“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”
17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. ~John 21:15-17
Many of us are familiar with these verses. "Do you love me? Feed my sheep." During our study of John several years ago, we looked in depth at what these verses mean... including the 3 times asked, compared to the 3 times Peter denied Jesus before the rooster crowed 3 times. Yes, there is symbolism here... perhaps going so deep as to represent the trinity which is made whole in Christ's resurrection, giving us the gift of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Yet this morning, I see another 3 connected... the relationships between Peter, Jesus and others are intricately interconnected in this simple question and answer... "Do you love me? Feed my sheep."
Peter & Jesus
First, I see what is perhaps most at the surface value, although it is un"deniably" important. (Sorry, bad pun.) Yes, Peter had denied Jesus 3 times, and there was a trust that needed to be re-instated, forgiveness that needed to take place. And so, Peter tells Jesus that He loves Him. Furthermore, we often read Peter's response as smart-alecky... "Yeah, you know I love you.... (why did you ask?)." But, stating that He knows Jesus knows shows that Peter knows something he had denied before... Peter is not only Jesus' follower, but he recognizes fully Jesus as Lord, omniscient God who knows all things.
Jesus asks, and Peter responds. But Jesus' next remark leads to the third party who is so important in the whole process of forgiveness and love and Christianity as a whole... our love for God leads us to love others.
Peter & Others
"Yes, Lord I love you."
"Feed/Take care of my lambs/my sheep."
What Jesus is teaching Peter is the new appropriate response to his love for Jesus. While once loving Jesus meant following him (literally) and leaving his family/friends/job (literally), now it would take on new meaning. Jesus wouldn't be there in physical presence any more. But Peter should express his love for Jesus through love and kindness express to Jesus' lambs and sheep.
It even seems that a part of Peter's repentance may be through the act of loving others, feeding Jesus' sheep. After all, what Peter did was for his own sake... in fear he responded, "Oh, no... I don't know the man. Not me." It was not helpful to other Christians who heard about this, and perhaps for this reason it was all the more important that Peter repent (turn 180 degrees) and help those in the faith to not deny Jesus at a crucial time in the birth of Christianity. While repentance involves confessing our sins, it also means turning and doing things differently. What Peter needed to do differently was to proclaim (not deny) the gospel... to feed the people spiritually instead of giving them reason to doubt.
While we may have had an experience of repentance and need to turn to benefit our Christian (and non-Christian) brothers and sisters in response, I believe this passage has much to say to us even if that is not the case. After all, I can imagine the conversation so similar between myself and the Lord, especially important since He is not here to tell us what to do, to literally follow in His footsteps. So, He tells us the footsteps to walk in... to find holiness, to live a set apart life that praises the Lord and glorifies him with every new step. To expresss our love for Jesus, I look to the words written by James C. Fenhagen in an "Invitation to Holiness" which describe so well this link between ourselves and others.
"The pathway to holiness leads us to link ourselves in a serious way to a Kingdom value toward those realizations we are willing to commit our energy. Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King were touched by holiness in their pursuit of justice through non-violence, clear Kingdom values. The holiness of Mother Teresa and Desmond Tutu is the holiness that emerges out of their compassion for the poor and the oppressed. And there is holiness present in those who struggle for peace and the abolition of the threat of nuclear war. We can't do everything, but each of us can do something. What we do- what we pay attention to- depends, of course, on the tune we hear."
As long as the tune we hear allows us to show our love for Jesus to God and also to others, we are on the right path toward the holy life God calls us to. And in doing so, we can ultimately bring Jesus' sheep to Him.
Others & Jesus
"Feed my lambs."
"Take care of my sheep."
In these verses it seems clear that while we do need to 'take care' of people, we do so acknowledging that they are precious children of God... concerned for both their physical and spiritual well-being. Providence Church had a Missions Statement which I always loved... "We exist to love people into a relationship with Jesus Christ." No arguing, no pushing, no pulling... only loving. Now, after hearing a fascinating talk on apologetics by Ian Pacey last evening, I'm not going to undermine the importance of such logical argumentation. But, I do believe that we often understate the power of love.
One thing I often keep in mind with my classes is... "people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." If you never learn your students names, their interests, show compassion, they care very little about the 50 minute discussion section you're leading. The same holds for your Christian faith. If people can't see the love of Christ in your heart, they will never care what kind of faith you are selling. So that leads us back to the first... Peter and Jesus, or you and Jesus... Jesus asks, "Do you love me?" Do you have His love in your heart? That is after all, where we start... to complete and continue to the circle of faith.
I close with a beautiful related reflection that I read this morning also by James C. Fenhagen, this time from "Mutual Ministry."
"I carry within me an image of a covenant between God and humankind that reaches back into the origins of time. It is a covenant both of accountability and forgiveness, calling us to a life of faithfulness in relation to the holiness of God and the needs of the human family. We are indeed 'our brothers' keeper' and we will be held accountable for the way in which we live out this responsibility. The biblical image of the covenant is an image of human and divine solidarity, of relatedness and moral responsibility. It is in relation to this deep sense of belonging that my sense of identity comes- the sense that who I am and who I will become is tied up with my capacity to live with integrity and compassion in relation to the human family of which I am a part. It is a sense that who I am is intimately connected with my capacity for relationships of depths which, at the deepest level, I both yearn for a resist. When grasped by this image of the covenant, I am aware that the freedom and possibility I experience in life is somehow bound up in the figure of the man Jesus who is some incredible life-giving way makes himself present in the deep places of my life. I have a sense- sometimes fleeting, sometimes very real- of what St. Paul meant when he said, 'It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.' It is this awareness that calls me into covenant with the mystery of life whom we call God."
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