John 21:20-25 (ESV)
Now Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who had also leaned back against him during the supper and had said, "Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?"
When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, "Lord, what about this man?"
Jesus said to him, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!"
So the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?"
This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.
Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
How should we read the text?
Well, firstly, we should acknowledge that this is the very end of John’s gospel. And here we have Peter — freshly recommissioned by Jesus to feed his sheep — suddenly worried about what’s going to happen to John. Peter’s literally just been told that he’s going to glorify God through his own crucifixion, and yet his immediate response is, “Well, hang on, Jesus — what about this guy?”
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And here we catch a little glimpse of that age-old human tendency, don’t we? Even when we’ve got our own clear sense of calling, we can still get sidetracked by wondering what everyone else is doing. It’s almost like Jesus sees Peter’s mental wheels turning and just needs to nip it in the bud. “What is that to you? You follow me.”
That one line is such a direct wake-up call — not just to Peter, but to anyone in ministry (or in any Christian calling, really) who’s ever been tempted to compare their journey to someone else’s. Jesus is saying, “Peter, I’ve given you a task. I’ve spelled out your future. Now stop obsessing over someone else’s.” This tells us something really crucial about how God works in each of our stories.
See, Jesus never actually told John that he’d never die — but somehow that rumour spread anyway. Imagine what that would’ve done to people’s expectations! And it reminds me how dangerously easy it is for us to read into God’s words things that were never there — or to think we understand someone else’s story when really, we’re only seeing a tiny piece of the puzzle.
In the end, the gospel reminds us that Jesus gets to orchestrate people’s lives however he chooses. Our job isn’t to figure out their story — our job is to trust him with ours. And even here at the very end of the gospel, John just can’t help but remind us that Jesus did far more than anyone could ever record. In other words, this isn’t really a story about Peter and John in isolation — it’s a story about the greatness of Jesus and how all of us, in our own unique ways, are called to serve him.
John ends by saying that if everything Jesus did was written down, the whole world wouldn’t be big enough to contain all the books. That’s John’s way of reminding us: Jesus is bigger than any one life story.
How should the text read us?
This passage speaks pretty directly to all of us who measure our lives by looking sideways at other people. We compare. We complain. We get insecure about our calling and our future. And we get frustrated (and sometimes a bit bitter) when other people’s lives look far more blessed than ours.
But Jesus says to Peter — and through Peter to us — “That’s not your business. Your job is to follow me, wherever that road goes.” That’s the heart of it.
When we’re tempted to measure our spiritual growth, our success, or even our worth by what other people are doing, Jesus pulls us up short and brings our focus back. He says, “Each person I call has a unique assignment to fulfil.” And friends, if we spend our whole lives looking sideways at what everyone else is doing, we’re going to stumble. It’s like running a marathon while constantly turning our heads to check out the competition. We’re going to trip over our own feet. And meanwhile, the person next to us — the one we’re so busy watching — they’re just doing their own thing, following Jesus.
The big challenge here, I think, is to trust that Jesus’ plan for your life is better than the plan you’d write for yourself — and definitely better than his plan for someone else’s life awkwardly pasted onto yours.
He knows what he’s doing.
If there’s one key point this passage drives home, it’s that we need to reject that deep-rooted habit of comparing ourselves to others — especially in our spiritual lives. We’re being called to say, “Yes, Jesus — I’ll follow you, wherever that leads. Even if so-and-so seems to have it easier, or better, or more exciting than me.” When we do that, we start to grow in spiritual maturity. That’s when our faith stops being about keeping up with others and starts being about daily walking with Jesus, trusting him with every step.
You might be in a place right now where you feel overshadowed by someone else’s success, or confused because God seems to be taking your life in a totally different direction than your friends’. That’s exactly the kind of scenario this passage speaks into.
Jesus invites you — through this text — to shift your gaze. “Put your eyes on me,” he says. “Trust me. If I guide your friend one way, that doesn’t change what I’m doing in your life.” The reason this resonates so strongly, I think, is because we’re all hungry for validation. We want to know we’re doing okay — so we look around for proof.
But here’s the thing, friends — our eyes shouldn’t be on others. They should be on Jesus. This passage invites us to ditch the measuring sticks we’ve invented and listen for his voice instead.
There’s a fierce kind of freedom in that.
When we accept that God writes different stories for different people — and that ours isn’t meant to look like our friend’s, or our sibling’s, or that influencer’s perfect Instagram life — we step into the freedom of living the story God has written just for us. God sees the whole picture. Our job is to trust the author.
Prayer
Dear Lord,Thank you for finishing John’s gospel with this exact story — the story of comparison.
Thank you for reminding us that you hold our stories in your hands, and that we don’t need to check how we stack up against everyone else.
Please help us let go of that habit — the one that constantly scans sideways — and instead live in the fierce freedom that comes from fixing our eyes on you.
Show us how to listen for your voice and trust your leading.
We know you’ve mapped out the road ahead, and we trust you to guide our steps.
Amen.
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