An After-Breakfast Conversation
By 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 13
1
The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side.
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And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.
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And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;
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And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:
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Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:
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And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
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And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:
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But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.
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Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
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And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
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He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
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For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
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Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
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And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
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For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
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But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
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For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.
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Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.
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When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.
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But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;
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Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.
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He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.
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But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
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Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:
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But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
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But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.
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So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?
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He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?
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But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.
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Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.
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Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:
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Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.
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Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.
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All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them:
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That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.
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Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.
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He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;
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The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;
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The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.
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As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.
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The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
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And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
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Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
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Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.
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Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls:
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Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.
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Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind:
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Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.
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So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,
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And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
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Jesus saith unto them, Have ye understood all these things? They say unto him, Yea, Lord.
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Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.
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And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed thence.
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And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works?
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Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?
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And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?
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And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house.
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And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
