An After-Breakfast Conversation
Da Joe David
(A commentary on John 21:15-25)
In the first part of this chapter, seven of the Lord's disciples had come home to Galilee. They had gone fishing, seen Jesus on the shore, followed his instructions to fish on the right side of the boat, dragged a net loaded with 153 fish to shore, and... as the second half of the chapter begins, they have just finished breaking their fast with Him. Now they are relaxing.
Jesus says to Peter,"Do you love me?" and Peter, perhaps a little startled at the question, thinking that the answer is obvious, answers "yes", and Jesus responds, "Feed my lambs". Twice more this sequence is repeated, but with some changes. Then, after this unusual conversation, the Lord tells them all a little parable about being young and later being old. Then the Lord tells Peter to follow him, and Peter, apparently jealous, asks what John is supposed to do. The Lord mildly rebukes Peter’s jealousy by saying, "If this man tarry until I come what is that to you?", but then He tells John also to follow him.
Finally, the gospel of John, and indeed the collection of all four gospels, closes with an explanation by John that he is the writer of this gospel.
So now, let’s look more closely at the conversation, the parable, and the outbreak of jealousy.
Only two of the seven disciples, Peter and John, are mentioned in this part of the story. Peter represents faith, or truth, but truth about spiritual things that we really believe are from God. John represents good, or love to the neighbor. The former resides in the understanding part of the mind and the latter in the will part of the mind.
In telling Peter to feed His sheep, the Lord is saying that to follow Him means to preach the truths that all the disciples now know about the Lord, His coming, and about how a life should be led, in order to be a follower of the Lord in a new church. In the conversation the Lord is direct and probing. "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?" I think Peter is being asked whether he loves the Lord, Jesus, more than he loves his fellow Galilean friends, though it’s ambiguous, it could mean "do you love me more than these other six do?’ When Peter answers the first time he says "Lord thou knowest that I love thee."
With this first of the three probing questions, the Lord answers "Feed my lambs," while after that the response is "Feed my sheep." Sheep and lambs both represent people who are in a love of doing good, but while sheep means those who love to do good for the sake of the neighbor, lambs mean those who do good for the sake of the Lord. The first is spiritual good, and the second is higher, and is called celestial good. But people who wish to do good at first don’t know what is good; they need to learn that from the Word and be taught. This is why Peter is told to "feed them", which is to say that truth must indicate how good is to be done. In order to do things that are good, the will's wanting to, and the understanding's knowing how to go about it, must be conjoined. For a successful Christian life, or on a larger scale, a Christian church, 'Peter' and 'John' must work in harmony.
Then comes the parable. "When you were young you got yourself ready and did what you wanted on your own. But when you become old, you have to reach out for help and another shall carry you where you don’t want to go."
This doesn’t seem to fit in here, but of course it does, and in two ways. The first way is given in the Biblical text; it is about the Lord’s death, that all the prophecies were leading Him to His crucifixion, as is mentioned. The second way is a lesson for all of us. When we are young, confident, and strong, we feel that we can do what we want and don’t need any help. Temptations to do evil we ourselves can deal with. But when we grow wiser we realize that all our strength comes from the lord, and if we continue to depend only on ourselves, the temptations from the hells will be too strong and we will be led into doing what the hells want for us, not what we want. We must learn at the start to follow the Lord and depend on Him. This he says at the end of the parable, where it seems not to fit until we understand the parable. "And when He had spoken this He saith unto (them), follow Me." That’s what we need to do also.
Peter is happy to do this preaching of the truth and maybe feels that he has been singled out, but he also realizes that John also loves the Lord and is loved in return. So he asks "And what is this man supposed to do?" It seems that the needed harmony is not yet present, and that Peter is jealous of the bond, and probably hopes to be assured that he is number one... but that doesn’t happen. Peter is simply told that it doesn’t matter; he needs to do the job he has been given.
I’m reminded of the story of Jacob and Esau, in Genesis 25, where Esau is the firstborn and will inherit the birthright and blessing from Isaac, as his due. Jacob by craft devised by his mother deceives Isaac and steals what is Esau’s. Then he runs off to Padan-Aram and stays there with his uncle and becomes rich. It is only on his return journey that he wrestles with the angel and has his name changed to Israel, that he again meets Esau. The change of name means that now that Jacob is rich with truth from the Word, now with the friendly meeting with Esau, also rich, that the two twins can in parable, be merged into one personage, called Israel, meaning the joining of good and truth in the mind.
Esau means something similar to John, they both represent goodness or true charity. Jacob means something similar to Peter, they both represent truth learned from the Word. Any seeming enmity between them as to which is more important can make them both useless, and in a person who is becoming angelic (as everyone should be aiming for), there is no enmity. Truth enables good, and good inspires truth in order to get something done. Although we can think and speak of them separately, they are (perfectly in the Lord and less so in angels) conjoined into a oneness so as to be seen as married. The marriage of the Lord's Divine good and Divine truth is the origin of all creation. Yes, all creation.
This marriage of good and truth, and the need for both to work in our lives, in balance and harmony, is a core New Christian concept.
In the Gospels, there is just one more story that takes place after this one. In it, the rest of the disciples join the seven mentioned here to hear the Lord’s last commands.
Matthew 15
1
Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying,
2
Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.
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But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?
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For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
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But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;
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And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
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Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
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This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
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But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
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And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand:
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Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.
12
Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying?
13
But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.
14
Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
15
Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable.
16
And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding?
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Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught?
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But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.
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For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
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These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.
21
Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.
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And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
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But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.
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But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
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Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.
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But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.
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And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.
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Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.
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And Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee; and went up into a mountain, and sat down there.
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And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet; and he healed them:
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Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel.
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Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way.
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And his disciples say unto him, Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude?
34
And Jesus saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven, and a few little fishes.
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And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.
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And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.
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And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets full.
38
And they that did eat were four thousand men, beside women and children.
39
And he sent away the multitude, and took ship, and came into the coasts of Magdala,
