17 May 2024 John 21:15-19
“Feed my sheep.” John 21:17
There are at least three ways of understanding Jesus thrice repeated question to Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” (John 21:16).
Jesus asks three times if Peter loves Him, and so there is an obvious recollection of the three times Peter denied Jesus. Peter’s three-fold declaration that of course he loves Jesus is the Lord’s way of saying, “I don’t want to hear any more about Peter’s failure. I have forgiven him, and he knows he has been forgiven, and that’s an end of it.” The mercy of God trumps all failings of all people. And then Jesus says, “Feed my lambs.” Tell the people about the sovereign mercy of God.
Each time Jesus asks if Peter loves Him, the question is slightly different. The first time, Jesus asks, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” (21:15). It is unclear if Jesus means, “Do you love me more than these other disciples love me?” or “Do you love me more than you love these other disciples?”, but either way there is an indication that there is some rivalry among the disciples for Jesus’ affection and attention. This had emerged during Jesus earthly ministry – several times the disciples are caught arguing about which of them was the greatest (e.g. Matthew 18:1-5, Mark 9:33-37, Luke 9:46-48). John describes himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 21:20) as if he were Jesus’ favorite, and Jesus preferred his company to the company of the others. The Apostle Paul noted rivalries in Corinth between factions claiming Peter, Paul, and Apollos. Rivalries between different Christian families persist to this day – Protestants, Catholics, Orthodox, thousands of different denominations. But Jesus says to them all, “Tend my sheep.” The way to deal with all rivalries and sources of division is the same – feed people with the Word of God.
In their exchange, Jesus and Peter use different words for “love.” C.S. Lewis and Bishop Fulton J. Sheen point out that Greek has several words for “love” while English only has one. The first two times Jesus asks, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He uses the Greek word agapao, which refers to the love of God, love of the other for the sake of the other knowing that it is going to cost you something. Peter, however, replies with the Greek word phileo, which refers to friendship, a worthy kind of love, but not as selfless and accepting of suffering as agapao. Some commentators suggest that by John’s time these words were virtually interchangeable, and the distinction between them doesn’t amount to a significant difference. This seems unlikely, however, given that the community for whom John’s Gospel was written had a very unique understanding of life in Christ that was described with a very unique and specific vocabulary. That would seem to indicate that a very obvious shift from agapao to phileo in consecutive exchanges indicated a very significant shift in meaning. Nevertheless, after all three times that Jesus asks, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”, Jesus says the same thing: “Feed my sheep.” The way to deal with any confusion or difference in understanding about Jesus’ teaching, even the specific words Jesus uses, is the same: feed people with the Word of God.
No matter what the difficulty Christian communities may face – challenges of personal failure, challenges of rivalry, challenges of misunderstanding – the response of leaders must be the same: “Feed my sheep.” Teach them, encourage them, be an example to them, show them Jesus in you.
There are about 2.5 billion Christians in the word today, comprising about a third of the entire world’s population. With that many people, of so many different languages and cultures, there are certainly going to be challenges of personal failure, rivalry and misunderstanding. Jesus’ advice to his shepherds, however, is always the same: “Feed my sheep.” Teach them, encourage them, be an example to them, show them Jesus in you.
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