John 21:15-17

Brothers and sisters in Christ,

This evening’s Bible passage is John 21:15-17:

¹⁵ When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” ¹⁶ He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” ¹⁷ He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”

Peter is in the enviable position of not being tempted to put his own good behavior forward as evidence of his love for Jesus. I say “enviable” because most human beings (including Christians) are tempted, at one time or another, to think that God measures their love by their behavior.

Peter denied Jesus three times, having boasted beforehand that, whatever the other disciples might do, he would never fail Jesus: “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away … Even if I must die, I will not deny you.” (Matt. 26:33, 35). Jesus may have this over-confidence in mind when he asks Peter, “Do you love me more than these?” (v. 17). Peter is well aware, after the fact, that he can no longer appeal to his actions as proof of his love. Nor can he claim that his love is as reliable as he once thought it was.

What he does instead is really the only move available to any of us. He appeals to Jesus’s knowledge: “Lord, you know that I love you.” Surely Jesus knows that beneath Peter’s fear and failure lies a love that somehow failed to translate into faithful action when the crunch came. So it is with us. When Satan whispers to us that our fears and failures are proof that we don’t really love God, the answer is not to plead that we’re really not that bad or that fickle, but to trust God that he is able and willing to look beyond our fears and our broken behavior to the love that he placed in our hearts when he gave us new life in Christ.

Jesus accepts Peter’s plea. If I was right, a few evenings ago, to think that the risen Christ’s first appearance to Peter (Luke 24:34) was designed to assure Peter that he was forgiven, then this fourth appearance has as its goal to make clear that Jesus knows that Peter loves him. Three times Jesus asks his question about Peter’s love. Three times Peter appeals not to his own performance but to Jesus’s knowledge of Peter’s heart. Three times Jesus accepts Peter’s appeal and shows how sure he is that Peter loves him by giving him a breathtaking responsibility: “Feed my lambs”; “Tend my sheep”; “Feed my sheep.”

In his personal relationship with every one of us, Jesus looks not to the past but to the future. Our sins, every last shred of them, are fully forgiven at the cross. “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (Ps. 103:12). Now he looks upon us not only as those who are forgiven, but also as those who have new hearts: “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you” (Ezek. 36:26). He knows that the new heart he has given to each of us is a heart that will love him, however imperfectly as yet. However far short of full faithfulness we may still fall, we can each say with Peter, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus responds to us, as he did to Peter, by entrusting us with new opportunities to serve him.

We have denied him. He has forgiven us. He knows that we love him. He knows the limits of our love, and he accepts us as we are. He trusts us. Jesus trusts us! We may not trust ourselves, but Jesus trusts us. It’s not, then, just a matter of our faith in Christ’s love for us. It’s also a matter of his astonishing and always forgiving faith in our love for him.

Your brother in Christ,

Max