VAN BUREN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH Philippians 2:5-11
EASTER SUNDAY Luke 24:1-52
MARCH 23, 2008
“The Fish Meal”
The children will help distribute the fish-shaped crackers.
You may be wondering why I had the kids hand out fish-shaped crackers? After all, this is Easter.
Something like a lily or an egg might seem more appropriate. Those would have their place, but today I
wanted to look at the fish.
We may not associate the fish with Easter, but the fish has been a Christian symbol since the first
century. During times of persecution the fish symbol would be drawn in the dust as two people chatted.
If the second person also drew the fish, it was a sign that both were Christians and it was safe to talk
about their faith.
Why the fish? A number of the men that Jesus called to be disciples were fishermen. Peter,
Andrew, James and John were all of the fishing profession. Jesus called them from their fishing boats.
He called them to become “fishers of men”.
As we heard in our lesson this morning from Luke, fish was the first meal that Jesus ate after his
resurrection. When Jesus appeared to the disciples, they thought he was a ghost. The women told
them that he was risen, but it hadn’t really sunk in to their dull heads. After all, it was the women
speaking, who knows what their minds might come up with. So, when they saw Jesus standing before
them, they were afraid. To show that he was real flesh and blood and not just a spirit, he asked for
something to eat. They gave him a piece of boiled fish, and he ate.
In the gospel of John we have another fish story. It is after the resurrection. The disciples are in
the upper room, getting restless. Peter decides that he can stand it no longer and declares that he is
going fishing. The others go with him. The row the boat out from the shore and fish all night. But their
nets are empty.
The next morning, as they are about to give up, a stranger on the shore calls to them, “Have you
caught anything?” They reply that they have had no luck, their nets are empty.
Then the stranger calls out and tells them to lower their nets on the other side of the boat. They
do, and the nets are so full of fish, they are ready to break. Peter recognizes that it is Jesus, and he
swims ashore.
When the other arrive on the beach and pull the nets on shore, they count the fish and find 153
fish. A symbolic, representing the 153 known nations of the time. The gospel would be taken to every
nation. Later Jesus eats some fish with the disciples.
The fish was also a symbol for the early Christians because they found an acronym: the Greek
word for fish is ichthus. If you take the Greek letters for ichthus you can use them as the first letter of
five very important words.
Perhaps you have seen this symbol on the back of a car driving down the road...(display the
ichthus symbol on the projection). It is a fish with Greek letters inside. The Greek letters spell ichthus :
fish.
The first letter looks like an I, but is called an Iota and is pronounced like an I in pit or the ee in
feet. It is the first letter in the name Jesus. (Ίησοϛ)
The second letter is Chi. It gives a ch sound. The Chi is the first letter of the word of Christos,
which means Christ. (Χριστός)
The third letter is Theta which is the first letter of the Greek word for God, Theos. (Θεός)
Then come the letter Upsilon the first letter of (Huios) υίός, Son.
The fifth and final letter is Sigma, for the word (Soter) Σωτηρ, which is translated as Savior.
Ι = Jesus
Χ = Christ
θ = God
Υ = Son
Σ = Savior
Thus the ichthus was an acronym for a description of what Christians believed: Jesus Christ, God’s
Son, Savior. It has even been referred to as the fish creed.
We gather on Easter to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave. We don’t just
celebrate the miracle of someone coming back to life. There are a number of times in the Bible when we
read about people who had died and were brought back to life. We may be aware of those, but we don’t
celebrate them.
We celebrate Easter because it is so much more than just a human life being restored. It is the
story of our redemption. It is the victory over the grave and over sin. It is the highlight of the
achievement of Jesus: he died and came back to life to pay for our sins, to set us free, and to give us
new life in him.
Jesus was not just a man. He was God in the flesh. A human had to pay the penalty for human sin,
but no human was good enough - all had sinned. Only God was good enough, so God became a
human, he took on human form and died in our place, paying the penalty for our sin. The innocent
paying the fine of the guilty.
Jesus Christ, God’s Son, our Savior.
I pray that on this Easter you know the truth of the risen Christ in your life. I hope that you have
entered into a relationship with him as your personal Savior and Lord. It is only through that relationship
that you can know him as your Savior. No relationship, no salvation.
If you know him, then celebrate his resurrection like you never have before. Rejoice and be filled
with his presence, his grace, and his love.
If you don’t know him, if you have not entered that relationship, then I invite you to do so right now.
Without the relationship, the rest doesn’t matter. You can’t really know the joy of the resurrection unless
you know the one who was resurrected.
If you don’t know him, invite him into your life. Admit that you have sinned, you have fallen short of
what God wants from you. We have all fallen short, but praise God, he loves us anyway. Admit your sin,
accept that Jesus died on the cross for you, and then invite him to be the Lord of your life.
When you do that, you will have a saving relationship with him. Then you will know the joy and the
new life of Christ living in you.
As far as I know, we aren’t eating any fish for breakfast this morning, except for these fish-shaped
crackers which will be on the tables. But on this day of resurrection, on this day when we know the new
life that is in Jesus Christ, let us affirm the fish creed: Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior. Let us affirm our
faith by saying this creed and then eat the fish cracker.
Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior. Amen.
Eat the crackers