Restoring • John 21 15-23
By Clay Anthony
All John needs do in wrapping up his account of Jesus’ life is to revisit one question: What became of Peter? Recall that Peter had denied he even knew Jesus. He then went and wept bitterly. This was the last time we saw Peter up until this scene.
Now Peter was back to his regular life of fishing. He had been joined by others who also were escaping back to their old way of living. Obviously, they were thinking that their time with Jesus was over.
Now nothing would be the same again, for while they had gone back to their old lives they were no longer living as they once did. Jesus had changed everything.
John 21 captures the scene of Jesus once again appearing to the disciples. We can sum up the entire scene in three telling questions. First, after preparing breakfast with which to “feed His lambs,” Jesus asks the same of Peter. This is not a question of devotion but one of sacrifice.
Verse 15 records Jesus asking Peter, “Do you love Me?” with Peter responding, “Yes I love you.” A closer inspection reveals much more. In the original language, Jesus asked Peter, “Do you agapeMe?” Peter’s reply was then, “Yes, I philo You.” See the difference? It is quite telling.
Philo love is to love like a brother. It’s where we get Philadelphia, the city of brother love.
However, Jesus had asked Peter concerning his agape love. This is an all-out, sacrificial love that knows no bounds. It is a love that will give all for another.
You do not love your family with a brotherly love that can change on a whim. No, you love your spouse and children with an undying love that will do anything for their well-being. That is the type of love Jesus was asking of Peter.
Then notice how Jesus controls the conversation further by describing the limit to Peter’s pending sacrifice. As a young person Peter wore what he wanted and went where he wanted. He was free to do as he pleased, answering to on one. Now, under the Lordship of Jesus, that way of living no longer applied.
In fact, the more he followed Jesus, the more Peter would find his life become restricted. We are given a bit of foreshadowing in verse 19 that one day, because of his commitment to Jesus, Peter would be dressed by others (in irons) and led to a place where he did not desire to go (his own cross).
Whether Peter would willingly take on such a task is the second question. We know from history that in 65 A.D. Peter was indeed crucified on a cross on the present site of the Vatican in Rome.
Yes, the story is true that he requested to be hung upside down to show that he felt unworthy to die in the same manner of Jesus. That is the living and dying evidence of agapelove.
What a beautiful conversation to have recorded for us in the Bible. Jesus restored the man who denied him three times. Peter is now back in the fold and ready to feed more of Jesus’ sheep.
Peter being Peter, he opens his mouth and ruins the scene. The third question asked seems an attempt to throw the disciple John under the bus: Well, what about him?(v.21). We are not told why Peter singled out John over Matthew or Andrew or the other disciples.
Jesus answers Peter with another question: What does that matter? (v.22). For us today, the answer is the same. Why should it matter how God chooses to use other Believers? What difference does it make what the church across town is up to? What of our personal walk and service? What are we doing to feed the sheep around us? How are we living out our agape love toward Jesus?
It’s not healthy to give into speculation about the walks of other believers. No, we cannot take verse 23 in a literal sense that John would never die. History records that he did indeed die, probably the last of the original twelve disciples to pass away.
The point is that we all have failed like Peter, but Jesus still loves us like he loved Peter — and like Peter, we are called to love Jesus with our all to the very end, no matter when that may be for us.
Anthony is missions pastor at Harrisburg Church, Tupelo. He may be contacted at claynell@aol.com.
