John 21
You remember that great romantic film, Notting Hill? You will recall that Hugh Grant plus his usual role: a somewhat down-on-his-luck toff, muddle-headed, scruffy hooray-henry, who runs a bookshop in Notting Hill. Through a series of coincidences he gets to know a fabulously famous Hollywood film actress (played by Julia Roberts), and they fall in love. She asks to have a relationship, and he hesitates. he says:, “I live in Notting Hill; you live in Beverly Hills. Everyone in the world knows who you are; my mother has trouble remembering my name.” She replies that fame isn’t real, and in lines of full, mature cheese, tears welling up in her eyes, retorts, “I’m also a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.”
What has this got to do with this resurrection encounter between Jesus and Peter?
Well… before Peter, this sinner, this compromised, messed up man, stands God: God the Beautiful, God the Majestic, God the Holy, God the Perfectly Wonderful, God the Splendidly Mighty, God the Creator of the Universe - and this Man-God asks, actually asks, this creature of dust and dirt, “do you love me?” Oh, it is just too much! How can God do that? Does he not know what Peter is like? How can God stoop so low to ask for the love of a human?
And yet he does. He does. Think on that. You see, here we see God’s heart, burning with a passion for his creation with a love that is fiercely tender, intensely kind and strongly pursuing. And the wonder of it all is that the love he looks for is not programmed. We are not made robots, mindlessly fulfilling his desires. Here is the matchless, measureless grace of God.
But before I look at the conversation in more detail, I need to go back some…
Did you notice that this closing scene of the gospel is cast at the same spot (the shores of Lake Galilee) as when the adventure of following Jesus began? The wheel has turned full circle - in their end is their beginning. It is always moving to go back after absence to a place which has meant much: think of a scene in nature where your senses were quickened; or perhaps you have stood at your parents’ grave. It is always moving to remember how you first came to Christ, isn’t it? Robert Louis Stevenson has a poem which expresses the pain of remembering what we once were:
“Sing me a song of a lad that is gone,Say, could that lad be I?…Give me again all that was there,Give me the sun that shone!Give me the eyes, give me the soul,Give me the lad that’s gone!”
Have you ever felt like that? I bet Peter did. Here he is, back in the old fishing boat, back in the old profession (“I am going fishing” means more than just a hobby) - and yet here’s the thing: in the gospels, the two times that Peter is mentioned in his occupation of being a fisherman, he’s rubbish at it! So, his conscience tender and bruised, he thinks he has let the Lord down so much, being a bad fisherman is a better deal than being a bad disciple! Here is Peter, the one who one morning three years previously had dipped and left his nets, taking them up again. Why? Do you have to ask? It is as if he is saying, ‘that other life, that other adventure of following Christ, was fine as long as it lasted, but for me it’s over. Christ may well be alive, but for me I’m finished - the dream is over. I had my chance, a glorious chance, but I lied, swore even I never knew him - oh, how could I do that? I said I loved him more than anyone, and yet a slip of a servant girl made me into a snivelling coward - not just once, but three times! Three times, oh God - how awful! I am not fit to follow him. I am going back fishing - I had better get back to what I know. It’s all I’m good for now.’ Like a sword pile-driving into his soul, these denials of Peter festered. he was being hacked to pieces inside by his own sinfulness, his own cowardice - made worse by the fact that he had bravely, swaggeringly no doubt, said that he Peter would never desert Christ. And here he is, taking up fishing again, the memory of Jesus’ look across the courtyard, seared into his imagination for all time.
Have you ever felt like that - battered, broken, weary, out of tune with others, heart sore? Perhaps you think, like Peter, that what you have done disqualifies you from serving the Lord? Or perhaps, you have found the Lord’s people less understanding and forgiving than the Lord, and you want to throw the towel in? Perhaps you have grown disillusioned and “freed from preposterous, wild imaginings” you conclude “men were not meant to walk as priests and kings.”
But we read: “That night they caught nothing.” Sometimes it seems nothing quite works out as you want it. And all that was good, all that once was wonderful, all that once was Peter is gone - gone with the fish.
Suddenly a voice calls out, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” And in their negative answer lies all their shattered dreams. As the Bible says, “hope deferred makes the heart sick”. (Proverbs 13:12) But often one on the shore can see more clearly where the shoals of fish are: “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” And the result? “They were not able to haul [the net] in because there were so many fish.” Just as in the wedding at Cana of Galilee, Jesus likes to save from social embarrassment - for no other reason than he can and he loves us and he hates to see us floundering (if I can make a fishy pun at this point!)
John looks up and notices the Lord on the beach - and he draws Peter’s attention to who it really is who has ensured they have some money to live on: “It is the Lord!”
I love this bit… here is Peter, naked, (as some translations have it) and he gets dressed - only to jump into the sea fully clothed! He’s lost it! Love makes you do extravagant things. In this one action, we see both the state of Peter’s mind and heart: he can’t wait any longer - he has to get to the Lord - but he wants to cover up - he wants to hide in plain sight - and he leaves the other disciples to bring the boat in, dragging the full net of fish behind them.
And so now a breakfast on a charcoal fire. Psychologists tell us that even smells can bring back covered up memories. As Peter was eating, his wounds were coming to the surface. His denial and cowardice were the unspoken thoughts of many there as they smelled the fish cooking. Yet all had left Jesus - none of them had much to boast about.
And here we see the grace of our Lord. It looks like Jesus takes Peter for a walk along the beach away from the rest of the disciples (I am reading into the text, but it seems clear that Jesus separated Peter from his friends). Jesus doesn’t humiliate. But here is the Master Physician at work: Peter had denied three times knowing Jesus - very well then Jesus asks him three times, “Do you love me?”
You will know there are several words for love in the Greek: there is phileo, which means brotherly love, and like Philadelphia cheese, should be spread on thick - Philadelphia = ‘City of Brotherly love’! Then there is storge, which means the love between members of a family, And there is eros, which means erotic and romantic love. And as you know there is agape, which is turbo-charged love, a love which depends on willed action and sacrifice, whatever the response received. It is the love which would cause a lover to cross every ocean in the world and defeat every dragon in the world, just so that he can marry his beloved. It is, of course, fully exemplified in Christ’s love - who, for the love of his people that burnt in his heart, took him from the very courts of heaven, and he went into the far, far country, looking to bring us home. For all who are lost first belonged.
Jesus calls Peter quite intentionally “Simon”. He doesn’t use the name ‘Peter’ (rock), for he is far too crushed for Jesus to use that name of leadership. ‘ So Simon, do you agape me more than the other disciples as you once so foolishly boasted?’ Peter replies, ‘Lord, you know that I phileo you, that I have a friendly affection towards you.’ Again Jesus asks, ‘Simon, do you agape me?’ And once again, Peter feels that Jesus has set the bar too high: ‘Lord, you know that I phileo you.’ And in amazing grace, Jesus comes down to Peter’s level, ‘Simon, do you phileo me?’ It is enough for Jesus that Peter responds with affection. Peter is beside himself, ‘You know all things, you know that I phileo you.’
For Peter’s triple sin, Jesus provided a triple obliteration. Let this thrice pardoned follower of Christ tell of his love for Christ three times! That’s the challenge of love Jesus gives Peter - and as far as Jesus is concerned (remember this, when you make demands that Jesus himself doesn’t) Peter passes with flying colours. Peter is moving out of sin, through repentance, out of the darkness of self pity and pride, where he thinks he can never be forgiven and of use to the Lord again, to the sunny uplands of God’s favour and forgiving acceptance.
See what else is taking place. As well as the challenge, Jesus gives a commission. Each time Jesus asks Peter whether he loves him, no matter what response he gets Jesus commissions Peter: “Feed my lambs/Take care of my sheep/Feed my sheep.” Here is Peter feeling the most unlovable creature in the world, feeling Jesus couldn’t possibly love him, or if he did, he could never trust him again, and yet, and yet - oh that is the grace of God! The ‘and yet’ -God in his grace always coming towards us, searching us out, recommissioning. And so do you see, how with each commissioning, Jesus removes the stakes stabbed in Peter’s heart, planted there by his threefold denial. In commissioning Peter, Jesus heals him. In declaring his love for Jesus, Peter finds that the gracious God before him meets him exactly where he is - and that’s just fine.
There is more to say of the language used. Peter uses two words for ‘know’ (as in “you know that I love you”). In his first two replies he uses a word that means ‘to know by bitter experience’; and in his last reply the word means ‘really know deep inside’. Peter’s sins and consequent self-inflicted wounds are making him put distorted reactions on the Lord himself: that’s what our accusing consciences do with our sins. It paints the Lord of Love into something less than he is. In effect. Peter is saying, ‘I can’t believe you are asking this, Lord, of me: you have much cause to regret ever choosing me; I messed up big time - but even so you know that I hold you in great affection.’ But by the third question and the third commissioning, Peter realises afresh the love of God is true after all, and that his knowledge of that love, that total love, has nothing at all to do with punishment or self-recrimination. “Perfect love drives out all fear” (1 John 4:18). Peter is free at last from all condemnation!
This is an extraordinary passage for leaders, disciples, pastors, vicars, bishops - anyone who claims to follow Christ. You see, you can read your leadership books and manuals, you can take your MBAs, you can learn how to grow from Good to Great, and sooner or later, all say something like, ‘Reward high achievers, remove low achievers’.
But that’s not the way of Jesus here with Peter. Just look at the evidence. Peter, made a leader, entrusted with the apostolic witness, who at the very first sign of trouble bales out - not once, not twice, but three times! The world says, ‘three strikes and you’re out’. Talk about low achievement - man, Peter is such a loser! Best get rid of him, Jesus! Best cut your losses while you can and find someone more suitable, more reliable, more of a rock, more of a leader.
Jesus makes Peter a leader instead. The world may be impressed with titles, wealth, qualifications, celebrity, academic ability, pushiness, win-at-all costs kind of people. But Jesus is not.
Jesus looks for one thing and one thing only: evidence in the heart that someone loves him. He doesn’t ask about your personal times with the Lord, or how much you read the Bible, or how often you witness, or how many you have led to faith, or whether you go to church - all of these are means to an end - but he does ask you, this Lord of Glory, whether you love him. That’s what matters to the Lord. Do you love him? Really love him?
“Do you love me?” It is a simple but searching question. It’s not a sentimental question. Love of the Lord has led folk to cross continents and has even put them in flames for their faith.
There was once a Russian artist who painted a picture of the Last Supper. He showed his work to Tolstoy, the great writer. “I want your opinion - what do you think of my Christ?” Tolstoy studied the picture and then with eyes blazing he turned on the artist, “You don’t love him! For if you did, you would have painted him better. And if you don’t love him, what right have you to touch him at all?”
Here in this passage, we see how inner wounds are healed, how sins are forgiven: through encountering the living loving Lord Jesus Christ in intimacy, and through loving him.
Oh get this: nothing you have done, nothing in your past need bind you into despair. Look at Peter. Look at yourself. And know this truth: you and I have denied Christ many times more than Peter - and yet Christ’s grace extends to every one of us, and his blood covers all our sins. Christ will meet us where we are - be our hearts full of affection or not.
Behind all that we do, behind all that we are, let’s fall back on this: the understanding grace of Christ. Though there is nothing to show in my life to the contrary, though all the evidence against me is obvious, though my sin against me cries, though time and time again my confident confessions of faith have crashed in ruin, though I have hurt my Saviour many times, though I have disappointed him times beyond number, though I have flouted his word and swerved from his path, and though it would be just if God had nothing to do with me ever again YET O Lord you understand me, you know me through and through, and still you want relationship with me. In the light of such grace, in the light of such immense kindness, O Lord, you know that I love you!
And so the abiding principle is this: before all things, even service to him, we must love our Lord Jesus Christ, who loved and loves us first - he always initiates.
The wonder of the challenging and the commissioning is that Jesus is both trusting and testing Peter. Trusting Peter because, with Christ about to ascend to the Father, he arranges for the future of his gospel to be in the hands of the disciple who had denied him. Three times he told Peter to, in effect, ‘shepherd his sheep’ - Peter could be in no doubt - Jesus has utter confidence in him. “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.” (1 Corinthians 1:27) This is how Christians are made, how godly men and women are grown. And Peter took him at his word - as we all must. Look at him on the day of Pentecost, look at him defying Annas and Caiaphas in the days of the early church, look at him in his daring sharing of the gospel with the Gentiles, look at him (according to tradition) dying upside down on the cross at last in Rome.
I must draw to a conclusion.
If you have here today, burned out on religion - if you are here burdened by an accusing conscience - if you are unhappy both in your service and relationship with the Lord - the word of the Lord to you is this:
CHRIST IS TRUSTING YOU WITH ALL HIS HEART. THIS IS HOW HE GETS HIS REVENGE ON ALL OUR LETTING HIM DOWN - HE TRUSTS US EVEN MORE!
There is a modern worship song that expresses this powerfully:
“Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending reckless love of GodOh, it chases me down, fights till I’m found, leaves the ninety-nine,I couldn’t earn it, and I don’t deserve it, still You give yourself away…
There’s no shadow you won’t light upMountain you won’t climb up,Coming after me;There’s no wall you won’t kick down,Lie you won’t tear down,Coming after me.Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending reckless love of God,Oh it chases me down, fights till I’m found…” (Corey Asbury)

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