LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The Blow of Grace
The final dialogue between Jesus and Peter
John 21.
The Lord asks
Some could think that Peter, after the denial and the restoration that the Lord brought him, mentioned subtly and yet precisely in Mark 16:7, was already quite well prepared to assume the service to which the Lord had called him.
However, this was not the case. He lacked a final and definitive touch; an absolutely devastating blow.
The blow of grace happened that morning next to the sea of Tiberias (John cap.21). After the seven disciple’s fruitless fishing, and after seeing the abundance that there is in Christ, a highly significant dialogue took place between the Lord and Peter.
There are three questions posed by Jesus which are later answer. Peter, on the other hand, has three answers and one question. Jesus' three questions have a different degree of intensity, and are made in descending order.
The Lord asks, in successive moments:
–Simon, son of John, do you truly love me more than these? –Simon, son of John, do you truly love me? –Simon, son of John, do you love me?
These questions have a special force and solemnity, as they begin with Peter's full name.
As one can see, the questions seek to demonstrate that the love of this principle disciple doesn't have a lot of value. That love didn't serve for much when being interrogated by the maids on Annas’ patio, so now Peter is put in his true place. One after another, the questions strip him down, and demolish him. He hardly has time to respond to the first before the second one comes, and soon after comes the third, without the slightest pause.
It was now not only a question of whether Peter loved the Lord more than the other disciples; it was no longer clear if he really loved him at all, or if he even liked him.
Let us look at Peter's answers now:
–Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. –Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. –Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you. (This was said with sadness).
Peter never says that he loves him. So that, at first, he recognizes that he hasn’t the due intensity in his affection as to use the word "love".
In the second answer, he still doesn’t say so, following his surprise at the repetition of the question, and answers the same as the previous occasion. But the third time, the answer is given and the sadness that it accompanies it, reveal the developing knowledge that Peter has reached of himself. That was what the Lord definitively wanted Peter to reach.
Peter says: –You know all things.
Behind that statement, there is the recognition of his precariousness, and that the Lord loves him in spite of that. What will he be able to hide from him?
He had presumed before; now he leaves the valuation of his love in the Lord’s hands.
Peter knows that, somehow, he loves the Lord. But he no longer trusts himself, not even to say it.
Peter's presumption is definitively broken to pieces.
From now on, the concrete test of his love of the Lord won't be a beautiful and vehement answer, but a concrete fact, reiterated three times by the Lord: to feed God’s sheep.
Loving the Lord won't mean being able to say something well, but doing that which the Lord asks him to do.
The Lord responds
But there still lacks the final lunge, so that Peter's old nature falls down. After this, he will already be prepared for Pentecost.
While the Lord spoke with Peter, John comes closer. Peter sees him and asks the Lord: –Lord, what about him?
The Lord tells him: –If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is it to you? Follow me.
Peter's attitude here is the same as the farmers in the vineyard that were happy with their wage, while they didn't look at the wage that the others had received. (Matthew 20:1-16). Envy transformed their joy into bitterness.
Peter looked at John, and he envied him. Peter knew that John was the disciple whom Jesus loved, and now he came following behind them, as though John were claiming the place that he knew that he occupied in the Teacher's heart. Now that Peter knew he’d been confirmed in God’s work, what role would John occupy? Would he be Peter’s rival?
The Lord tells Peter, and also tells us: –I will see what I do with my other servants. You must not care about the place that they occupy in my work. What you must care about is that you follow me.
Peter and John must live many glorious days together. But that was possible because Peter -impetuous and subduing - had already died, next to the sea of Tiberias.
Three questions and an answer
The Lord’s three questions, and the answer that He gives to Peter's question, must be enough to break us as well. The Lord knows our reality and the deception of our heart. The problem is that we don't know it.
For that reason, He makes us clearly see through the light of this dialogue, our own nakedness, our absolute precariousness; and not only to convince us that we don't love him, as we like to presume, but also that we have an envious heart that prevents us from walking in peace with other servants.
If we see this, and we judge ourselves, we will have conquered an important battle within ourselves; we will have vindicated to the Lord, and we will have acquired the minimum conditions necessary for God to begin to really use us.