Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary John 21:14

"This is now the third time that Jesus was manifested to the disciples, after that he was risen from the dead." — John 21:14 (ASV)

When the catch had been safely brought to land and presumably sorted, Jesus invited the men to eat with him. Their attitude was peculiar. They desired to ask his identity, but they dared not do so because somehow they “knew” he was the Lord. He had appeared in their beloved Galilee and had repeated the same kind of miracle by which they first had been called to him. In spite of an apparent change in his outward appearance, the disciples’ spiritual instinct confirmed his identity. His action in serving them with the bread and fish must have recalled the Last Supper, when he offered them bread and wine. There was, however, no sacramental overtone to this occasion.

The text states that this was Jesus’ “third” appearance to the disciples as a group since his resurrection (see 20:19–23, 24–29).