The prophet Micah wrote, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting. … And He shall stand and feedHis flock In the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord His God; and they shall abide.” (Micah 5:2,4a NKJV)
John 21 shows what that shepherding of the flock looks like. Jesus would “stand and feed” his disciples, standing before them in John 20, and feeding them on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Peter, lost in his work and lost in life, would be called back to his true work by his Shepherd’s voice.
Jesus’s post-Resurrection body seems to be able to do a lot of things, but God’s priorities aren’t about doing the spectacular thing – spectacular acts are the priorities of the Tempter and Accuser. Instead, we see a lot of eating or almost-eating (in Luke and John), and we see Jesus meet the disciples in different places, in Jerusalem, on the road to Emmaus, and in Galilee.
Twenty of the 52 narrative verses in John 20 and 21 are spent in conversations, between Jesus and Mary, Thomas, or Peter. It seems Jesus could do anything he wanted during these 40 short days between the Resurrection and the Ascension, and what he chose to do (as reported by John) is to spend a large part of his time individually restoring these three broken-hearted followers, these lost sheep.
In John 21:3, Peter puts the plans of the Spirit in motion when he stands up suddenly and says, “I am going to fish.” Six other disciples mentioned by name (including Thomas) follow Peter, and spend a fruitless, frustrating night catching nothing.
When it was early dawn, a voice came from the shore, a hundred yards away: “Cast the net out on the starboard side of the boat.” They obeyed, not knowing Who it was, and the net was heavy. It was a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, with fish.
John has a flash of recognition — the stranger is Jesus! – but it’s Peter as usual who dives in headfirst. He swims to shore and smells a familiar scent, a charcoal fire. (21:9) John uses the same word, “anthrakian,” twice, here and in the scene where Peter denies Jesus three times. (18:18) Smells bring back strong memories, and Peter was reminded of his three-fold failure.
Jesus hosts breakfast on the shore, even providing his own fish and bread, showing that preparing a meal for others is a holy task. He is at work, and opening his table to all. Blessed are the meal-makers, for they will restore the flock.
We’re not told about what the meal was like, except that it was a bit awkward, which I guess is understandable. It’s just all so weird! They knew it was Jesus, but they also knew something had changed at a deep level. No one brought it up, this instance of “concrete otherness.” (21:12) Normally, Peter would be the one to blurt things out, but he was silent, probably gazing into the fire with an internal monologue of condemnation no one else could hear – no one but Jesus.
Afterward, Jesus and Peter walk together and talk. In Ezekiel 34:14, the Lord-as-a-shepherd says, “I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick.” Peter is more than one of these categories, and Jesus fulfills this scripture by shepherding Peter along their path.
So how does the Good Shepherd restore his lost sheep? He asks questions, and he upsets his disciple to the point of frustration. Jesus upsets Peter to cleanse him, like he upset tables to cleanse the Temple.
Three times, Jesus asks, “Do you love me more than these?” Most readers assume he means “these other disciples,” but a reading I like better is “all these things,” the things of the world around you, as Jesus gestures to the lake. The ordinary, humble work of fishing, the job you have reverted to in the absence of your Rabbi, the comfortable and the familiar.
Jesus challenges Peter. Jesus doesn’t tell Peter that he’s infinitely and unconditionally loved – although that’s always and ever true — and Jesus doesn’t demand an apology. Jesus does what he does most, and does best: he asks three questions, and gets Peter to speak the truth. The point is not Jesus’s knowledge, but Peter’s.
At first, Peter is bewildered, but his bewilderment brings him to the point where he blurts out the obvious, that Jesus knows all things and already knows that Peter has repented, already knows that Peter is forgiven. Peter doesn’t just need a hug. He needs a job, he needs work for idle hands, he needs a calling. In fact, he is called to fish, it’s just to fish for PEOPLE, not actual fish. When Peter went in the wrong direction, Jesus pointed him in the right one, and Peter turned.
“The only difference between Judas and Peter resides, not in the betrayal, but in Judas’s inability to come back to Jesus,” Rene Girard says. “The underlying factor here is the idea (a truly evangelical one) that men are never condemned by God: they condemn themselves by their despair.”
In the next few pages of the Bible, Acts tells how this turn from despair to forgiveness prepared Peter to be the foundation stone of the church. Peter pours himself into this calling, turning his love for Jesus into love for others. As Jesus’s blood renewed the world, Peter’s blood shed in response to Jesus’s will renew the city and empire of Rome.
These questions are not just for Peter. They were written down for the writer, and for all of us. (The writer knows because he was tagged along uninvited – he must have been stealthy – until, oops, he was discovered.)
The question is posed to John, and to me: What do I really want? Do I love Jesus more than the things and people around me? Do I really believe that the Father has given Jesus all things?
John appears to have posed these questions to himself over the years. Later in life, he wrote down what it means to feed the church in his first letter, printed later in the Bible as the book of 1 John. John speaks in threefold patterns throughout his letter, as Jesus spoke to Peter. On December 21, I mentioned two “trinities” that testify in 1 John 5:6-10. Earlier in his first letter, John writes in another pair of threes, or a six-fold pattern, speaking twice each to little children, young men, and fathers, about knowing, abiding, and vanquishing the Wicked One. The three-fold pattern that Jesus gives to Peter, John also takes for himself, absorbing it into his soul, then following that pattern to feed Jesus’s lambs.
Spend time with Jesus and follow his patterns. Host meals, ask questions, walk with friends, and don’t be afraid to be a little exasperating, if you’re doing it to cleanse bad habits. Jesus knows all things, he knows that you love him. When you are hungry, Jesus feeds you with the overflowing gift of his own presence. When you fall short, Jesus offers forgiveness. When you feel lost and aimless, Jesus is the one calling you home.
In all things, Jesus is the Way to follow so you can go where you’re called. Maybe it’s as far as the ends of the earth, maybe it’s staying planted and abiding in the True Vine where you’re at. But certainly, when your work is done, you will be with Jesus. If Jesus is the Way itself, Jesus is also the destination at the end of the Way, so that he is always with you, to the end of the age.
QUOTE: Rene Girard, Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World, p. 247-248
IMAGE: Matt Philleo, 11″ x 14″ acrylic on canvas. “Breakfast with the King.”
