"Do you love me?" That's quite a question to be asked. Sometimes the answer can be a casual but sincere 'Of course I do' and all is well. But in John 21:15ff things are far from casual. And they have been anything but well.
Peter was acutely conscious of his sin in denying the Lord Jesus and wept bitter tears of repentance. Now, after the glorious joy of the resurrection, the disciples are in an in-between moment, during the time that our Lord gave them many convincing proofs of being alive and readying them for his departure to the Father. Part of that preparation in Peter's case was being recovered from his terrible fall.
It feels almost callous on Jesus' part to ask Peter if he loves him - weren't the tears enough? And not once, nor twice, but three times the question is asked: "Do you love me?" Persistent, insistent. And Peter is grieved at the repetition. Why is his Lord rubbing salt in his wounds? Wasn't the first affirmation of love enough?
Our Lord Jesus is never callous. He wasn't making Peter squirm as payback for his denials in the courtyard of the High Priest. This is the loving work of the true physician of souls. Peter's shame has gone to the deepest part of his being. True recovery from such a fall can never be shallow or swift. And so Jesus goes as deep as the self-inflicted wounds; for every wretched denial he offers the opportunity to replace it with an expression of humble, honest love. Rolling the shame back upon itself; rolling the disgrace away.
Jesus doesn't ask him if he's sorry. He doesn't make him promise he'll never do it again. What he wants to hear - and what Peter needs to speak - is the affirmation of love, "Yes, Lord". And it's a love that is more than a pallid, callow claim: "You know that I love you." The heart that was broken by sin was visible to his Lord and Saviour. Nothing was or could be hidden from him. Nothing needed to be.
Whatever your own history with the Lord Jesus, the same hands that skilfully healed Peter's soul are at work in your life. He speaks in order to uncover and then to banish our shame, to renew our hearts, to grant us the holy privilege of affirming our own love for him.
And those he heals, he honours with the dignity of service: for Peter, "Feed my lambs"; for every disciple, "Follow me". The details of other disciples' service is not to be our concern (v.22); we must follow him, in service that is the expression of our own unfeigned love.
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O Love, that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in Thee;
I give Thee back the life I owe,
That in Thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
O Light, that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to Thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in Thy sunshine's blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.
O Joy, that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to Thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain
That morn shall tearless be.
O Cross, that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life's glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red,
Life that shall endless be.
(George Matheson, 1842-1906)
