Whiteboard: Feed My Sheep

We pick up right where we left off last week. The disciples have gone fishing, they haven't had any luck whatsoever catching anything until Jesus calls to them, instructs them and they follow his guidance.

After the miraculous haul of fish (which is so much more than a fish story), Jesus turns his attention to Peter.

This is where we'll pick up the story on Sunday.

It is a familiar passage -- one that gives us this beautiful, poetic redemption of Peter. Where he had denied Christ one, two, three times on that night when Jesus was betrayed here the Resurrected Christ gives Peter one, two, three times to affirm him.

"Do you love me?" Jesus asks over and over and over again.

"Yes, Lord. You know that I love you." "Yes, Lord. You know that I love you." "Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you." Peter responds.

And with each affirmation, Jesus gives a piece of instruction. "Feed my lambs...Tend my sheep...Feed my sheep..." before Jesus finally concludes with the instruction that sums up the call to discipleship better than any other image possibly could. Jesus says to Peter (says to us), "Follow me."

Talk is cheap. Peter knows this better than most. Peter's mouth has been writing checks that the rest of his body simply could not cash. He's said things that he regrets. He's done things that he regrets. Yet here is Jesus standing before him offering him a chance to not only make-up for the horrible things he said ("No, I do not know this man!") and the horrible things he did (abandoning Jesus at his deepest hour of need) but to turn his life around, reorient himself, and follow Jesus.

It is a powerful passage this coming Sunday, and a word that we need to hear and celebrate together!

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John 21:15-19: Jesus and Peter

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’

He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ 

Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ 

A second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ 

He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ 

Jesus said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’

He said to him the third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ 

Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ 

Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep. Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, 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.’ (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, ‘Follow me.’