An enormous crane was involved in lifting the new pedestrian bridge into place to connect the Esplanade at Lossiemouth to the East Beach – in April / May 2022.

It was most impressive.

So much so that it wasn’t so much the bridge that was the attraction as the incredible crane.

It was so tall.

It was noticeable how many triangular shapes there where within the structure of the crane.

What is special about triangles?

A triangle is a very strong structure.

If you look at the structure of many bridges, you will see triangles in there.

The crane itself needed to be very strong.

The triangle is also a very important shape in the following Gospel reading (John 21:1-14).

It’s the story of the great catch of fish. Look at the large stained glass window in the church – the image of the miraculous draught.

There are fish in the net in the window, as you can see from the photo at the foot of this post.

Within the Bible story, there is mention of a specific number of fish being caught in the net. That number is 153.

Jesus’ disciples had been fishing all night and caught nothing. Jesus encouraged them to put the boat out one more time and this time the net was absolutely full to bursting point, with 153 fish.

153 is a very special number.

Have you ever watched snooker on the television? The red balls, are placed in a triangular-shape at the beginning of each frame. There are 15 reds.

15 is a triangular number.

If you took that triangle and gradually increased the size, row by row, then, eventually, you would get a triangle of balls which has 153 balls in it.

Even before Jesus’ time, people were fascinated by things like triangles. They knew that that was a strong structure.

A triangle was a symbol of something that was “complete”.

Something that was full. And, of course, the net was full of fish.

So what the use of the number 153 was telling readers was that the net was absolutely full, the church was absolutely full, the kingdom of God was absolutely full.

Jesus’ direction to his disciples was that they were to go out and fish – not for fish, but for people.

They were to fish for Jesus in order that all of the people in the world would become part of the family of God.

John 21:1-14 (from The Message Bible Translation)

Fishing

21 1-3 After this, Jesus appeared again to the disciples, this time at the Tiberias Sea (the Sea of Galilee). This is how he did it: Simon Peter, Thomas (nicknamed “Twin”), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the brothers Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. Simon Peter announced, “I’m going fishing.”

3-4 The rest of them replied, “We’re going with you.” They went out and got in the boat. They caught nothing that night. When the sun came up, Jesus was standing on the beach, but they didn’t recognise him.

5 Jesus spoke to them: “Good morning! Did you catch anything for breakfast?”

They answered, “No.”

6 He said, “Throw the net off the right side of the boat and see what happens.”

They did what he said. All of a sudden there were so many fish in it, they weren’t strong enough to pull it in.

7-9 Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, “It’s the Master!”

When Simon Peter realised that it was the Master, he threw on some clothes, for he was stripped for work, and dived into the sea. The other disciples came in by boat for they weren’t far from land, a hundred yards or so, pulling along the net full of fish. When they got out of the boat, they saw a fire laid, with fish and bread cooking on it.

10-11 Jesus said, “Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught.” Simon Peter joined them and pulled the net to shore—153 big fish! And even with all those fish, the net didn’t rip.12 Jesus said, “Breakfast is ready.” Not one of the disciples dared ask, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Master.

13-14 Jesus then took the bread and gave it to them. He did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus had shown himself alive to the disciples since being raised from the dead.

More about Triangular Numbers

This is an interesting article about some of the maths associated with triangular numbers. It shows that, despite the bad press Algebra gets in some quarters (e.g. Billy Connolly – sweary but perceptive and funny , as ever), it has practical applications such as working out how many logs you can stack in a “triangular” pile or how many snooker balls would be in a triangle with side-length of the same amount as your age…