(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.

2329. 'He said, Behold now, my Lords' means interior acknowledgement and confession of the Lord's Divine Human and His Holy proceeding. This is clear from the acknowledgement and humiliation already referred to just above. Confession follows immediately after them here, for confession is meant by his saying, 'Behold now, my Lords'. Interior confession belongs to the heart, and manifests itself in humiliation and at the same time in the affection for good, whereas exterior confession belongs to the lips, which may manifest itself in a spurious humiliation and a spurious affection for good which is none at all, as with people who confess the Lord for the sake of their own reputation or rather worship of self, and for the sake of their own material gain. What these people confess with the lips they deny in the heart.

[2] The plural 'my Lords' is used for the same reason that 'three men' are spoken of in the previous chapter. For just as the three there mean the Divine itself, the Divine Human, and the Holy proceeding, so the two mentioned here mean the Lord's Divine Human and His Holy proceeding, as stated above. That these make one is well known to anyone inside the Church, and because they make one they are also referred to in the singular further on,

So it was, when they had brought them outside, that he said, Escape for your life. Verse 17.

Behold now, your servant has found grace in your eyes, and you have magnified your mercy which you have shown to me. Verse 19.

And he said to him, Behold, I have accepted you as regards this matter also, that I will not overthrow the city. Verse 21.

For I cannot do anything until you come to it. Verse 22.

[3] That the Divine itself, the Divine Human, and the Holy proceeding are Jehovah is clear from the previous chapter, where in various places the three men are called Jehovah, namely,

Jehovah said to Abraham. Verse 13.

Will anything be too wonderful for Jehovah? Verse 14.

Abraham still stood before Jehovah. Verse 22.

Jehovah departed, when He had finished speaking to Abraham. Verse 33.

Consequently the Divine Human and the Holy proceeding are Jehovah, for this name is used for both in verse 24 of the present chapter.

And Jehovah rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Jehovah out of heaven. Verse 24.

The internal sense of these words will be seen later on. As regards the Lord being Jehovah Himself, who is mentioned so many times in the historical and prophetical sections of the Old Testament, see 1736.

[4] Those who are truly members of the Church, that is, who are governed by love to the Lord and by charity towards the neighbour, know about and acknowledge the Trinity; but nevertheless they humble themselves before the Lord and worship Him alone. They do so because they know that there is no other way of reaching the Divine itself, called the Father, except through the Son, and that all the Holiness which the Holy Spirit possesses proceeds from Him. When this idea exists with them they worship none except Him, through whom and from whom all things have their being, and so worship One Being. Nor do they disperse their ideas among three, as many others inside the Church are wont to do.

[5] This is evident from very many people in the next life, including some learned, who during their lifetime have presumed themselves to have a firmer grip on the arcana of faith than all others. When these people have been examined in the next life to see what idea they had had concerning the one God - whether there were three Uncreated, three Infinites, three Eternals, three Almighties, and three Lords - it was quite obvious that they had had the idea of three beings (for in that world the communication of ideas takes place). They have had that idea even though the creed states explicitly that there are not three Uncreated, or three Infinites, or three Eternals, or three Almighties, or three Lords, but one - which is also the truth. They accordingly confessed that with their lips they had indeed spoken of God being one; but in spite of this they had thought of - and some had believed in - three whom they could separate in idea but not join together.

[6] The reason is that for all arcana, even the deepest, some idea exists, for without the existence of an idea nothing is able to be thought about nor indeed anything retained in the memory. In the next life therefore the nature of the thought, and consequently of the faith, that anyone has formulated for himself concerning the One God is clear as daylight. Indeed when Jews in the next life hear that the Lord is Jehovah and that only one God exists they have nothing to say; but when they perceive that Christians' ideas are divided into three they say that they themselves worship one God whereas Christians worship three. What is more, nobody is able to join together three thus separated in idea except those who have the faith that comes with charity - for the Lord accommodates their minds to Himself.