Commissioned to Service

John 21: 1-17

 

 

          In the gospel of John, Jesus shows up on the shoreline for breakfast. It is after his resurrection. Seven of the disciples are there. It is daybreak. They have been out in the boat all night, though that in itself is not unusual. That was the norm for fisherman on the Sea of Galilee. They have had a miserable night with nothing to show for their efforts—until this unidentified stranger shows up. He tells them to cast their nets on the other side of the boat. Why they bothered to listen to him is anybody’s guess, but they did.  Then, the catch is so great, 153 fish in all, that it’s a wonder the net holds without breaking. Get this. Legend has it that the number of fish caught equals exactly the number of varieties of fish in the Sea of Galilee!

          John recognizes Jesus. That’s all Peter needs. Our impetuous Peter puts on his outer garment, plunges in the water and swims the hundred yards or so to the shore. When the boat arrives, they discover that Jesus has a fire going with fish and bread cooking. They have breakfast and are sitting around, probably telling fish stories. Then Jesus speaks to Peter. “Peter,” he said, “Do you love me?” “Yes Lord, you know that I love you,” says Peter. Jesus answers: “Feed my lambs.”

          Jesus asks a second time: “Peter, do you love me,” and Peter answers “Yes, Lord. you know that I love you.” And Jesus says, “Feed my sheep.”

          Yet a third time, Jesus addresses Peter saying: “Peter, do you love me?” For a third time, Peter answers Jesus: “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” And for the third time, Jesus answers: “Feed my sheep.”   I’m guessing that it was occurring to Peter that Jesus had asked him about his love and loyalty three times, the same number that Peter denied Jesus on the night of his arrest. Don’t you know how that must have broken Peter! And yet, right there for him and the disciples to see, was restoration. The Master was restoring Peter to ministry and service.          

          John gives us two wonderful word pictures here. The first is the catch. First of all, the net is full. It can’t hold any more. Secondly, the catch is of all the varieties of fish in the sea. If the catch were men and women, they would be from all walks of life. They would be from all nations and continents. They would be men, women and children. And like the full, almost bursting net, there will be many…enough to fill heaven!

          Then there is this wonderful exchange between Jesus and Peter.  Regardless of what Peter had failed to do in the past, here he is again with an opportunity. The friend and companion and teacher, now the risen Savior, asks Peter if he gets the message. You see, Jesus has a job for Peter, an assignment. But first, Peter has to get the message.  And the message of our Savior is love. Just love, plain and simple. Jesus asks us not once but three times: Do you love me?

          In the gospel of John, this is the last time the disciples saw Jesus. And Jesus acted not like a god, but a friend. He had breakfast with them. Then, knowing he was not to see them again on this side of heaven, he chose Peter as the receiver of that last message. Peter is you and me, the guy who acts before he thinks. He tries to walk on water. On the mountain top at the Transfiguration, he makes small talk and offers to build shelters for Elijah and Moses and Jesus, as if they were going to have a camporee.  He slices off the ear of a temple guard as though he is going to physically take on the religious leaders. He denies his friend Jesus three times. And here, he jumps into the sea fully clothed to swim to shore instead of bringing in the boat. He is recklessly impulsive. But he is full of love, and that’s what Jesus is looking for.

          Peter probably didn’t realize at the time that he was filling out a job application. Jesus wants to know. Do you love me? Because if you do, I have a job for you. All you need is love.    

          It is as though Jesus is talking to us as his friends, and that is not a mirage. Jesus is our friend. Earlier in this same gospel, Jesus tells us that “greater love hath no man, than he lay down his life for his friend.” Do you love me? he asks. The answer is not just yes. We must realize that to love Jesus is to spend that love on someone else. Love is the currency of heaven and not unlike a bank that pays interest on your investments, when you spend the love of Jesus on your fellow man, the Holy Spirit that dwells within you grows you a bigger heart and more ability to serve.

          D.A. Carson in his commentary on John notes that the ministry described by Jesus is in verbs, not nouns. Jesus commands us to tend and feed, not to be something or to hold something. Jesus wants us to act, not hold office. And it is Jesus’ sheep, not ours or Peter’s, that are to be tended and fed.  So use love as a verb. Don’t just talk about love. Do love!

          Feed my sheep, said Jesus. Peter heard him. It was a commission. The others heard him. They spent the rest of their lives finding lost sheep and feeding them. Jesus didn’t care about what Peter had done wrong. He doesn’t care about what you’ve done wrong, either. Jesus cares about what you have learned and what you do with that information. He doesn’t want you to do a thing for him. He wants you to do for others. Feed his sheep! That’s the way you show that you love him. Peter got another chance and he used it. He loved Jesus by loving others, by spreading the gospel.

                    Jesus came to teach us love, and to teach us that love is enough. Listen to that and try to take it in. Jesus came to teach us to love, and to teach us that love is enough. We really need nothing else save the commitment that follows such love. Jesus told Peter that the day would come when he too would stretch out his hands and be carried where he did not want to go, gesturing in a way that would be reminiscent of death on the cross. Then he said to Peter: “Follow me.” Sometimes real love comes with great sacrifice… and always with steadfast diligence.  That’s the story of Christian discipleship. Peter had spent three years following Jesus as his disciple. When he was restored and recommissioned that day at the seashore, it was Jesus who gave the same command: “Follow me.” This time, the call to follow has taken on a deeper meaning.

          John was such a great writer, so sublime, so illuminating to us. Paul was the great evangelist. He traveled to the ends of the known world to bring the gospel to the gentiles. What was Peter? What was his place? He was just a humble, impetuous fisherman. But in the hands of Jesus, he became the shepherd, the shepherd of the sheep of Christ.

         What are you? Who are you?  Do you love him? If you really love him, then you have a job to do. Yes, Peter is you …and me. Commissioned to service. You don’t need to be an orator or a writer or an evangelist to be a disciple. But you do need to love him. Then you will want to follow. “Feed my sheep,” he said to Peter… and to us.

 

Let us pray.