For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website.
- After breakfast, it's time to talk (v.15ff).
- Notice the setting: the charcoal fire. Here Jesus will serve Peter breakfast; previously, standing by the fire, Peter had denied his Lord.
- The rest of the chapter is about Peter, and also his relationship to the disciple whom Jesus loved.
15 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.” 16 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.” 17 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."
- Peter knew he'd forfeited his right to be Jesus' partner in ministry.
- Jesus gently reminds him of his lapse, and "reinstates" him, confirming him in his position of leadership and trust (vv.15-19).
- See also Luke 22:31.
- Who are "these" in v.15? They are probably the other disciples.
- Peter had boasted of having a greater love, or loyalty, to Jesus than all the others. (See Matthew 26:33.)
- Three times Jesus asks the same basic question, parallelling Peter's triple denial of Christ. This must have been painful for Peter.
- There is no real difference between the two verbs for love (agapan and philein).
- John's gospel uses lots of synonyms, and the words for love are no exception. The Greek nouns for love are agape, philia, storge, and eros. The fine distinctions are hammered out in C.S. Lewis' masterful The Four Loves. This is also available in audiobook read by -- yes! -- C.S. Lewis himself. But here we are only now concerned with agape and philia.
- Philia has overtones of friendship, agape of disinterested giving. The corresponding noun forms are philia and agape. The noun form agapedoes not appear in Classical Greek, although the verbal form agapao does.
- These words are used interchangeably throughout John, as you will see below.
- Man's love for man (13:34 - agape; 15:19 - philia)
- Man's love for Jesus (8:42 - agape; 16:27 - philia)
- Jesus' love for man (11:5 - agape; 11:3 - philia)
- God's love for man (3:16 - agape; 16:27 - philia)
- The Father's love for the Son (3:35 - agape; 5:20 - philia)
- If we've been guilty of throwing around third-hand linguistic "insights," not having done our homework, repentance is in order.
- Likewise, in verses 15-17 there are three different words for sheep (arnia, probata, and probatia). Once again, it is doubtful that any distinction between the words is intended.
- Peter is hurt (v.17) not so much by change of verb, but by the three-fold challenge to his faith.
- Loving Jesus means loving his sheep -- the responsibility of any shepherd or leader in the church. See 1 Peter 5:1ff.
18 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.” 19 (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”
- Jesus then predicts Peter's death by crucifixion, which is recorded in extrabiblical sources.
- Peter will die as an old man.
- In Acts of Peter 37 [8] the apostle says, "So I ask you, executioners, to crucify me head-downwards." Yet this source comes from late in the 2nd century; the upside-down-ness of the crucifixion is questionable.
20 Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; he was the one who had reclined next to Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?” 21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about him?” 22 Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!” 23 So the rumor spread in the community that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?”
- Peter inquires about Jesus' special disciple (v.20ff).
- He is moving the spotlight away from his own heart and life to another believer.
- Jesus insists that Peter is the one Peter needs to be most concerned about (v.22).
- We are frequently tempted to ask the same question:
- People in whom we detect hypocrisy -- "What about them?"
- Less committed disciples -- "What about them?"
- Members of other groups -- "What about them?"
- Rumors are rumors. Jesus never said that his beloved disciple would live until the second coming.
- There is early and strong tradition that this is John, who in later life settled and ministered in the area of Ephesus.
- A minority of scholars suggest that this unknown disciple is Lazarus. He had already died once, and so it would be natural to wonder whether he would have to die again.
- Regardless, the important thing for us is the challenge Jesus gave Peter. No matter what is happening in the lives of our brothers and sisters, we must follow the Lord.
24 This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. 25 But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
- The theme of witness / testimony is very strong in John (v.24). The Greek noun martys and verb martyrein appear in Matthew 12x, Mark 10x, Luke 9x, but in John 35x. The evidence has been presented, and we must weigh it. We're all being called to a decision, a verdict.
- The writer adds that he has selected only a fraction of Jesus' words and deeds.
- Though he has faithfully told the story, much, much more could be said!
- The hyperbole of verse 25 has ancient parallels.
- The first-century Jewish philosopher Philo wrote: "Were [God] to choose to display his own riches, even the entire earth with the sea turned into dry land would not contain them" (De posteritate Caini, 144).
- And Johanan ben-Zakkai, "If all the heavens were parchment, and all the trees were pens, and all the seas were ink, that would not be enough to write down my wisdom which I have learned from my teachers; and yet I have tasted of the wisdom of the wise only so much as a fly who dips into the ocean and takes away a little of it" (Tr. Sopherim 16, §8).
- As scholars have noticed, there are several parallels between the Counselor and the Beloved Disciple. Each activity of the Spirit below is just what the author of the fourth gospel has done:
- The Spirit is to remain with the disciples (14:7).
- He is to teach them everything (14:26).
- He is to remind them of what Jesus had said (14:26).
- He is to declare what he has heard (16:13).
- He is to glorify Jesus by declaring Jesus to us (16:14).
- The gospel of John begins with the Logos, the Word of God, and ends with a comment about the impossibility of relating Jesus' entire life.
- Our libraries could never accommodate a complete written record of Jesus' words and deeds, or do them justice.
Thought questions:
- Have I ever denied the Lord, later experiencing his grace, acceptance, and rehabilitation?
- If loving the Lord means caring for his sheep (not abandoning them), then how much do I love the Lord?
- It seems easier for some people to be Christians than for others. Do I compare myself to others, when I should be working on my own walk with the Lord?