Peter Receives an Assignment

“He said to him the third time, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?’ Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, ‘Do you love Me?’ And he said to Him, ‘Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep.’ “ –John 21:17.

Consider Peter the impetuous, Peter the outspoken…Peter who had denied Jesus three times in the courtyard of the high priest while Jesus faced the death sentence. It was Peter, who, on the morning of this post-resurrection appearance of Jesus to disciples beside the Sea of Tiberias (or Galilee) said, “I am going fishing!” (John 21:3). Back to his old occupation! No thought of what he could do for Jesus, or that Jesus had said, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). Back to the sea, his nets, and no catch.

That is, no catch until Jesus whom the fishing disciples did not at first recognize called out from shore, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” (John 21:6). Their catch was large—John records 153 fish in all (21:11)--so big the net was broken.

When the disciples came ashore, Jesus had a fire going, and bread and fish cooking. And then Jesus turned to Peter, the one who had denied Him, and asked, three times: “Peter, do you love Me?” When Peter declared his love for the Lord, He told him the first time: “Feed my lambs”; the second time, “Tend my sheep”; and the third time, “Feed my sheep.”

Why the question three times? Some scholars hold that it was a reminder that Peter had denied Christ three times. Why a different command by Jesus to Peter: “Feed my lambs, Tend my sheep, Feed my sheep?” Again, scholars can only surmise, but within these answers lie the progression of what teaching and nurturing a believer involve. Nourish my little lambs and feed them when they are young and tender in the faith. Tend my sheep; help them mature; they need much “tender-loving-care”; they need to be reminded: “greater is He that is in thee than he that is in the world” (I Peter 4:4). Feed my sheep; go beyond the ‘sincere milk of the Word’ (I Peter 2:2) to the status of royal priesthood in the Kingdom (see I Peter 2:9), and “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (I Peter 3:15).

There was Peter in the presence of the living Lord, the resurrected Lord. Jesus restored Peter to his status as a leader among the disciples. Jesus saw through the years and knew Peter’s life would not be easy. He told him in John 21:18: “but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.” Peter lived to be a stalwart leader in the early church. His preaching on the Day of Pentecost led about three thousand to believe in the Lord (Acts 2:41). Peter was faithful unto death, following and doing what the Lord had assigned him to do: feeding lambs, tending sheep, feeding sheep. Church history reveals that Peter himself was crucified, but requested that he be placed upside down on the cross for he felt he was not worthy to be crucified upright in the same manner as was Jesus Christ.

Under great duress Peter had denied the Lord. With great love, Peter was restored to the Lord’s favor and assigned an important job in kingdom work. Peter’s one great mistake did not keep him from becoming an effective servant of the Lord. He was indeed able to “feed the Lord’s sheep.”

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Peter: “Devoted but Fallible” Disciple of Christ

“He said to him a third time, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, ‘Do you love Me?’ and he said to Him, ‘Lord, you know all things: You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep.’ “ John 21:17 [Read John 21]

On the particular morning of this incident in the life of Peter and some of the other disciples, the cruel crucifixion was past, the resurrection of the Lord had ocurred, and this was His appearance to some of the disciples beside the Sea of Tiberias, where Peter had said earlier, typical of him, “I am going fishing” (John 21:3), and those disciples with him said, ‘We are going with you, also.” Not fishing for men as Jesus had commanded them, but fishing for fish. Back to the old nets.

To Peter, Andrew, James and John, early in His ministry, Jesus had said, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Mt. 4:19). They were to tell forth the news of the Messiah. Peter had always been in the inner circle with Jesus, a natural leader, but with many raw edges to his personality that needed to come under Lordly rule. “Your name is Petras, a stone,” Jesus had told Peter. And on Peter’s confession, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” Christ would build His church (Mt. 16:18).

Peter saw Christ transfigured as he, James and John witnessed this magnificent event on the mountain (Mark 9:2-10). Peter wanted to build an altar there to Jesus, to Moses and to Elijah. When we have a mountaintop experience, spiritually, don’t we, as Peter, want to remain there—not come again into the valley where we meet the challenges of everyday living?

The most fallible of all of Peter’s impetuous acts was his denial of Christ in the courtyard of the high priest (Mark 14:66-72) after Jesus had been arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. How could Peter deny the one who loved him so and whom he had seen perform so many miracles? The one he had declared to be the Christ, the Messiah? We want to blame Peter for his terrible weakness. But if we are honest, we can identify with Peter the fallible, even in this denial. How many times have we ourselves failed Christ, failed to stand for Him?

The beauty is that Jesus restored Peter. He had gone a-fishing, but beside Tiberius, the living, resurrected Lord gave Peter his assignment again: “Feed my sheep!” And Peter was faithful, even unto death. Amen!

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Friday, March 5, 2010