlights the spirituality of the fish. There is another part of the story as well that roots also our faith in the physical resurrection, and it is not the fish.
Read the full chapter here:
www.veganchurch.uk/scripture.html?ref=John21
Consider the sentence,
"He gave to the boys apples, and the girls likewise."
Does this mean the boys eat the girls?
”He took the bread and gave it to them, and the fish likewise. “ John 21.14
So the fish eating the bread is logical. At the very least the additional ‘likewise the fish’ is awkward with two possible meanings, either of the fish eating the bread or the men eating the fish. As it is not literarily fully coherent with one meaning could this be an appended sentence? In any case we should look at what is important in the story and what is it that Jesus would have wanted as the Son of the creator of all creation, Who has conquered death.
The resurrection stories use food in the sense that it is physical and then proves the physical resurrection of Jesus’ body. In this way the bread is the key part of the whole account. The physical bread being given is in character with Jesus in the Lord’s prayer; joining the spiritual afterlife with the physical resurrection.
The fish, however, because they are not straining the net;
‘though they were so many, the net was not broken’ John 21 NKJV
suggest literally that they are the spiritual element to this account, not the physical. They would not prove the physical resurrection in themselves as they are weightless. Then the fish are souls in heaven with a spiritual body, but the bread is the physical element of food, to prove of Jesus’ physical resurrection. It does make sense that the fish are the spiritual element as they have a soul that would then exist in heaven with Jesus.
It is poetic but also a source of confusion for people that the account is both spiritual and physical. One would miss the importance of the physical resurrection thinking it is type of dream, but also there is an important spiritual element shown by the fish not weighing anything, which tallies perfectly with Jesus originally saying to Simon (later named ‘Peter’) :
“Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid. From now on you will be catching people alive." Luke 5.10 WEB
In both stories Jesus connects with sinners and rough fishermen dissuading them from continuing a life of killing fish and instead to live a life of looking after people and animals. For that reason it would be wrong to interpret the account of Joh to mean in any way that fish should be killed and eaten. Jesus has His own knowledge of souls beyond death and we should have faith that during our lifetime killing other souls is wrong.
