(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.

8311. 'The peoples heard' means all everywhere who were ruled by falsity arising from evil. This is clear from the meaning of 'the peoples' as those governed by truths springing from good, and in the contrary sense as those ruled by falsities arising from evil, dealt with in 1259, 1260, 3295, 3581, 4619. The expression 'falsities arising from evil' is used in order to distinguish such people from those who are subject to falsities and yet are governed by good. Those who are subject to falsities yet at the same time are governed by good include, within the Church, those who are subject to heretical ideas but lead a good life, and outside the Church all who are governed by good. Falsities with these people are not damning, unless they are the kind of falsities that are opposed to good and destructive of an actual life of good. Falsities however which are not opposed to good are, it is true, essentially falsities; but so far as goodness of life is concerned, when they are not opposed to it, they virtually shed the character of falsity. Their application to good causes them to do so; for such falsities can be applied to good or they can be applied to evil. If applied to good they become mild, but if applied to evil they become harsh; for falsities can be applied to good, just as much as truths can be to evil. All truths without exception are falsified when they are applied to evil. Take as an example the idea that faith alone saves. Essentially this is a falsity, in particular among evil people who rule out the good of charity because, they say, it contributes nothing whatever to salvation. But this falsity is mellowed among those who lead a life of good since they apply it to good, saying that faith alone saves, but that it is not faith unless it exists together with its fruit, consequently unless it exists where good does so. It is like this with all other falsities.

[2] The statements immediately following in these verses refer to all those who were steeped in falsities arising from evil, and in evil resulting from falsities, and who were cast into hell when the Lord came into the world. There are very many kinds of evil and therefore also of falsity; for every kind of evil has its own falsity attached to it. Falsity is a product of evil and exists as the outward form of it, in exactly the same way as a person's understanding is the outward form of his will. For the will brings itself to light through the understanding, giving shape and form to itself there; it presents itself by means of mental pictures, those mental pictures by means of ideas, and these ideas by means of spoken words. These matters have been stated in order that people may know that very many kinds of evil and therefore of falsity exist. First they have been described by 'the Egyptians'. Now, that is, in the verses at this point, they are described by 'the inhabitants of Philistia', 'the chiefs of Edom', 'the powerful ones of Moab', and 'the inhabitants of Canaan', of whom it says that dismay and terror seized them because of what they heard. That is, they heard that those who upheld faith separated from charity and led a life of evil, those meant by 'the Egyptians', had been cast into hell, and that they likewise were to be thrown into hell, in order that those governed by truth and good might pass over in safety and unharmed and be led through to heaven. This last event is meant by these words contained in verses 16 and 17 following,

Alarm and dread fell on them; by the greatness of Your arm they are cut away like a stone, till Your people pass over, O Jehovah, till this people pass over [whom] You have possessed. You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of Your inheritance, the place for You to dwell.