Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

• John 19:30

Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

• John 20:11-18

When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”
The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”

• John 21:15-19

Boilerplate

I’m Harold Dykstra.  I’m retired, but I go to food bank distributions all over Tracy and talk to people that need someone who will listen to their story.  My time is well spent.  A police lieutenant suggested that I write down the conversations that I had with an angel.  I did not know she was an angel at the time.  The angel, for a little over a year, indwelled a life-sized posable action figure my children bought me, so that I would not be perceived as travelling alone.  And in a way, she was training me for what I do while talking to the needy.  She probed my heart to find out what I believed and how I express love for others.  She changed my life.  Since she was a doll that had come to life, we came up with the term ‘other living.’  She was not a human, an animal, or even a plant, but she was definitely living, and very vibrant.  Oh, excuse me, angels have no gender, but the angel indwelled a doll named Bountiful Babs.  After seeing the angel in that form for over a year, I cannot see her in my mind in any other form.

This Week’s Question

In the last episode, Babs mourned how the angels had to stand there and watch Jesus die on the cross.  For some time after she played the laser gunfight in Tombstone, Arizona, she had been somber.  Her “killing a man” and then Good Friday, but with Easter and the week that followed, she was cheerful.

After my sales calls in the greater Los Angeles area, we were driving up parts of the Pacific Coast Highway.  Babs had waded in nearly knee-deep water in the Atlantic Ocean.  She had gotten her feet in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico several times, and now she experienced the feel of the Pacific Ocean waters.  But it was more than just enjoying the sand and the water.  She had recovered that inner joy that I had seen in her from the very beginning.  She kept saying “I don’t know” while I thought she really knew more than she was admitting.  But now, she was beyond bubbly.

I got the fixings for a nice picnic and when we reached Big Sur, CA, we found a quiet place to watch the waves crash against the rocks.

As we sat on the beach, watching the sunset.  I asked, “This is a silly question, but have you ever seen the sunset beyond the Pacific Ocean?”

Babs said, “Harold, you know this is my first time on the Pacific Coast.  How could I?”

I replied, “I just wanted to make sure.  It looks like the sun is getting close.  So, watch it carefully.  One moment, the sun is shining right in our direction, and then the very next moment…  Pop! The sun is gone.”

Babs giggled, “Do you actually hear the pop?!”

I laughed, “No, Babs, that’s just how fast it happens.  It is absolutely amazing, as you are, Babs.  You showed how fast you are with a six-shooter, and how just a pretend game caused you to feel such pain for the gunslinger who lost.  Then you grieved for the angels that watched Jesus die on the cross because it was their job to protect Him, but they had to be summoned.  Without being summoned they had to watch while Jesus died.  But now you are so happy, and I do not think it is because you waded in the Atlantic, and the Gulf, and the Pacific all in one year.  What makes you so happy?”

Babs giggled, “Harold, we had Good Friday not long ago.  Then you had some successful sales calls in the Los Angeles area.  Now, here on the beach, watching the sun set, I keep looking around.  I want to get a glimpse of the man with scarred hands that is cooking fish.  Sure, He cooked the fish in the early morning, but maybe it is early morning in Israel now.”  She looked at me.  “Oh, no, I have your engineer brain doing more calculations.”  She giggled even more.  “When the light hits your head just right, you can see the gears turning.”

I retorted, “No, you can’t see the gears turn in my head, but maybe you are within maybe a half hour.  So, my hat is off to you, Babs.  You are really close.”

Babs scrunched her nose.  “You are not wearing a hat, Harold.”

I nodded, “Okay, a figure of speech, but looking for a fish fry on the beach does not sound like a reason to be so bubbly.”

Babs, still giggling, gave my shoulder a polite shove.  “No, silly, it is part of the package.  Last week, I talked about on the first Good Friday, everyone close to Jesus had no idea that this was not the end.  Not even the angels.  But when Jesus rose again, that all changed.  Let’s just stick to the gospel of John.  John 19, near the end, Jesus says ‘It is finished.’  Sure, He breathed His last and died, but Jesus was saying that this was the end of the battle that was promised in Genesis 3.  Jesus died for our sins.  There was victory over sin.  But then Jesus was dead.  So, the next day was the Sabbath, and no one could work on the Sabbath.  The following day, Mary Magdalene, and some other ladies, go to the tomb, but the stone is moved away.  John 20 focuses mostly on Mary Magdalene at this point.  She sees angels, and then she sees Jesus.  What does Jesus tell her to do, Harold?”

“Go, and tell the others,” was my reply.

Babs exclaimed, “Yes! And from the other gospels, what are the others told to do?”

I shrugged, “Go to Galilee?”

Babs giggled, “Yes, again, but in John 21, silly old Peter, but maybe with some coaxing from Andrew, James, and John, decides to go fishing and how much fish do they catch?”

I shrugged again, “Zip?!”

Babs laughed, “I love the way you say, ‘zip, nada, a goose egg, nothing, instead of simply saying zero fish.”

“So, then someone on shore, frying up some fish for breakfast tells them to cast their nets one more time, but this time on the other side of the boat.  How many fish, now, Harold?”

I started to giggle.  “Now you really have my engineer mind running full tilt.  Here these disciples were fishing.  They have Jesus, dead just days before, and now He is risen and doing the same miracle He did with Peter when all this started.  And while they have little time left to be with Jesus, one of those disciples counted 153 large fish.  There could have been twice that many small fish, but then, the nets were breaking, and I think the small fish were escaping the nets faster than the counting disciple could count.”

Babs eyes twinkled in the late afternoon light, “Yes, Harold.  They were counting fish, but Jesus and Peter finished eating and they took a walk along the beach.  Three times Jesus asked Peter if he loved Jesus.  Peter had denied Jesus after Jesus’ arrest.  Jesus wanted the bold Peter back rather than the Peter who shied away due to guilt.  Each time, Jesus said something about tending sheep or feeding sheep.  So, Harold, I am energized because I have to tell others about Jesus.  Like Mary Magdalene and Peter, you and I have to talk about Jesus.  Isn’t that exciting?”

I nodded in approval, but we both turned back to see the sun disappear.

Babs laughed, “Pop!”

There was a cheer from behind us.  We turned around and there were 10-12 people paired off and wearing either swimsuits, holding fishing gear, or wetsuits, holding surfboards.

One of them said, “Hey, Dude, we were entranced by your wife talking about a fire and fish and disciples fishing.  If you don’t mind walking down the beach about a half mile, we have a fire and some of our friends are frying up some fish. We would love it if you two could tell us more about Jesus.  We’ve got a whole ocean next to us.  Maybe we can all get baptized or something.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell them that Babs was just my travel buddy, but before I could say that we would love to go with them, Babs was already hugging and kissing some of the ladies and she was on her way.

And thus ends a Bible story where Babs took the lead…

Or was this just the beginning of the story?

Credits

All these conversations remind me of my conversations with my wife.  We would talk about anything and everything.  And most of the time, it sounded like a discussion in a Sunday school class.

Sometimes the Pacific Coast Highway hugs the coast.  Sometimes, you have to take other roads or take side roads to reach the beach.  The Big Sur area is a long stretch of rugged coastline, patches of beach, with the surf crashing against rocks in the ocean. The town of Big Sur is just one spot along the way.

I spent two weeks in Pacifica, California, but I only stopped the work I was doing to watch the sunset one time.  It was one of those moments where several people gasped all at the same time when the sun instantly disappeared.

Two numbers stand out to me in the Bible.  Sure, there is three, seven, twelve, and 40, but two strangely specific numbers.

Abram never has any land until he buys a burial spot for Sarah.  Yet, he has 318 well trained military men who are servants that he can spare to rescue Lot and the people of Sodom and the plunder that was taken.  In a battle where time was of the essence, who stopped to count the men?  And here we have a disciple, in the presence of the risen Savior, counting 153 large fish.

It’s about a seven-hour drive from Pirate’s Cove near Newport Beach, California to the town of Big Sur, but the baptisms were just that spontaneous at times in the 1960s and 1970s.  And yes, the story was just beginning.  They did not get to their hotel until late that night, but the delay was worth it.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.