In John 21:2 we come to the realization that 7 of the 11 remaining disciples were most likely fishermen. in Matthew 28:10 prior to this while still in Jerusalem, Jesus had told them to “Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.” Then in Matthew 28:16 we are told “the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them.” The Mountain is not the beach, apparently 4 of them stayed where Jesus had told them while seven of them decided to kill some time by the Sea of Galilee fishing.
Have you ever noticed that the hardest thing to do in our Christian life is WAIT, to hang out where it is appointed for us? Some folks are hanging out in a tough job, some are wading through a difficult marriage, others have lingered through the height of despair due to illness but there they sit because Jesus has appointed the mountain for them to wait.
In Acts chapter one Jesus will again command them not to depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the Promise of the Father. I wonder how many times because we refused to wait that we missed the promise of the Father. “Oh Jesus”, we say, “I didn’t travel very far away, I only went back and did what I knew to do!”
I rather think that these fellows learned their lesson as the next time Jesus said not to depart they didn’t, even though He blessed them when they were not where they were told to wait. One other observation, it’s interesting to me that Jesus knew right where to find these seven and in fact already had breakfast waiting. Oh we may not much like waiting but aren’t you glad that our Lord is long suffering towards us?