(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.

452. After this I saw, and behold, a great multitude.- That this signifies all those who are in the good of life, according to their religion, in which there are no genuine truths, is clear from this, that the twelve thousand sealed out of every tribe mean those who are of the church, in which there are genuine truths. For the twelve tribes of Israel mean those who are in genuine goods and truths, and in an abstract sense, all the goods and truths of the church. Therefore those now treated of mean those who are in the good of life according to their religion, in which nevertheless there are no genuine truths. That these are meant by a great multitude, is also evident from what follows in this chapter, where it is said that these are they who come out of great tribulation (verse 14), that is, out of temptations. For those who are in the good of life according to their religion, in which there are no genuine truths, undergo temptations in the other life, by means of which the falsities of their religion are dissipated, and genuine truths implanted in their place; but more will be said of this in what follows. It is therefore evident who those are who are meant by the great multitude treated of in what follows to the end of the chapter. It must be remarked that no one, whether within the church where the Word is, or out of that church, who lives a good life according to his religion, is condemned, for it is not their fault that they do not know genuine truths; therefore, because the good of life contains within it the affection of knowing truths, when such come into the other life, they easily receive and drink in truths. It is altogether different with those who have lived an evil life, and made light of religion. But concerning those who are not in genuine truths, that is, those who are in falsities from ignorance, and yet in the good of life, have been treated of above (n. 107, 195, 356); and in the Heaven and Hell, where the peoples and nations outside the church in heaven are treated of; also in the Arcana Coelestia, as follows: There are falsities of religion which agree with good, and falsities which disagree (n. 9259). Falsities of religion, if they do not disagree with good, do not produce evil, except with those who are in evil (n. 8318). Falsities of religion are not imputed to those who are in good, but to those who are in evil (n. 8051, 8149). Truths not genuine, and also falsities, may be mingled with genuine truths in the case of those who are in good, but not with those who are in evil (n. 3470, 3471, 4551, 4552, 7344, 8149, 9298). Falsities and truths are consociated by appearances from the sense of the letter of the Word (n. 7344). Falsities become like truths (verificentur), and are toned down from good, because applied and made conducive to good, and to the removal of evil (n. 8149). The falsities of religion with those who are in good, are received by the Lord as truths (n. 4736, 8149). The good, which takes its quality from a false principle of religion, is accepted by the Lord, if there be ignorance, and if there be in it innocence and a good end (n. 7887). The truths which man possesses are appearances of truth and good, tinctured with fallacies, but the Lord nevertheless adapts them to genuine truths in the case of a man who lives in good (n. 2053). Falsities in which there is good, exist with those who are outside the church and thence in ignorance of the truth, also with those within the church where there are falsities of doctrine (n. 2589-2604, 2861, 2863, 3263, 3778, 4189, 4190, 4197, 6700, 9256).