(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.

10545. 'And Moses took a tent' means the holiness of worship, the Church, and the Word. This is clear from the meaning of 'a tent' in the highest sense as the Lord, also heaven and the Church, and in the relative sense as everything holy belonging to heaven and the Church, consequently also the holiness of worship and the holiness of the Word; for worship and the Word belong to the Church, and they are the Lord's since they are derived from Him. The reason why 'a tent' means these things is that the most ancient people used to live in tents and also to hold their holy worship in them. Among these people the celestial Church existed, and this was holier than all the Churches that came after it. For the one they worshipped was the Lord; for them Jehovah was none other than Him. And since it was He who led them, they were in direct contact with the angels of heaven, as a consequence of which they possessed heavenly wisdom that comes from the Lord. The establishment of that Church is what the creation of heaven and earth in the first chapter of Genesis describes, and their wisdom is what paradise describes; for 'heaven and earth' in the Word means the Church, 'paradise' means intelligence and wisdom, and 'man' (homo) means the Church itself, as does 'the ground', from which the name Adam derives.

'Heaven and earth' in the Word means the Church, 'heaven' the internal Church and 'earth' the external Church, see 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118, 3355(end), 4535, 10373.

Intelligence and wisdom is described by paradise-like and other gardens, 100, 108, 2702, 3220.

'Man' means the Church, 478, 768, 4287, 9276, and so does 'the ground', 566, 1068.

'Creating man' means establishing the Church, 16, 88, 10373.

See in addition 8891, 9942.

[2] Because this Church was the Lord's beloved more than all the rest and the Lord had His home with them in their tents (for the Lord is said to have His home with the person who loves Him, John 14:23), therefore to commemorate these things the tabernacle or tent of meeting was erected among the Israelite nation, to house their holy worship. And this was why the feast of tabernacles or tents was instituted.

[3] The fact that 'tent' means those holy things, and in particular the holiness of worship, is clear from the following places: In Isaiah,

Sing, O barren one that did not bear. Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwelling-places. Isaiah 54:1-2.

'Enlarging the place of the tent' means doing so to the things which belong to the Church and consequently to those which belong to worship. 'Stretching out the curtains of the dwelling-places' means multiplying truths, 'curtains' meaning the Church's truths, see 9595, 9596, 9606, 9756. 'Barren one' means the person with whom the Church's truths and forms of good have not existed hitherto, 3908, 9325.

[4] In Jeremiah,

The whole land has been laid waste. Suddenly My tents have been laid waste, My curtains in a moment. Jeremiah 4:20.

'The land' means the Church, see in the places referred to in 9325; and since the Church is the Church by virtue of forms of the good of love and by virtue of the truths of faith it says that tents and curtains have been laid waste, 'tents' being the Church's forms of good and 'curtains' its truths.

[5] In the same prophet,

My tent has been laid waste, and all My ropes torn away. My sons have gone away from Me, and they are not. There is no one stretching out My tent any more, or setting up My curtains. For the shepherds have become stupid. Jeremiah 10:20-21.

Similar things are meant here by 'tent' and 'curtains'. 'Ropes torn away' means that goodness and truth are no longer joined together, nor truths to one another. Therefore also it says 'My sons have gone away', for truths are meant by 'sons'.

'Ropes' means a joining together, see 9777, 9854, 9880.

'Sons' means truths, 489, 491, 533, 2623, 2803, 2813, 3373, 3704, 4257, 9807.

[6] In David,

O Jehovah, who will sojourn in Your tent? Who will dwell on Your holy mountain? He who walks blameless and who does righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart. Psalms 15:1-2.

'Sojourning in Jehovah's tent' means abiding in heaven, and in the good of love there. In the same author,

I will remain in Your tent forever. Psalms 61:4.

Here the meaning is similar.

[7] In Amos,

On that day I will raise up the tent of David that is fallen down, and I will close up its breaches and restore its destroyed places. Amos 9:11.

'The tent of David' means the Lord's Church and the holiness that goes with worship of Him. 'Closing up breaches and restoring destroyed places' means renewing those things by moving falsities away from them. 'David' in the Word means the Lord, see 1888, 9954, so that 'the tent of David' means the Lord's Church and the holiness that goes with worship. In Jeremiah,

Behold, I will bring back the captivity ¹ of the tents of Jacob, and will have compassion on his dwellings. Jeremiah 30:18.

'The tents of Jacob' and 'his dwellings' stand for the Church's forms of good and its truths.

[8] Since forms of good present in the Church and in worship are meant by 'tents', forms of evil present in worship and in the Church are meant in the contrary sense by 'tents', as may be recognized from the following places: In Jeremiah,

I will liken the daughter of Zion to one who is comely. Shepherds and their flocks will come to her and pitch their tents against her round about. Jeremiah 6:2-3.

In the same prophet,

Go up against Arabia, and lay waste the sons of the east. They will take their tents and their flocks, their curtains and all their vessels. Jeremiah 49:28-29.

In Hosea,

What will you do on the solemn day, and on the day of the feast of Jehovah? For behold, they have gone away on account of the devastation; the thorn will possess their precious things of silver, the nettle will be in their tents. Hosea 9:5-6.

In David,

He smote all the firstborn of Egypt, the beginning of strength in the tents of Ham. Psalms 78:51.

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