Acts 9:1-6
John 21: 1-19
Easter 3, Sunday 4 May
©Suzanne Grimmett
Jesus: Are you sorry, Peter?
Peter: Lord, you know that I am…more than anything…
Jesus: Go and try to be a better person
Jesus: Are you sorry, Peter?
Peter: Lord, you know that I am.
I am so ashamed of my weakness, my denial of you…
Jesus: Go and try to be a better person
Jesus: Are you sorry, Peter?
Peter: Lord, I would do anything if only I could take back that moment in the courtyard…
Jesus: Go and try to be a better person
This is not the Gospel of the Lord…but it does reflect what most people seem to think about God and God’s relationship to humanity! Most people feel they will never measure up or that they have said, done or thought something unforgiveable. Some people feel they are doing okay, and that their dutiful life is what makes them acceptable to God. Today’s Gospel dialogue should disturb all these settled assumptions.
This story at sunrise on the beach has so much in it that should help us understand the resurrection life. Teamed as it is today with the story of Paul’s dramatic conversion experience on the road to Damascus, we are receiving a message not only of new beginnings but also examples of lives offered up in joy and hope to a new way of being in the world- a transformed way of love and self-offering for sacred work in the world.
Last week you may have noticed that the Gospel and its story of Thomas seemed to bring John’s epistle to a close.
This encounter on the beach of the Sea of Galilee, also known as Tiberias, has the feeling of a postscript. Many scholars believe it has been written later by a different author and added on- which would beg the question of what the Johannine community felt it was necessary to communicate that had not already been said. Perhaps that question might be answered in some of the images used here. The location on the beach before the expansiveness of the sea and beyond the rarefied religious air of the city of Jerusalem, suggests the Gospel going out into the whole world; an unbounded word of mercy and freedom that overcomes religious structures and boundaries. Being at dawn should also conjure the promise of new beginnings and fresh possibility. The enormous catch of large fish points to the abundance of God, the generosity that overflows in an expansiveness that makes us catch our breath in wonder.
And then there is this exchange between Jesus and Peter. We might imagine the memory would have been hanging in the air of the last time they locked eyes over Simon Peter’s repeated denial of Jesus in front of the religious authorities in the courtyard. Three times Peter was accused of being a disciple of Jesus and three times Peter denied it. The three questions of Jesus are therefore to be heard in the context of this earlier failure and betrayal.
This is what Jesus really said;
Jesus: Simon, Son of John, do you love me?
What kind of question is that for someone who had promised to follow you always but fearfully denied you, not once, but repeatedly?
I think it is more an invitation than a question. It is beautiful and shocking that Jesus’ first words directly to Peter were an opportunity for restoration of relationship.
Jesus: Simon, Son of John, do you love me?
Peter: Yes, Lord, you know that I love you
Jesus: Feed my lambs
Much is often made of the different Greek words used here, from philia (friendship love) to agape (divine unconditional love). However these Greek words are used interchangeably in John’s Gospel, so there may not be as much to be made of this as scholars have suggested. What is clear, is that Peter’s hurt lies in him having to be asked three times whether he loves Jesus. Perhaps this is the shame of his memory of the three times failure in the courtyard surfacing, or perhaps it is a hurt that Jesus would need to keep asking, as if unconvinced. Either way, we have a sense that there is a deep work going on inside Peter, rather like the sharp tug of a painful and restricting thorn being removed so that healing can begin.
Jesus: Simon, Son of John, do you love me?
Because love is where it begins. Relationship is our beginning and our end. Nothing can come into being without relationship, and love is the power that energises new beginnings and new hope. From Peter’s love for Christ will flow his vulnerable opening to the divine flow of grace and mercy and the healing and transformation that this makes possible. There is no judgement delivered to Peter- only grace poured out, mercy like an ever-flowing stream and the invitation to be changed and directed by that current of love and forgiveness.
Peter: Yes, Lord, you know that I love you
Jesus: Tend my sheep
Allow this love you have for me to flow into love for the world.
Sometimes it can be confusing to make sense of how we are to love Jesus. After all, what does it really mean to love someone you have not seen and whose encounters with us are often intangible and mysterious. If you have trouble saying you love God, this does not make you a poor Christian- it may just be revealing your awareness that the popularised understanding of love does not fit the relationship here.
We are shown a way to understanding in Jesus repeated directive to Peter; “Feed my sheep”. Our love for God and love for others are not separate things but two sides of the one coin which cannot exist on their own. And we cannot show love to others without seeking their good and allowing the Spirit to lead us in service to others. Perhaps that is some of the realisation that descends on Saul of Tarsus as he falls to the ground and hears the voice of Jesus telling him that all the time he was persecuting those followers of Jesus, he was really persecuting the Holy One of God, because Christ was there, shining through the frightened and tortured faces of Saul’s victims.
To love another is to love God. We are, in that most difficult of Jesus’ teachings, called to love even our enemies, because this, too, is an expression of our love of God.
But of course, we are not talking about feelings- or not only about feelings. Jesus leaves Peter with instructions to act; “Feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep” and then “Follow me”.
Love is made real in action, in life lived in service to others and aligned with Jesus’ path of forgiveness and peace. We are to love God both with our lips and with our lives.
But this is not all our work. It is not all down to us. We are not able to prove our worth, nor are we left with our most shameful moments as the measure of our suitability for service. Peter comes with a shattering sense of his own failure and yet is met with an invitation to love and to lead. This passage is often interpreted as a commissioning of Peter for leadership in the fledging church. If this is so, it begins with an abundance of grace given freely and humbly received. Like the shining light that flashes around Saul of Tarsus, the light of the risen Christ penetrates Peter’s inner being so he can face the truth of who he is and receive the abundant grace that sets him free to be who he was created to be.
But this is not a journey of future personal prosperity for Peter. Jesus tells him, “…you will stretch out your hands and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” Taking on Jesus’ mantle as a good shepherd would ultimately lead Peter to a martyr’s death. Thankfully, this is unlikely to be the end for us as we stretch out our hands to receive God’s freely offered grace. However, we may still find ourselves taken in directions we do not expect and encounter more challenges than we might ever have imagined.
It may not all turn out as we hope. Any life lived in faith and service may hold as many sufferings and trials as others, and likely more. What it does offer is the chance to replenish daily from wells of mercy that never run dry, grace that gives us courage to face who we are and become who we were created to be, and love that enfolds us in community and holds us to eternity. May we gather our courage and follow the risen Christ in the way we live and the way we love. +Amen