In the last chapter of John's gospel, Jesus arranged a fish breakfast with His disciples and repeated the ol' "Cast the net on the other side" trick so they caught a great number of fish. So they cooked up some fish and had a chat in which we encounter the famous "Do you love Me?" sequence between Jesus and Peter. Three times Jesus asked Peter, "Do you love Me?" Three times Peter assured Him he did. Three times Jesus told Peter to "tend the flock." Setting aside any variations in the Greek word for "love" (because sometimes that is a misleading trail) and accepting at face value the "three" was a correlation to Peter's three-times denial of Christ before the Crucifixion, making this a restoration of Peter, what, exactly, did Jesus mean when He asked, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?" (John 21:15)?
You see, there are a few possibilities here. Did He mean more than "these other disciples love Me"? Or was it "Do you love Me more than you love these other disciples?" Or maybe "these" doesn't refer to the other disciples. Maybe He was asking about fishing. "Do you love Me more than you love your former life, your former profession, your fishing, the things you knew of life before?" I think it's a tough question. Could Peter know how much they loved Him in contrast to how much he loved Him? That seems like a difficult question for anyone. And a bit unfair. He could know if he loved Jesus more than he loved his fellow disciples, but was that what Jesus was going for? It very well could be since the repeated command was to tend the flock -- His fellow disciples. But, Jesus's teaching on "love Me more" (Matt 10:37) before was aimed at family because that was a tighter bond than any other. It would likely not be an issue with a group of people all trained to love God more and to love Jesus more than any other.
It would seem, then, that Jesus's love comparison was between how much Peter loved Jesus and how much Peter loved his former life. At the beginning of the story, Jesus had appeared multiple times and, it seems, Peter's response was, "I'm going fishing" (John 21:3). Indeed, his lead brought all the others with him. I think Jesus was pointing out a potential problem for Peter, a blind spot as it were. Peter wasn't aware that he still retained a comfortable love for his old life -- fishing -- and Jesus was telling Him, "Yes, tend my sheep, but not in fishing. Tend them in pursuing Me." He was urging Peter, "Now that I'm leaving, don't go back to your old life. You have a new assignment -- tend the flock ... with a focus on Me" (1 Peter 5:1-4).
3 comments:
Interesting thoughts on this passage. I've never seen or heard this take before. It certainly sounds like a reasonable conclusion.
One of the great things about Scripture is passages like this that are ambiguous, but no matter what way you interpret them are good and useful, and probably true in all those ways.
It makes good sense to me that Jesus would be testing Peter regarding his devotion to Him at this point, since in just a few short weeks Peter and the other disciples would see Jesus depart and then experience Pentecost and the beginning of the church. As you say, Peter would not be returning to his former, familiar life (as he no doubt expected to do) but would use his special anointing from the Holy Spirit to help spread Christianity in great measure—becoming “a fisher of men” (Matt. 4:19). Once he “caught” them, so to speak, he would then “feed” them with the Word of God, thus building the flock. May we all follow Peter's example!
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