John 21:15-19 Christian Standard Bible
Jesus’s Threefold Restoration of Peter
15 When they had eaten breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John,[a] do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said to him, “you know that I love you.”
“Feed my lambs,” he told him. 16 A second time he asked him, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said to him, “you know that I love you.”
“Shepherd my sheep,” he told him.
17 He asked him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was grieved that he asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”
“Feed my sheep,” Jesus said. 18 “Truly I tell you, when you were younger, you would tie your belt and walk wherever you wanted. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will tie you and carry you where you don’t want to go.” 19 He said this to indicate by what kind of death Peter would glorify God. After saying this, he told him, “Follow me.”
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Stuck in the Concrete of Guilt, Restored to Discipleship
On the fateful night Jesus was arrested, Peter had surrendered his discipleship.
Under sudden and overwhelming (perceived) threat, in the High Priest’s courtyard he had hardcore denied three times that he was a follower of Jesus.
Then came the piercing eye to eye contact with His Messiah. When he realized the gravity of what he had just publicly done, Peter went out and wept bitterly (Matthew 26:69-75). He was severely overwhelmed by his shame and guilt.
After Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Lord asked Peter a question. But the question wasn’t “Why did you abandon me when I needed you?” or “Why didn’t you have the guts to stick up for me?” It was simply “Peter, Do you love me?”
Jesus had died on the cross for Peter’s sins.
What he wanted to know, three times now, was whether Peter, looking up from the bottomless pit of his shame and guilt, still loved him. Jesus is saying to him; that Peter’s sins were in the past; Peter’s restored love would shape his future.
When Peter said, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you,” Jesus, the conqueror of sin and death, the Lord of life, Restorer of spirits, graciously invited him to once again “gird up his loins” take up his discipleship and follow him into His future.
Psalm 103:11-13 Christian Standard Bible
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his faithful love
toward those who fear him.
12 As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed
our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.
If we were the one’s on the receiving end of this priceless exchange, Jesus doing the same with us, I pray that we recognize that Jesus is astonishingly gracious.
He doesn’t try to bury us, bringing up our past sins, betrayals, or infidelities. He simply wants for us to know “if we love him.” For that makes all the difference.
Anyone ever tried to measure exactly how far distant is the east from the west?
Anyone ever tried measuring exactly how far apart is the north from the south?
Anyone ever measure the exact length, width, height, depths of God’s Creation?
Do I Give Myself Away … So God may, in THEIR fullness, use me?
Isaiah 61:6-7 Christian Standard Bible
6 But you will be called the Lord’s priests;
they will speak of you as ministers of our God;
you will eat the wealth of the nations,
and you will boast in their riches.
7 In place of your shame, you will have a double portion;
in place of disgrace, they will rejoice over their share.
So they will possess double in their land,
and eternal joy will be theirs.
Against the backdrop of John 21:15-19, how close do we resemble Peter?
How closely do we identify with the depths, the whole of Peter’s experience?
Are we even .01% ready to sit with Jesus, remaining with him, eating with him, not returning to our catastrophically poor impulse control – but humbling self?
Are we ready to surrender to God 1% the darkest depths of our shame, our guilt?
Are we ready to be confronted by the reality of the disaster we’ve made of self?
Are we prepared to receive the magnitude of change Jesus is offering to Peter?
Do we 1% seek His Restoration with 110% of our hearts, minds, soul, strength?
Are we authentically seeking Jesus?
Do we authentically love him?
Do we 110% realize that He still invites us to go out and serve him today?
Forgiving, Gracious, compassionate, merciful, 100% ready to cast with the very heaviest millstone, our guilt and shame into the deepest depths of the great sea of forgetfulness? Never be seen nor heard from or be remembered ever again?
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 42 Complete Jewish Bible
Book II: Psalms 42–72
42 (0) For the leader. A maskil of the descendants of Korach:
2 (1) Just as a deer longs for running streams,
God, I long for you.
3 (2) I am thirsty for God, for the living God!
When can I come and appear before God?
4 (3) My tears are my food, day and night,
while all day people ask me, “Where is your God?”
5 (4) I recall, as my feelings well up within me,
how I’d go with the crowd to the house of God,
with sounds of joy and praise from the throngs
observing the festival.
6 (5) My soul, why are you so downcast?
Why are you groaning inside me?
Hope in God, since I will praise him again
for the salvation that comes from his presence.
7 (6) My God, when I feel so downcast,
I remind myself of you
from the land of Yarden, from the peaks of Hermon,
from the hill Mizar.
8 (7) Deep is calling to deep
at the thunder of your waterfalls;
all your surging rapids and waves
are sweeping over me.
9 (8) By day Adonai commands his grace,
and at night his song is with me
as a prayer to the God of my life.
10 (9) I say to God my Rock,
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
under pressure by the enemy?
11 (10) My adversaries’ taunts make me feel
as if my bones were crushed,
as they ask me all day long,
‘Where is your God?’ ”
12 (11) My soul, why are you so downcast?
Why are you groaning inside me?
Hope in God, since I will praise him again
for being my Savior and God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 