The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Breakfast at "Trinity's" and Scriptures on Restoration

Episode Date: July 19, 2019

Jeff Cavins digs into scriptures on restoration in the Gospel of John and compares Peter’s journey to Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany’s. At some point, both run away from their responsibilities, but eventually turn around and embrace transformative relationships. Do you have comments or questions for Jeff? Email Jeff at [e-mail]. You may hear your question or comment in an upcoming podcast episode! Snippet from the Show “Whatever you’ve done, the Lord is able to restore you, and it doesn’t take a fanfare, it oftentimes is a very simple thing.” SHOWNOTES John 18:15-18, Peter Denies Jesus - “Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. As this disciple was known to the high priest, he entered the court of the high priest along with Jesus, while Peter stood outside at the door. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the maid who kept the door, and brought Peter in. The maid who kept the door said to Peter, “Are not you also one of this man’s disciples?” He said, “I am not.” Now the servants and officers had made a charcoal fire, because it was cold, and they were standing and warming themselves; Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself. John 18:19-24, The High Priest Questions Jesus - The high priest then questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. Jesus answered him, “I have spoken openly to the world; I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all Jews come together; I have said nothing secretly. Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me, what I said to them; they know what I said.” When he had said this, one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand, saying, “Is that how you answer the high priest?” Jesus answered him, “If I have spoken wrongly, bear witness to the wrong; but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?” Annas then sent him bound to Ca′iaphas the high priest. John 18:25-27, Peter Denies Jesus Again - Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They said to him, “Are not you also one of his disciples?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” One of the servants of the high priest, a kinsman of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him?” Peter again denied it; and at once the cock crowed.” John 21:1-14, Jesus Appears to Disciples by the Sea of Tiberias - “After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tibe′ri-as; and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathan′a-el of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zeb′edee, and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat; but that night they caught nothing. Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 Jesus said to them, “Children, have you any fish?” They answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, for the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his clothes, for he was stripped for work, and sprang into the sea. But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off. When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them; and although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.” John 21:15-19, Peter Is Given a Command - “When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” A second time he said to him, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you girded yourself and walked where you would; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go.” 19 (This he said to show by what death he was to glorify God.) And after this he said to him, “Follow me.”

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven Show, episode 125, Breakfast at Trinity's, a new beginning. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavans. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven Show. And welcome to the show again this week. Here I am again, meeting. with you, deep in the woods of Minnesota, overlooking a beautiful lake that is right now quite populated with Canadian geese and ducks and turns and all kinds of cranes, you name it. There's all kinds of birds in the lake today. We got four, in some areas of Minnesota,

four inches of snow, not snow. We're so used to saying that. Four inches of rain. And that was just yesterday and came in about an hour and a half, two hours. And you can literally see that the lake is up today. And it's just a beautiful day. Sitting here with my open Bible and really looking forward to sharing with you. Hey, have you ever blown it? Have you ever had that opportunity in your life, or I wouldn't say opportunity, but that experience in your life of waking up in the morning and just feeling like something in the pit of your stomach. Why? Because of something that happened the day before, a couple days before. Maybe it was in a relationship. Maybe it was something you said or something that you, you know, you let the, you drop the ball in a relationship or at work or whatever

it might be. And you wake up and it's just not that happy morning. I know that's happened to me before. and I'm assuming that that has happened to you. So often, you know, we experience things in our lives, and then we wake up and think, you know, I'm what an idiot. I'm just, I'm not good at this, and I'm always blowing it. And we're going to look today at St. Peter, who experienced exactly that. And we're going to see what the Lord did with St. Peter at a very special breakfast. And, of course, this is a takeoff on that very, very well-known. novella written by Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's starring Audrey Hepburn.

And I'm not going to talk a lot about Holly, go lightly in the film, but I think there's something to bounce off of here, to riff off of if you will. And that's what we're going to talk about today. Before we get into that, just a quick reminder at jeffcavens.com under pilgrimages, we still have some openings for January to go to Israel. If you'd like to go to Israel, with my wife and myself. And next June, Father Mike Schmitz and I are going to be leading quite a pilgrimage in June of 2020 to the Holy Land for young adults. And that information is on the website. We have Taylor Tripodi singing, Ali Ali, Brother Isaiah. We've got Andrew and Sarah Swofford. We've, man, we just got all kinds of people coming with us on this trip. There's

going to be live concerts in Sea of Galilee, Jerusalem, Mass. every day at epic places. We'd love to have you come with us. It's starting to fill up, and you can go and get your kind of a pre-registration at jeffcavens.com. And as always, I enjoy your email. My email is The Jeffcaven Show at ascensionpress.com. Hey, if someone asked me the other day, how is the new great adventure Bible going? It is, it's going very well, and we're getting so many great comments from around the world, people studying the Bible from the Great Adventure Bible. And as you may remember, there was about a two-week period. It was number one for sales on Amazon. That's Protestant and Catholic Bibles. I haven't checked it lately and I haven't got word, but just really proud of the team

at Ascension Press and what they've done to publish what I consider an outstanding Bible, with the Bible timeline baked right into it. So our theme this week, breakfast at Trinities, a new beginning. You might be familiar with that movie, Breakfast at Tiffany's, starring Audrey Hepburn. It's really the story of a young lady, Holly, and there's kind of a relationship between Holly and the narrator, and this conflict that's taking place in this relationship in the movie is very interesting. The narrator, it seems to be more stable. right? But Holly is, she's consumed with constantly escaping, what, escaping relationships, escaping her identity, escaping responsibilities, and she has a way of making a holiday,

which she kind of changes her name to that, making a holiday out of everything, just totally abandoning and walking away from relationships and responsibilities. But then in the end, she finds that meaning, which I'm not suggesting necessarily, but she finds that meaning in what. It's in relationship. It's in responsibility, but it's something quite small, and it's a cat. It's a cat. And everything prior to that cat jeopardized her freedom, and it's kind of the chronicling of her trying to go out and discover who she is. Well, in a way, we find this in St. Peter. I know it sounds a little odd, but we find it in St. Peter in that, you know, Peter was called by the Lord, Lech-A-Harae, come follow me, Peter. And it wasn't to just a, you know, a calling to follow him,

but it was filled with responsibilities. It was filled with responsibilities that Peter had. And to follow the Lord is more than just following him and taking notes, but it is a full responsibility, a full relationship. And we find in the scriptures that Peter is doing kind of what Holly in Breakfast at Tiffany's was doing, and that is she's abandoning a relationship. She's abandoning responsibilities. And that's what Peter does when Peter denies the Lord three times. And you might remember that. I'm going to read it to you right here. It's in John chapter 18. starting in verse 15, and it says that Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. As this disciple was known to the high priest, he entered the court of the high priest along with

Jesus while Peter stood outside the door. So the other disciple who was known to the high priest went out and spoke to the maid who kept the door and brought Peter in. The maid who kept the door said to Peter, are you not also one of this man's disciples? And he said, I am not. Now the servant The servants and officers had made a charcoal fire, note charcoal fire there, because it was cold and they were standing and warming themselves. Peter also was with them standing and warming himself. Verse 19, the high priest then questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching, and Jesus answered him, I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in the synagogues and in the temple where all Jews come together. I have said nothing. I have said nothing.

secretly. Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me what I said to them. They know what I said. When he had said this, one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hands, saying, Is this how you answer the high priest? And Jesus answered him, if I have spoken wrongly, bear witness to the wrong. But if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me? Anis then sent him bound to Caiaphas to the high priest. Now Simon Peter, was standing and warming himself. They said to him, are you not also one of the disciples? He denied it and said, I am not. And one of the servants of the high priest, a kinsman of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, did I not see you in the garden with him? And Peter again

denied him, and at once the cock crowed. And of course, that is the famous passage where Peter denies the Lord three times. Now let's put this in some kind of context. here. Prior to this, you know that Peter was chosen by Jesus to come follow him. And we know that in Matthew's gospel, that Peter was made the first prime minister, the first pope of the church. And as a pope, or as a first, you know, he's the, I guess you would say, the leader among all of the disciples, he has tremendous responsibilities, doesn't he? Well, with this call, as I said, there is work, tasks to be accomplished with the calling. We're not called simply to just follow Jesus around and take notes of his talks and share

them with other people. We are joining him in his mission. But what do we do when we blow it? We know that Peter ends up, and we're going to see this at the end of the gospel, Peter ends up doing what? he ends up abandoning his call. He is shirking his responsibility. But the Lord is not going to leave him there. The Lord is not going to just let go of Peter. Now, no doubt, Peter felt awful that morning after he denied the Lord. Wouldn't you? I mean, I would. I would feel absolutely terrible. Well, what would you do?

What have you done on those mornings where you're feeling like, man, I'm just terrible at this. I've blown it royally. Just blown it. Well, what Peter did is we find that he goes back. He goes back to his fishing industry. You know, you've probably heard me talk many times before about how when you were called in the first century, you had a choice. You could do what your father taught you to do, if it's carpentry or fisher. or make sandals, whatever it might be. And if you did not do that, you might be chosen by a great rabbi to follow that rabbi, to take on the yoke of that rabbi, the mission of that rabbi. And that's exactly what happened with Peter, was that Peter was called by the Lord to follow him, but he had been given the role as the principal leader among the disciples. So we pick up at the end of the Gospel of John. We just left off there in Chapter 18 where Peter denies the Lord at a charcoal fire. He denies the Lord.

And as a response then, what does he do? He goes back to fishing. So let's pick up John Chapter 21. This, my friend, is so powerful in this breakfast that, that Peter is going to have with the Lord is so life transforming and gets him going again at a point where he feels like such a failure. And maybe that's where you feel like, what you feel like today. Maybe you've experienced that yourself. Maybe you have gone back to what you were doing before you really were excited and on fire about serving the Lord. I'm going to pray that that

would change as a result of John chapter 29. Let's read it together here. It says, after this, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberius. And he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas called the twin, Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and the two others of his disciples were together. Now, Simon Peter, said to them, I'm going fishing. Now, that is basically the same as, you know what, all this that's happened in his last three years was exciting and wow, but, you know, I have blown it. I have blown it royally, and I'm going to go back, I'm going to go back fishing. And they said to him, we'll go with you. And they went out and got into the

boat, but that night they caught nothing. And just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the beach, yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, children, have you any fish? they answered him no and he said to them cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find some so they cast it and now they were not able to haul it in for the quantity of fish that disciple whom jesus loved said to peter it is the lord when simon peter heard that it was the lord he put on his clothes for he was stripped for work and sprang into the sea but the other disciples came in the boat dragging the net full of fish for they were not far from the land, but about 100 yards off. Verse 9. When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there.

Uh-huh. Remember in chapter 18? Peter denied the Lord at a charcoal fire. He denied the Lord after receiving a call, after being given responsibility, after entering into a relationship with the Lord, he denied the Lord at a charcoal fire. And since then, has become discouraged just like you, just like me. We both would be terribly discouraged. And there he sees a charcoal fire with fish lying on it and bread. And Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish that you have just caught. So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled a net ashore full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. Pause there for just a moment. Isn't that interesting that in verse 11, the number of fish is actually given, 153. Now, you have to ask yourself,

why in the world, in this story, would the number of fish be written down? Well, in the Jewish culture, numbers are very important. There really isn't the number one, two, three, four. They use the alphabet for their numbering system. Consequently, every word has a numerical value. if you add up the value of each of the letters of the alphabet, you'll come up with a total for a word or a phrase, a sentence, whatever it might be. As it turns out, here is Peter, and he's fishing, and the Lord says, throw the net on the right side of the boat, and they gain such a load. It was 153 fish. Well, here's what's interesting. If you take the phrase, Ani Elohim, in Hebrew, it means, I am God. And so what I think Peter might be getting out of this is that the Lord is

showing him, Peter, it is me. I am God. I am God. And then you move on in verse 12. Jesus said to them, come and have breakfast. Now, none of the disciples dared ask him, who are you? They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. Now, what we're going to talk about here after the break is we're going to talk a little bit about what happened at the breakfast. What happened at the breakfast after Peter had denied the Lord? Was the Lord done with him? Was the Lord going to relegate him to another position? Was the Lord going to just allow him to be a part of the outer circle and move on with

a new inner circle, or was the Lord going to renew the relationship with him even after he blew it? My friend, I know, if you're anything like me, you do have those mornings where you need a breakfast with the Lord, and you need to know that not only is He God, but that He loves you, and that his expectations of you are still the same. His goal and his desire for your life and joining him on the mission is the same. And so the encounter that Peter's going to have with the Lord over breakfast is a point of restoration. It is a point of restoration.

It is breakfast at Trinities. And it's going to be a new beginning for Peter. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. And if you're looking for a way to learn more about your Catholic faith, I invite you to check out the Ascension Presents YouTube channel. You're going to find tons of free videos. featuring Catholic presenters like Matt Frad, Liadero, Jackie Bobby Angel, and Emily Wilson. Go to YouTube.com slash Ascension Presents. That's YouTube.com slash Ascension Presents.

And if you like what you see, please share and subscribe. We are joining Peter on the northern shores of the Sea of Galilee. He has betrayed the Lord three times. He has gone back to fishing. It doesn't look like he's going to continue on as the leader of the disciples. Today we have a whole succession of popes, and they are the vicar of Christ, and that's what Peter started off as. But he has kind of gone back to his job, and he's on the northern shores, and there's a charcoal fire. The Lord joins them, and he reveals that he is God. Now, isn't it interesting that this point of restoration for Peter, a charcoal fire, the very place that he denied the Lord earlier in Jerusalem, is simple.

And I want to encourage you today that the point of restoration, whatever you've done, whatever you said, whatever happened yesterday in a relationship, the Lord is able to restore you, and it doesn't take a fanfare. It doesn't take the bishop and the priests all coming together to recognize what has been done and to restore you. And it oftentimes is a very, it's a very simple thing. You know, it's, it's Lexio de Vina in the morning. It's a homily on the Sunday Mass. It's a, it's a book you're reading or the testimony of a friend. It oftentimes is very, very simple. But listen to what Jesus says to Peter. What I'm going to share with you right now is one of the most powerful

portions of Scripture in my life that always encourages me when I have those days where I need breakfast at Trinities, and I need to be restored. It says in verse 15, when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon's son of John, do you love me more than these? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know I love you. He said to him, feed my lambs. Now that is attached to his responsibility, isn't it? As the vicar of Christ, as the leader among the disciples, he is to feed God's sheep. And so the Lord says, do you love me? Of course, you know I love you. Then feed my lambs. But Lord, can't you see? I've gone back to my other job. I blew it three times in Jerusalem. I have felt depressed. I have been anxious. I've lost respect among my peers.

Oh, what do you expect? I don't know. A second time. time. He said to him, Simon, son of John, do you love me? And he said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, tend my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? And Peter was grieved because he said to him, the third time, do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. And Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. ending verse 17 right there. Wow, that's powerful to me. And I hope it's powerful to you because if you're in a situation where you have denied the Lord or you had that rotten week last week or the terrible day yesterday and you woke up and you feel terrible and you feel like you need to be, you feel like

you need to be restored, the Lord is not going to let go of you. He is, is not going to abandon you. He is going to track you down, and he's going to remind you of the call. It's irrevocable. He's calling you to himself. He's calling you to relationship. He's calling you to responsibility. He's calling you to intimacy, both in your relationship with him, but your relationship with your family, with your spouse, with your colleagues at work, with your extended family, your neighbors. Just because of your failure, it doesn't mean that you're you can just walk away. Oh, you can. But the Lord isn't going to allow you to. And I love what, I love what Peter says to Jesus when Jesus says the third time, do you love me? Peter says,

I can just imagine. I'm looking at the Lord and saying, Lord, you know everything. You know everything about me. You know my weaknesses and my failures. You know what I did back in Jerusalem. You know it was three times. You predicted it. You heard the cock, crow. And Jesus looks at Peter and says, feed my sheep. In other words, I'm not going to just dismiss the calling and the relationship I have with you because you've blown it, because you've sinned. And that isn't the way the Lord is. The Lord doesn't just let us go. His love pursues us like a hound, the hound of heaven, often speaking of the Holy Spirit, the hound of heaven coming after you. So Jesus doesn't just rub it in by saying, you know, I've done so much for you, Peter,

remember? Remember back in Jerusalem? No, he doesn't. He just says, do you love me? Do you love me? Feed my sheep. Do you love me? Feed my sheep. And then he reminds Peter about the future, in what the future holds. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, Peter, you fastened your own belt and walked where you would, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will fasten your belt for you and carry you where you do not wish to go. This, he said, to show by what death he was to glorify God. Isn't that interesting, that Peter ends up being restored to a relationship with the Lord by being reminded of his responsibility to feed God's sheep. To feed God's sheep. That is so powerful. That is so

very, very powerful. And then it ends, the very last phrase of verse 19 is just, oh, man, It's golden. After this, he said to him, follow me. Now, there's like bookends to Peter's life here where you have the beginning, Lech Achari, come follow me. And then at the end, you have come follow me. And in between, you have denial, discouragement, abandonment, denial. And yet the Lord ends with, Peter, still, follow me. Follow me. Come follow me. Come follow. me. And that's so interesting because in Breakfast at Tiffany's, Holly ends up doing what? She's running away from responsibility. She's running away from relationships. But she ends up kind of coming around and Holly ends up what? Caring for others. Now, the others in the Breakfast at Tiffany's is a cat.

Might seem like a small thing. And what's Peter called to at the end? Caring for others. responsibility, joining Jesus on the mission. It's not a cat. It's you and me. It's his brothers. It's his sisters. They are all around him, his responsibility. And I can imagine Peter saying, are you sure, Lord? Are you really, really sure? You see, the Lord not only forgives, but he gives second chances. And it's there at the breakfast at Trinities, right there on the northern shores of the Sea of Galilee, that we have a new beginning, a new beginning. And the place where you might have denied the Lord, or you might have hurt someone, can actually be the place of a new beginning for you today. As you join Jesus at breakfast, at Trinities, a place of a new beginning,

you might go to confession. When you go to confession, it's like having breakfast with the Lord. Yes, you blew it. But he is forgiving you, and the call on your life remains. You still are a father. You still are a mother. You're still a grandparent. You're still a friend. You're still a spouse, a husband, a wife. Yes, you are. And the Lord is meeting you. At breakfast at Trinities. to remind you of that. My friend, remember these final words and pray about this this week. With the Lord, it's not three strikes and you're out. It's three persons and you're in. Father, son, Holy Spirit. Breakfast at Trinities. It's a great way to start your day. Let me pray for you. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I thank you for my brother.

I thank you for my sister, and I pray for them right now and lift them up to you. Lord, we are reminded of the joy and the exhilarating emotion that came upon all of us when we first met you, and we began to read your word and to follow you, and all things were new, and all things were exciting, and life was different. But along the trail, we blew it. along the trail we denied you we betrayed you we betrayed others we sinned and we feel like we are broken and we feel like we're damaged goods and how in the world could you ever accept us back and and how are we going to say face with our brothers or sisters in the world

the lord we see in the story of peter that you are the god of second chances and at the very place where we denied you. That becomes a new fire, a new beginning, where we can start over. I thank you, Lord, that you know us so well. And even as you know us so well, you are not going to walk away from us. You will be the same yesterday, today, today, and forever. You will not walk away or abandon us. You'll be with us forever. Lord, open our hearts to receive restoration open our hearts to receive a renewed call, a new beginning in our lives. Lord, may we sit down with you, whether it's a confession, a Bible study, Lexio de Vina, wherever it might be, but may we sit down with you and enjoy the restoration and the fellowship

as we partake of the beautiful things that you have for us. at trinities. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for your love. In Jesus name, amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you.