BREAKFAST ON THE BEACH
Sunrise on the Tiberius Sea - October 2026
I set my alarm for 4:30am on my one day to sleep past sunrise because I wasn’t about to miss the opportunity to “reenact” one of my favorite Bible stories…
The story in John 21 is both supernatural and grounded. Jesus has risen from the dead, is traveling around in a glorified body, and yet chooses to share an early breakfast with His disciples around a fire on the beach. How I would have loved to have been there!
I wrote a song about that morning this past year with my dear, long-time friend Jason Gray, and I knew I would never forgive myself if I returned home from Israel this October without attempting to capture a music video in the place where it happened!
Into the Deep - Pieter Van Tonder
John 21 is full of fun details - the all-night fishing trip, the mysterious figure on the shore giving advice, catching precisely 153 fish, Peter swimming the 100-yard dash, having a meal cooked by Jesus Himself...
Nonetheless, a few weeks before writing the song, I reached out to my dear friend Seth Postell, (Academic Dean at Israel College of the Bible.) I asked if there were anything about John 21 that stood out to him. Seth never disappoints…
I learned that the word for a charcoal fire (anthrakia) used to describe Jesus’ cooking method, a heap of hot burning coals, is found in just one other place in the New Testament - three chapters earlier when Peter denied Jesus! In essence, Jesus redefined Peter’s sensory association for every glowing, warm, smoky, crackling fire he would ever experience—transforming it from one of his worst memories to his most redeeming. Jesus reset the smell of shame to the fragrance of shalom. From a trigger of regret to a reminder of restoration!
This time a charcoal fire meant the chance to start again / The smell of breakfast on the beach - grilled fish and homemade bread / Oh I denied three times I even knew Your name / and now the fact that You trust me is a little bit insane / It’s like You love me just the same / Then I remembered - “I’ve been here before” / I knew it was the LORD.
from “Tiberius Sea”
So, I called up my friends Moshe, Chaim, and Ishai, who all live near the Tiberius Sea - another name for the Sea of Galilee, only mentioned in John 6 and 21. I invited them to help me recreate that pre-dawn charcoal fire with some fish and bread! Chaim offered to bring his coffee gear from the army, and we arrived to the beach in the dark, using the flashlights on our phones to carefully navigate down to the shore. Moshe’s assistant Elijah began to assemble the elements for our fire, and I walked toward the predawn horizon to find where I should start singing verse one…something was glowing near the shoreline up ahead. Lo and behold, an actual charcoal fire was burning! It was as if Jesus prepared one for us too!
“Guys! over here! There’s already a fire!”
We only had a few minutes to film before the sun burst over the Golan Heights. Once it did, I invited Moshe to put down his camera and join us around the fire for a while. His brother Chaim played a song on the guitar. We watched Galilean fish leap out of the calm water as steam hovered over the surface. We laughed at how Jesus would have totally known about coffee, wondering how He might have tried to describe it to His boys. We tore into the warm pita bread and Ishai recommended we not eat the fish.
That morning may have topped my list of mornings. Irrespective of the music video, this I know: I’ll never read John 21 the same way again!
On the Shore of Galilee - C. Michael Dudash
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.
— John 21:12
