Materials

Gospel of John, #12


Questioning Your Love
John 21:15-19
by R. Todd Bouldin


The Gospel of John began at creation and it ends at a campfire. That’s actually quite fitting for a Gospel that claims that God has become a human being and entered the ordinariness of life out of great love for the world He made. The only question is whether you love Him too.

Prayer

And so it’s at that campfire where Jesus makes breakfast for His friends that Christ looks at Peter and He asks, “Do you love Me?” Too quickly Peter responds, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love You.” Jesus simply responds, “Feed My lambs.” Maybe they just stared into the fire a bit in silence before Jesus asked a second time, “Do you love Me?” Again Peter says, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” And again Jesus says, “Feed My sheep.” More silence.

Then a third Jesus asked, “Simon, Son of John, do you love Me?” John tells that this time Peter was hurt by the question. Perhaps he was offended that Jesus had to ask him three times if he loved Him, when it should have been more than clear that he did. After all, he was the one who would walk on water to be with Him. But my guess is that he was hurt out of shame. Peter remembered the last time he sat by a campfire and answered three questions. That time, he not only did not claim to love Jesus, he denied even knowing Him at all. So a great guilt and shame overcomes him. After all that we have done, and left undone, how can we say that we love Him?

But Jesus insists on asking us this question. For John, it is the ultimate question for a person who claims to follow Jesus. So he won’t let you off the hook with a quick “You know that I love you Jesus” answer. The question “Do you love Me?” won’t go away. It just keeps coming at you. For John, the Incarnation, the cross, the resurrection is all about the love of God for you. So the pervading question of this Gospel is, “Do you love Him too?”

It’s easy to answer this question with too much haste. “Yes, I love You Jesus. If I didn’t, I would have told You.” “I haven’t been at church service every Sunday for thirty years if I didn’t love You.” “I believe in sound doctrine, so of course I love You.” “Yes, I love Jesus, but I’m just not one to wear it on my sleeve.” It’s so easy to answer the question quickly, but so hard to live up to the answer.

So Jesus just keeps asking the question until we really hear it. Do you love Him? Every time you get tired of obeying your parents, or you grow weary of practicing the ethic of Jesus in the workplace, or you choose hate over forgiveness, or every time you are exhausted by your calling, or limit yourself by your failures, then the question returns to you. Notice that the question here is not, “Do you like the sheep?” “Do you hang around the doctrinally correct sheep?” And the question is not “Are you without sin?” The question is, “Do you actually, really, passionately love Jesus Christ?”

Much has been made of the Greek words for love in this text, as Jesus uses the Greek word agape and Peter responds with phileo. Finally, they both use phileo, or friendship love, showing that Jesus accepts this lower form of love from Peter. But I think that such analysis probably misses the point. The point is that Jesus is asking for Peter’s unconditional, undying, absolute love.

In the movie "Fiddler On The Roof", a man asks his wife if she loves him. In response she reminds him of everything she does for him: cooking, sewing, cleaning, bearing and raising his children, washing, and so on. But the man wants to hear more. He wants to hear if her heart has any passion for him. Jesus, too, is feeling our pulse for a passionate, burning devotion. He wants to know, "Do you love Me?"

We all know why Jesus asked Peter this question. The reason goes back to what happened in the high priest's courtyard after Jesus was betrayed and arrested. Three times Peter was asked if he was one of Christ's disciples. Three times Peter denied this because he was afraid. And here, Jesus makes clear to Peter that for every wrong there is the abundant mercy of God which offers forgiveness and the opportunity for redemption and transformation even in the midst of denial.

But notice what Jesus does: not once does He bring up Peter's fear and denial; not once does He remind Peter He had predicted this would happen. You see, Jesus is not interested in the fruit of the denial tree; rather, He is interested in its root. So Jesus does not ask, "Simon, why did you deny Me?" Rather, He asks, "Simon son of John, do you truly love Me?"

Perhaps it is Peter’s response which is more akin to our own. “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love You. Yes, the love is as flawed as my own life. The belief is mixed with doubt at times. The moments of doing right are weakened by moments of selfishness. Conviction is often marred by denial. Yet, Jesus, you know everything, so you know that at the deepest places of my heart that I love You. It’s just not always too apparent.” And Jesus hears our response, and by His infinite grace, He accepts it.

Once we have really heard the question, then we are really ready to hear our mission: “Feed My sheep.” You have been given a great mission, a mission to take care of all those whom God gives to you. Jesus owns the sheep in every field, and the Great Shepherd asks that you care for them and keep them close to the fold. That’s the mission of your life. So, if you say that you love Jesus, then you have a mission to care for all those that God gives you, to ensure that they stay close to the Shepherd, and to bind up their wounds when they are hurt. Loving Jesus means loving the church.

Jesus goes on to explain what this will mean for us. “When you were young, you girded yourself and went where you wanted to go. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go.”

So are you all ready? Doesn’t sound too inviting does it? We all have dreams, goals and aspirations about where we want to go in life. We have been taught to set our goals high and work hard to obtain them. Is that wrong? No, but Jesus says that is really just youthful thinking. Eventually, through life or experience, you will find that not all of your dreams are going to come true. Even more, you will find out that life really isn’t about making your dreams come true. It is about receiving the unfolding of Christ’s dreams in your life, even if they lead you to a place you’d rather not go.

We tend to think that loving Jesus will always take us to the places we would rather be. We have difficulty envisioning that loving Jesus would take us anywhere but where we think our lives should go. But Jesus doesn’t always lead us to those places, and instead we find ourselves in a place we never expected, or with a life that isn’t what we wanted but is what God is using. It’s then that the question returns to us, “Do you love Me?” and the mission again, “Feed My sheep.”

You will never experience the joy of following Christ until you do more than say that you love Him. So it is finally, when Peter is sure that he loves Jesus, he is told to “follow Me”. In the other Gospels, this call to “follow Me” comes for Peter when Jesus first finds him at work as a fisherman. Then in a key moment when Jesus asks Peter who He is, and Peter confesses that He is the Messiah, Jesus tells Peter that following Him will mean denying himself. But in this Gospel, it is not until the end that Peter receives this calling to follow Jesus, and it is a call that is not specific. There is no call to carry a cross, to deny yourself, or to preach the Gospel to the nations. Here, following Jesus begins in loving Jesus, and everything else will be made clear. We are not sure of what comes after the “follow Me,” but that’s the point. Once you passionately love Christ, you will follow Him wherever He leads you.

Loving Jesus means surrendering to Him and to His plans for your life. If you think you’ve been serving Christ but you still haven’t found the joy, if your life is still not characterized by the peace that passes understanding, it may be time to question whether you really have given over control of your life to Him. The day we surrender our plans, our resolve to go where we will, and our expectations of what life should be like and with whom it should be lived, well then that’s the day you will find the joy and glory that comes in complete surrender to the One you love. In the end we realize that loving Jesus means giving up and then loving all those God gives to you.

And so the question comes to you:

Do you love Jesus?

Do you really love Him?

Do you passionately, absolutely love Him?

Then, love your brother and sister, and above all, hear His call, “Follow Me.”




May 7, 2006

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