Sermon for
April 25, 2004
3rd Sunday of Easter
“Do You Love
Me?”
John 21:1-19
Easter was over and
they had all gone back to work. Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, the sons of
Zebedee, and two other of Jesus’ disciples, had gone back to their
fishing. They set out from Tiberias into the Galilean Sea that night and
didn’t catch a thing. After Easter, life must be just the same old thing
it was before. After Easter, after the joyous celebration in the presence
of the risen Lord, after Jesus had appeared to them, showed them his hands
and his side, blessed them with his own peace and gave them the promise of
the Holy Spirit, after Easter, back to everyday life when these memories
fade and the demands of day to day existence once again find their
priority, after Easter, life does not appear to have changed all that
much. They went back to work that night and had trouble even producing
the basics of life for themselves. After Easter, it seems, life must be
just the same old thing it was before.
But just after daybreak
back at the shore about 100 yards from the boat, a stranger stood on the
beach. As the sun began to rise that morning the stranger called out to
them, “Children, children, you have no fish, have you?” The didn’t know
who he was but they answered him, “No!” He said to them, “Cast the net to
the right side of the boat and you will find some.” And they did. And
the narrator of the Gospel of John reports that their net held so many
fish they could not haul them all in. Then finally in the morning light
one disciple recognizes the stranger, “It is the Lord!” As they rush back
to shore with their now bountiful catch, Jesus has a fire going and
breakfast is ready. He asks for some of their fish to share. After
Easter, these children broke break and ate fish with their Lord.
You see, Jesus was
right there all the time after Easter, but they didn’t recognize him. As
Jesus called out to them that morning from the shore, couldn’t you hear
him saying, “Children, I’m right here.” After Easter Jesus is here with
you. Do you recognize him? In the midst of the provision that you are
provided each day, do you see him at work in your life? In your everyday,
day to day business as usual world do you hear him call out to you? After
Easter, now that you’ve gone back to work, do you know Jesus is
here now with you?
If you have a little
trouble with this after Easter you’re in good company. For that’s exactly
what was going on with these seven followers of Jesus. Jesus, you see,
calls them “children,” children who are not yet capable of full
understanding. Children need patient, caring love. Such is the love of
Jesus for his children. Such is his love for you. After Easter, Jesus
says, “Children, I’m here.”
After breakfast as they
stood around the warm fire that morning Jesus asks Peter a question:
Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?
This is a striking question, a painful question for Peter. Peter
remembers the last time they had eaten together was the Passover meal the
night of Jesus’ betrayal. At the meal Jesus told them that where he was
going they could not follow. Peter was the only one to speak up and say,
Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life
for you!
In response to this bold declaration Jesus rightly predicted that Peter
would deny that he even knew Jesus, not once, but three times. After
Easter, after this breakfast around the charcoal fire, Peter remembers his
denial of his Lord that night at the charcoal fire in the courtyard of the
high priest. As he warmed himself he was asked, “You are not also one of
this man’s disciples, are you?” to which he answered, “I am not.”
After Easter, in the
morning, Peter remembers all the times he had denied Jesus. After Easter,
Peter is faced with his failure as he faced his Lord. So after Easter,
Jesus asks him, “Do you love me?” As the painful memory of his utter lack
of love wells up in his heart, Peter says, “Yes, Lord, you know that I
love you.” “There,” Peter must have thought to himself, “I have said it
and I mean it this time.” Then Jesus asks him again, “Simon, son of John,
do you love me?” Peter responds again more boldly, “Yes, Lord, you know
that I love you.” “Uh, oh!” Peter must have thought to himself, “Jesus
remembers what I did as well as I do—maybe he wants to make sure—and I am
sure.” Then Jesus asks again, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Here
the narrator of the Gospel lets us know that Peter felt hurt because he
asked him a third time. Peter responded, “Lord, you know everything; you
know that I love you.”
You see, your Lord
knows the human heart very well. Healing and wholeness follow failure
only after you face that failure, look it in the eye for what it is, find
forgiveness, and then move on. By his grace Jesus, who knows well the
three-fold pain in Peter’s heart, brings Peter to confirm again his love
for his Lord, not once, not twice, but three times. Each “yes” declared
in the morning helps heal over each “no” declared in the night. In this
way healing comes after Easter. After Easter Jesus says “Children, I
forgive.”
Brothers and sisters,
how many times have you said “no” to your Lord in the night? What are the
numbers of your failures in your life? For every one of those your Lord
asks you now in the morning, “Do you love me?” Jesus takes no more
pleasure in asking you to confirm your love for him after each of your
failures any more than he did with Peter after his own. Its just that
Jesus knows your heart very well. Your heart just won’t heal until you,
like Peter, face your own failure, look it in the eye for what it
is, find his forgiveness, and then move on.
If you have a little
trouble with this after Easter you’re in good company. For that’s exactly
what was going on with Peter. Jesus, you see, calls his disciples
“children,” children who are not yet capable of full understanding.
Children need patient, caring love. Such is the love of Jesus for his
children. Such is his love for you. After Easter Jesus says, “Children,
I’m here; I forgive.”
Now, after all this,
did Peter really love Jesus? After all this, do you really love
Jesus? We have to examine the text a bit more closely to find the answer,
but it is there. You see, there is more than one Greek word that is
translated into English as “love.” Jesus and Peter each use two
different Greek words for “love.” Every time Peter responds to Jesus and
says, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you,” Peter uses the Greek word
“philia”—this is friendship: love between close friends. It is as if
Peter is saying, “You know I am your friend.”
But friendship is not
what Jesus is asking him. Jesus, on the other hand, is using another
Greek word for “love.” The first and second times Jesus asks Peter, “Do
you love me?” Jesus uses the word “agape” (not “philia”). “Agape” is more
than friendship but self-sacrificing love, love that asks for nothing in
return. This is God’s love. So Jesus asks Peter the first time (to use
the Greek word), “Do you agape me?” Peter responds, “Yes, Lord, I
philo you.” Jesus asks, “Do you love me and ask for nothing in
return?” Peter responds, “Yes, Lord, I love you like a friend.” So Jesus
asks again, “Do you agape me?” Peter responds again, “Yes, Lord,
you know that I philo you.”
Peter doesn’t get it.
Friendship is not relationship with Jesus in all its fullness. When Jesus
commanded them to “love one another as I have loved you” Jesus was not
talking about friendship but agape—self-sacrificing love, love that asks
for nothing in return. That’s what John 3:16 is all about:
God so agaped the world that he gave his only begotten son….
Jesus did not live, die, and rise for friendship but for eternal
life—only agape love makes for that.
But Peter doesn’t get it. So
finally, in grace, Jesus takes a step back. When he asks Peter the third
time, “Do you love me?”, Jesus uses the word philia, as if to say, “OK,
are you at least my friend?” to which Peter responds, “Yes, Lord, I have
been telling you three times now that I am your friend!” Jesus responds
this time as he had the other two:
I have work for you to do…(specifically)…feed my
lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep.
Jesus can only count on Peter to be his friend but he commissions him
nevertheless.
After Easter what about
you? Do you really love Jesus? Do you agape him? Do you love him in
self-sacrificing love? Do you love him and ask for nothing in return? Do
you love one another as he loves you?
If you have a little
trouble with this after Easter you’re in good company. For that’s exactly
what was going on with these seven followers of Jesus. Jesus, you see,
calls them “children,” children who are not yet capable of full
understanding. Children need patient, caring love. Such is the love of
Jesus for his children. Such is his love for you.
After Easter Jesus
says, “Children, I’m right here. Children, I forgive, Children, I have
work for you to do.”
After Easter Jesus
asks, “Do you love me?”
Do you?
